On a recent Saturday afternoon a throng of people was admitted to the Debbie Jordan Studio inside the Blue Ridge PBS television station in Roanoke, where they were seated in five rows of chairs across the floor from the main stage. On the platform sat three chairs and a table—with a vase of flowers in the background. To the left of the main stage sat a smaller table and two chairs. The occasion? A taping of an installment for a soon-to-debut local program.
The program’s host, former WDBJ News7 journalist Joy Sutton, entered and greeted the audience, which was coached on how to applaud and smile on-camera by Blue Ridge PBS executive producer Julie Newman, who, for this occasion, served as floor manager. Prior to taping, a pair of coordinators awarded door prizes to an audience member who correctly answered a question about what Joy’s favorite food is. When taping commenced, the audience, having been well prepped, responded enthusiastically.
Thus began taping for another installment—of “The Hour of Joy,” the first episode of which airs in February; slated to air Saturdays from 10-11 A.M. on WDBJ’s MY19 and Sundays from 6-7 A.M. on FOX. The program will provide positive programming for Southwest Virginia viewers regarding the community and tips on how to live happier, better lives.
“I always thought my Mom named me Joy for a reason,” Sutton said in a post-taping interview, “and that’s to bring happiness. So I always think of myself as the Joy of Roanoke. I wanted something that was positive. I think there’s so much negative news. You turn on the TV—it seems like there’s nothing positive going on in your community, and I wanted to show people that there were inspirational stories right in their own community—people that were changing lives, people that had stories just like them that were making a difference in our community. That’s what the show is about.”
Each installment of “The Hour of Joy” will run an hour in length, featuring a main topic and three segments—The Joy of Music, with local artists performing original music; The Joy of Dining, featuring local restaurants; and The Joy of Giving, spotlighting Roanokers whose giving greatly impacts both people and the community.
For this installment of the series, Sutton (her day job is in communications for Lewis-Gale Hospital) featured Lisa Hamm, a part-time personal trainer at Gold’s Gym, Lynn Phelps, a health coach who helps people lose weight and become healthy, and Gabriel Morales, a thirteen-year-old Blues musician, who performed “Monday Night Blues” on his guitar for the studio audience.
Though the show is aimed primarily at women 25 and older, Sutton feels anyone—men included—will benefit from watching it. “They’ll probably not tell their wives they’re turning it on but it is something that anyone can get value from.” Among the topics the series will cover this season will be: carrying on in life when it’s been shattered, finding and pursuing your dream, spending wisely and soundly, secrets of successful relationships, and defining your life when you’re retired.
As to whether she wants to be the “next Oprah[Winfrey],” Sutton emphatically answers, “Yes, absolutely!”—yet she hastened to add, “somebody earlier said, ‘You don’t want to be the next Oprah. You just want to be the best Joy.’ So that’s what I’m really striving to do. But, if it turns out that I can be like Oprah, I would love to have that type of impact on the world, and I think it can start here locally. And who knows who might pick it up, or where it might go from here.” For now, Sutton’s goal is to make the show successful in the Roanoke-Southwest Virginia area. “Where it goes from that God only knows,” she says. “But I’m putting my heart into it, and I feel like the right doors will open when the time is right. Whether that’s six months or a year, I believe somebody nationally is going to hear about this and say, ‘We need this,’ and it’s going to open that door.”
When the taping for this installment concluded, the vase of flowers on the main set was donated to another audience member—one who had been accompanied to the session by her fiancé.
