Part Two Of Southern Songs And Stories On After Dark

 https://www.southernsongsandstories.com/blog/2026/6/4/bringing-after-dark-and-charlottes-music-past-back-to-light-part-two?fbclid=IwY2xjawSdKrRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEei-_sMum4MqqZvAK9U4i8RIbem9DtsbflByF0TSWKzvlqNE-cs1XX3BUlbo8_aem_CPtzfZQdIiHMlae5Rfp2Sg

-Daniel

June 5, 2026

Southern Songs And Stories, Part One

 Almost a year ago, after WTVI aired a segment about myself, I received a phone call from Bill Barnes, a longtime videographer and director in the Charlotte area. "I have a bunch of recordings from a TV show I worked on, and I want you to turn them into a podcast." Thus began the saga of trying the preserve the audio, and telling the story of After Dark.

After Dark was a TV show that aired on 1980 to 1984. Bill had audio of the complete tapings, a true rarity to find anywhere. While I began seeking out ways to turn the show into a podcast, I also put Bill in touch with CPCC, who now maintains a WTVI archive. As a thank you, Bill gave me copies of the After Dark shows, as well. Less than a month ago, Bill suddenly went on to the Great Gig In The Sky, leaving these recordings and his friends to tell the story of After Dark.

Navigating my usual bizarre work schedule, I loved getting to do these interviews with Joe Kendrick. Interviewing fellow TV veterans, and ? Yes, please.

My thanks to Joe Kendrick, Steve Stoeckel and Pat Walters, Rick Lee, and everyone that let us talk to them. As a footnote, these interviews were done just weeks before my own brush with death. Life may change us, but I believe everything that I said in this interview now, and even more so than before.

Here's to you, Bill, and keeping a promise that I made to you.

Part two airs next week. Stay tuned, spread the word, and enjoy.

-Daniel

May 21, 2026

https://www.southernsongsandstories.com/blog/2026/5/21/bringing-after-dark-and-charlottes-music-past-back-to-light-part-one?fbclid=IwY2xjawSdKQtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEelaHk5Glr58JF1fK_FhXI3deFV-uUSwh6XYy5FWLfGclEq1GjW3Wfb5xMnHQ_aem_7IFhoqgt1qWQo3qEiFwVNA

RIP Carolina Business Review

 Long ago, I worked in television. Local TV channels, and occasional network gigs. I taught myself to be a studio camera operator, thinking that it could be my life's work, before photography and music sent me on a different path.

For nearly three decades, I was part of the camera crew for . Along the way, my photography became more prominent on their credit list, but I was still the guy behind Camera One for hundreds of shows. It was also a tie to a different time of my life, and a skill that, all these years later, I didn't want to completely leave behind.

Carolina Business taped its final shows today, at least for the foreseeable future. And in turn, I walked away from Camera One, not knowing when or if I will ever put a headset on again. In a month that has seen the end of Charlotte Magazine, a place I freelanced with for close to 28 years, it's hard not to reflect to the journey to this moment. Passing a younger version of myself as I walk through the hallways, before the moment changes again.

The roles we sometimes play in life don't always stay with us. We move on to different possibilities, and through different doors. But the journey, and the person within us that did that work, stays with us. Photographer, videographer, writer, archivist, producer, studio camera operator. All me at different moments. We may walk off one field of play, but the player is always there, forever changed by the adventure, as the seasons continue to change.

Here's to the past, what brought us here, and what comes next.

-Daniel

December 12, 2025

RIP Bill Barnes

 Windows are not infinite. It is only a glimpse of a moment that passes all too quickly.

I first heard Bill Barnes' name as I searched for video work in Charlotte in the early 1990s. Through the years, we talked occasionally, running into each other at various events.

After WTVI ran a story on me this spring that highlighted my production work, I got an email from Bill. "I've got something that I want you to produce as a podcast, or a series." Intrigued, I met up with him at his house.

Bill had worked on a music show After Dark, which aired on WTVI, and simulcast on in the early 1980s. Like many shows of that era, the master tape are not believed to have survived, apart from VHS copies of a few of the edited shows that aired. What Bill had, however, was something more. These were a treasure trove of the raw audio from the complete shows. This also wasn't just bands in the Charlotte artists. They were national and regional touring acts, recorded throughout the state.

I immediately took on the project. Bill was initially unwilling to share these recordings with me, telling me that the recordings that stored safely on flash drives. Yes, I said, but let me take care of this, and II will ask you about sharing them with me again soon.

I not only immediately approached WTVI, WFAE and others about a story about the tapes (which I am still working on), I also introduced him to the archivist at CPCC, who gladly accepted Bill's complete WTVI archives. After this was done, Bill also gifted me with mp3s of the After Dark shows.

Bill's home was crammed from moments from his whole life. The magazine he oversaw in the 1980s, that featured some of the only articles that my friend Maurice Williams ever wrote. Videos and props from every decade of Bill's career. Part of the joy for me in this project was getting to know someone whom I only known for years in passing, but now was getting to know as a peer and friend.

I had been meaning to call Bill for days, to update him about several things. As I was driving to open my show of photos at ArtPlus, I received a phone call telling me that Bill was gone. The thought of that time now being gone has yet to leave me. Much like all of our times and moments that suddenly fade, that feeling will be with me for a long time. Thankfully, the conversations, laughter and the things we create and share live on, far beyond this fleeting speck of time.

Windows are moments. All too quickly, the moments leaves our eyes never to return. All we can do is document the moment, and leave the story behind for others to share it further.

Thank you, Bill. See you in the stars.

-Daniel

September 23, 2025

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/charlotte/name/william-barnes-obituary?id=59491828&fbclid=IwY2xjawNYq-tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHs1EOIo_L9LUqOK9BVyPHtruLP0WRgFwrKsei5cKP8x-AI1ZMwWPlxwOEfow_aem_m07592BeOS-9Ea1eC8poTw

Carolina Impact Feature On Me

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHFx10DWzrQ&t=1s

My thanks for Russ for putting this story together, and to Phil Lee for wandering into the frame for an interview.

-Daniel

April 17, 2025