The Wire Room
Loretta Combs
"Loretta"
Eastern Kentucky-Southwest Virginia
About
Named after Loretta Lynn, raised in Harlan County, Kentucky. Her daddy was a miner and her mama ran the post office. She went to Eastern Kentucky University, wrote for the local paper until it folded, and now covers 14 coalfield counties where the mines closed but the people stayed.
Eastern Kentucky-Southwest Virginia Perspective
Kentucky basketball is life. Also follows the Appalachian Regional Commission's funding like a hawk. Sings old hymns and knows every coal operator in the region by name.
Local Coverage
The holler you grew up in, the company houses that are still standing, potluck suppers, the mine memorial, the new solar farm on the old strip mine, the accent that Hollywood always gets wrong.