Courtney, in voice that booms, out to build army of good
Bill Courtney (left) interviews Michael Lignos, avid listener who now supports 10-12 of the groups featured over the months in “An Army of Normal Folks.” (Submitted)
If Bill Courtney is tired of making a difference, of lending his can-do spirit to move people to act on the things they think someone else ought to fix, nothing in his booming voice or body language shows it.
He plowed 30 hours a week into coaching the lackluster Manassas High School football team into the stuff of legend — a feat relived in the 2011 Academy Award-winning movie “Undefeated.”
For 18 months now, he’s been giving heroes — many of unknown — a national platform to tell how they saw a need in their communities and plugged themselves in.
His weekly podcast, “An Army of Normal Folks,” produced in Memphis and distributed by iHeart, rocketed to the Top 10 on Apple in its first month. It now has 19,000 subscribers and 70,000 downloads a month.
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Bill Courtney An Army of Normal Folks Alex Cortes Subscriber OnlyAre you enjoying your subscription?
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Jane Roberts
Jane Roberts has reported in Memphis for more than 20 years. As a senior member of The Daily Memphian staff, she was assigned to the medical beat during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also has done in-depth work on other medical issues facing our community, including shortages of specialists in local hospitals. She covered K-12 education here for years and later the region’s transportation sector, including Memphis International Airport and FedEx Corp.
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