Gary Armstrong and Scott Sutton Launch Unbuttoned RVA With Strong & Sutt

By Will Melton · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read read

Four people stand holding microphones in front of a dark slatted studio wall

Gary Armstrong and Scott Sutton are launching Unbuttoned RVA with Strong & Sutt, a Channel RVA podcast that gets some of the region's best-known people talking the way they do with friends.

RICHMOND, Va. — Gary Armstrong and Scott Sutton are launching Unbuttoned RVA with Strong & Sutt, a Channel RVA podcast that gets some of the region's best-known people talking the way they do with friends.

There's a moment late in a good dinner when the check's been paid and nobody gets up, and out comes the story you'd never get from them at nine in the morning. Armstrong and Sutton built a podcast out of that moment.

Both are longtime Richmonders. Armstrong is known mostly from his many years in commercial banking locally and now is a business consultant and strategist. Sutton is a business development director who has worked in the region's design and construction industry for more than 20 years. Thirty years here got them more than a drawer of business cards. Their friends build the buildings, run the foundations, hold the offices and play the rooms, and a few of them left, got famous, and still pick up on the first ring.

Some of those friends are on the guest list. One of them tours the world. Another is a Richmonder whose voice millions of people across the country would know long before they'd recognize his face. The hosts aren't naming names yet, and neither are we.

Each episode puts one guest at the table with Armstrong and Sutton to talk about how they got here, from the first job that went sideways to the person who took a chance on them when there was no reason to.

Armstrong said the show is meant to be "the after hours conversation," with a focus on the person's backstory, influences, ups & downs, and what's next. The organizations and initiatives a guest is known for will come up, he said, but they're secondary to how that person got where they are. "Scott and I thought our exposure to, and knowledge of, the many cool and interesting things that have happened in RVA over many decades along with keeping close tabs on what's coming next, positions us well for these conversations. It also doesn't hurt that we are both super curious! "For most guests we see an opportunity to have some fun and be more casual," Armstrong said.

Sutton described it to one prospective guest as "deep, authentic conversations with folks connected to Richmond about their creative journeys and life lessons," and promised to keep it "fun, authentic, conversational."

The hosts have lined up many intriguing guests so far, Armstrong added, and the range is wide. It runs from entertainment personalities and developers to nonprofit and community leaders, business owners, and people in government and education. The first guests are booked, and recording starts this month at West Broad Studios, 316 W. Broad St.

For those of you who do not know, or may think you know, "Strong & Sutt", the hosts will make available their "double-bio" podcast where they interview each other, so listeners can get to know the two people asking the questions.

A lot of what comes out at that table won't be found anywhere else. Some of it never made the paper. Some of it used to get passed around Richmond and then stopped, because the people who were there moved on and nobody wrote it down. If you moved here five years ago, you haven't heard it. If you've been here your whole life, you still haven't heard all of it.

Why Channel RVA is adding the show

Channel RVA is Richmond's independent media hub. We want to reach people in every part of this region, and doing that means carrying a far wider range of content, guests and stories than one newsroom could produce on its own.

So we partner with creators. Richmond creators bring us shows the community wouldn't otherwise get, and we give them a studio, production help and an audience. Unbuttoned RVA fits that model. Armstrong and Sutton bring 30 years of relationships across the region, and their guests will reach listeners who may never have crossed paths with them.

Subscribe free at channelrva.com and you'll know the day the first episode drops.

Follow Channel RVA and Unbuttoned RVA on Instagram.

Two guys who wore the suit and tie their whole careers, finally loosening the collar, and pulling up a chair for you to do the same.

Disclosure: The author, Will Melton, leads Channel RVA and West Broad Studios, which produces the show.