Entries from April 2007
Columbus On The Record
Fridays 9:30pm ; Sundays 11:30am
Hungry for more than headlines and short soundbites about our community? Watch Columbus On The Record for in-depth, thoughtful, and balanced analysis of the issues and stories affecting Columbus and Central Ohio. Mike Thompson, WOSU’s news and public affairs director, moderates the program that features well-respected journalists and veteran political observers offering insight and analysis of the top stories of the week.
Next Show: Friday, April 27th – 9:30pm ; Sunday, April 29nd – 11:30am
Scheduled Panelists – Joe Hallett, Senior Editor , The Columbus Dispatch; Jeff Winbush, Columnist, The Columbus Post; Mary Ann Sharkey, Political Consultant; Bob Clegg, Political Consultant.
For a list of topics and to suggest a topic – join our discussion group. It’s FREE!
Categories: COTR · WOSU TV
In memory of Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, we present an interview from our archives…
Interview with Dr. Margarita Mazo
Recorded March 15, 2007, WOSU studios
Interviewed by Christopher Purdy
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich born March 27, 1927, affectionately known as Slava, is a Russian and American cellist and conductor, considered by some to be one of the greatest cellists ever. Cellist, conductor, teacher, political activist, and humantarian, he celebrated his 80th birthday recently, and is recovering from cancer surgery in Moscow.
Dr. Magarita Mazo is a professor of music at The Ohio State University, and has worked with Rostropovich. She gives valuable insights into this artist.
Part 1. (MP3. Length – 4:27)
Rostropovich as conductor, and his collaborations with great composers.
Part 2. (MP3. Length – 4:39)
Rostropovich and Russia. His exile from the Soviet Union, 1974-1990, when he and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, were ordered out of the country for sheltering Alexandr Slozhenitsyn.
Part 3. (MP3. Length – 4:53)
Rostopovich, Vishnevskaya, and their lives, and the perceptions of them in Russia today, and through the world.
See www.rostropovich.org to learn more about the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation
Categories: Classical Music · interview
The advent of broadcast technology brought a new sense of limitless communication, which stations such as WOSU Public Media had never experienced before. Of course, there are limits to broadcast: bandwidth room, content censorship, and distance, to name a few. However, WOSU Public Media has never been in jeopardy of losing its frequency and always been committed to offering thoughtful programming for all ages which leaves the distance issue.
WOSU’s broadcast signal spans a radius of approximately 50 miles, a distance that should easily serve the needs of most local broadcast stations. But WOSU is not “most local broadcast stations.” Renowned nationally, the station is one of the more popular public broadcast pick-ups on the Internet. (You can access program content from any public broadcast station on its Web site.) Even aside from the World Wide Web, though, some people take nontraditional routes to picking up the WOSU signal.
Kathy Horton and her family in Elliotsville, Kentucky, are “some people.” This past fall, WOSU’s customer-service operator in Portsmouth, Ohio, received what seemed to be a normal tech-support call. Upon further review, the operator found that the customer lived 100 land miles away from Portsmouth, near Morehead, Kentucky. This should be impossible, since it is a great distance outside of the station’s 50-mile radius. So how did they get the signal? The amazing answer: Horton and her family were receiving the WOSU signal at their house on top of a 1,300-foot mountain.
According to WOSU chief engineer Tom Lahr, who worked on the technical problem, Horton and her entire family are avid WOSU supporters and are especially interested in “anything in HD,” which reflects either the vast amount of quality, high-definition programming on WOSU or the lack thereof in all other broadcast signals that you can pick up on top of a mountain in the middle of Kentucky. For the record, the customer-service representatives and engineers were able to fix the technical problem, and continue to treat the Horton family with same consideration that they would accord any other ground-dwelling customer.
- By Brett Renzenbrink
Categories: Audience Services · Digital television · WOSU TV
Interview with Kathryn Koob (‘kobe’)
Recorded March 13, 2007, over the phone from her home in Iowa
Interviewed by Christopher Purdy
LISTEN (Running time: 24:11. 55.3 MB.)
Kathyrn Koob was one of the 66 Americans held hostage by Iranian students for 444 days, from November, 1979 to January, 1981. The hostage crisis convulsed this country. Miss Koob is the author of Guest of the Revolution (1982). Today, she is adjunct professor of theater at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and continues with a full schedule of speaking engagements.
Read the full transcript of this interview on Christopher’s blog: www.christophercpurdy.blogspot.com
Categories: interview
WOSU Public Media will be featuring an innovative fundraiser for television spotlighting Gourmet Restaurants around Central Ohio. Donated gift certificates during “Chefs in the City” will be sold to a viewing audience that’s eager to buy, with proceeds benefiting WOSU Public Media. This event will be held Thursday, April 26, from 8 pm to 11 pm on WOSU TV.
The philosophy behind the event is to highlight a number of high-end chefs from area restaurants to offer valuable cooking tips and tricks. In between cooking instruction times, we will auction many fine dining gift certificates, cookware, cookbooks, and other dining related items.
To purchase tickets to Chefs in the City, please call 614.688.3777. Local and National celebrity chefs will be on hand during the taping. Food and drink will be provided to audience members, and the event will include a private “silent auction” prior to airtime.
Tickets are $100 per person, or $150 per couple.
Categories: Auction · WOSU TV
Patty Duke on Mental Illness
Academy Award-winning actress Patty Duke (“The Miracle Worker”) has long been an advocate for the mentally ill. Her struggles with depression are powerfully told in her books “Call Me Anna” and “A Brilliant Madness.” Today, Mrs. Anna (Patty Duke) Pearce is busier than ever as an actress, advocate, wife, and mother. She spoke with WOSU’s Christopher Purdy in the summer of 2006 from her home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
See also www.officalpattyduke.com
LISTEN (Running time: 26:18. 24.0 MB.)
Categories: interview
As WOSU Public Media enters into a new era and takes on the challenge of incorporating new and exciting types of programming, quality, which should never play second fiddle to innovation, is still the primary focus. The purpose of public media is to offer informative and entertaining programming that is of the utmost quality, not necessarily for the purpose of attracting sponsorship, but to satisfy its viewers. Publicly funded organizations aren’t off the hook of accountability to corporate sponsors; rather, they’re accountable to the public, and therefore bear a much greater burden than most privately funded organizations.
Michael Rathke’s job as Radio Program Director is to ensure this level of quality. He has been here only since December, so Rathke is still learning for himself what this requires at WOSU. But he is no stranger to these types of decisions. Rathke has worked as program director in several metropolitan areas, and is excited about bringing his experience to WOSU’s longstanding tradition of quality. “I was attracted to WOSU first because it offers two separate radio program services, and second, because the staff and management of WOSU are recognized nationally.”
Rathke’s job is to ensure quality, and that means sometimes he’s faced with extremely difficult decisions. Alluding to competition offering satellite and Internet radio, he says, “People can listen to any public broadcast that they want every morning, so WOSU needs to offer programming that is not only good, but unique, to stay competitive.”
In order to ensure this level of quality, Rathke spends the majority of his time paying strict attention to “the sound of the program.” He means this in a technical sense, equating the sound almost completely with the production value of a program. Since the majority of radio hosts on WOSU programming are seasoned veterans, he doesn’t need to spend much time evaluating the quality of their performances. In the future, Rathke looks forward to becoming more familiar with WOSU Public Media, merging his attentiveness to quality production with the already stellar cast of hosts to create some truly special programming for the new millennium.
- By Brett Renzenbrink, OSU student intern
Categories: Audio · Classical Music · WOSU AM
EMI announces New Podcasts
Don’t miss our new audio podcasts from Nina Stemme and Antonio Pappano discussing their new Strauss disc, and the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich in celebration of his 80th birthday.
http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/podcasts.php
This includes Mstislav Rostropovich at 80 (Audio Podcast)
Join radio broadcaster Jon Tolansky in a journey to explore the life and work of this larger-than-life figure. Understand why Rostropovich, affectionately known as Slava, is recognised at the world’s greatest living cellist.
Download as MP3
Categories: Classical Music · Podcasts
WOSU Public Media’s annual Auction begins tonight, April 12 at 8pm, and several new and exciting features have been added this year. WOSU has been putting on an auction annually for the past twenty-four years with the intention of giving back to the community, and hoping that the community will give back to them. All of the proceeds and donations that WOSU accrues over the three-day event will be put directly back into the operating budget to aid existing programs and support new quality content.
This year’s auction will feature many non-traditional items that focus on the areas of travel, leisure, and home equipment. Andy Falter, auction manager, spends the majority of his time coordinating every aspect of the event, from the technical television production down to the handling of the cheapest item on the bill. Commenting on a problem with the auctions in the past, he observed, “We noticed that we had been spending as much time talking about a sixteen-pound bag of dog food as we had on a 300 dollar trip. That won’t be the case this year.” The focus of this year’s auction will be on luxury items. New sponsors such as Victoria Cruises and Digital Interiors have made this imperative easy, adding an Oriental cruise and a $7,000 plasma TV to the item list. Traditional favorites such as Sears home appliances and pond installations will still be offered.
This auction is more heavily staffed than any WOSU auction in history. Falter boasts 33 spots in the phone banks to be filled by businesses from Wendy’s to McGraw-Hill and American Electric Power. There are also anywhere from 30-50 other employees and volunteers that take care of the smaller tasks. The on-air hosting duties for the operation will be mostly covered by local celebrities, including Joel Riley from WTVN, Clark Donley from WSNY, and Joe Show from QFM96. WOSU’s own Mandy Trimble, Mike Thompson, Rob Walker, and Boyce Lancaster will also be joining the live broadcast.
After the auction is over, any items that are not auctioned off will be available for purchase online. Opening bids start at 50% plus one dollar.
Get ready for the best WOSU auction yet.
Categories: Auction · WOSU TV
Share a Story at WOSU@COSI
