Columbus on the Record

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!

My Side of the Mountain

            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

Chefs in the City

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.

WOSU Auction begins tonight

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.