Where We Blog

"Forgive Me" for not blogging more...

jdankosky — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:13:35 -0500

By now, you've heard or read about how WNPR's Kim Grehn is no longer with our station. What that has meant is a crazy time of transition for all of us here. Although, it's fair to say we're not the newsroom facing the biggest problems in Connecticut right now. Matt Kauffman of the Courant sent me this link to his story about the Shelly Sindland complaint against Fox 61. I'd made reference on air and online to the Courant "not covering" this story, because of the paper's ties to Fox, and the complaints made against the paper's publisher (and Sindland's boss) Rich Graziano. So, while it's clear that they have reported it as news, there seems to be a "no-fly zone" over the story for the rest of the staff. ***Late addition - Rick Green has blogged about the case, as seen here*** It seems clear that if this sort of scandal was playing out anywhere else, it would be front-page news in the Courant. Instead, we're turning to ctnewsjunkie.com, where Christine Stuart first brought this to our attention. We talked about the issue Monday with former TV reporters Duby McDowell and Janet Peckinpaugh, and Daniel Schwartz of the Connecticut Employment Law Blog gave us some legal insight. He answers more questions in a follow-up story. My buddy at the Courant, Rick Green periodically teases me for being a "newspaper basher" - but nothing could be further from the truth. In actuality, I love newspapers, and want them to succeed. There are some things about this complaint - and the coverage of it - that point to the problems of a joint TV/newspaper newsroom, owned by a massive, troubled company with questionable taste and judgement. I can't go into the full list of complaints I've heard in this space, but check out this blog written by Hartford Courant alumni to get a taste. Meanwhile, a reminder of what the Courant's still able to do best for our community - Matt Kauffman's series on the seemingly out of control state marshal system. And readers seem to want them to do more... Some other odds and ends: To my knowledge, we've never had anything close to the type of online response that our show on Lyme disease got. I asked for comments - with documentation - and listeners followed through. Not surprising that such a controversial issue would get big response - but we weren't quite ready for that. Finally, I'd like to thank "futurist" and "Philosopher Queen" Libby Conn for her work on our two-part series on punishment and forgiveness. The conversations were deep, and thoughtful, and a bit slower than what you usually hear on Where We Live - and that's due to a lot of research and the best possible guests to talk about the subjects. You can listen back to hear what we did talk about...but I'm a bit disappointed we didn't have time to break away from punishment and forgiveness as products of crime. I'd love to come back and talk more about the low-level punishments we use every day: "Time out" for the kids, "The Silent Treatment" for teens, our tendency to want to "report" minor infractions made by those we're not too fond of... And, there's so much to discuss about forgiveness that would seem minor compared to the story of our guest Katy Hutchison. Like, this from emailer James: What I'm facing is an inability to forgive some people I thought were friends, who posed as friends as long as I could be of use to them, then revealed their true colors when I opposed their attempt to take money to which they were not entitled from someone doing good with that money. My belief is in forgiveness--theoretically; Jesus says to forgive even your enemies, without requiring their repentence. They say that true reconciliation causes the angels to rejoice. But without repentence, without their resolve to stop the offense, with a continuation of the hypocrisy, I don't get how forgiveness makes any sense. Sure, repentence and forgiveness; but forgiveness WITHOUT repentence? That I don't get, yet I can't help feeling that I'm missing something. Wow, yeah...we're gonna need another show to get to that. ***Late Breaking Addition: Just got this comment on our show "Aging Out of TV News?": Stunning assessment Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 15, 2009 - 6:15pm. "Should we be surprised when the often superficial world of tv news is only skin deep?" What the hell kind of question is that? What kind of judgement are you making to begin with? You should do your homework before launching a program like this and try to refrain from inserting your opinions. We're quite able to make our own judgements about television news and your news too. Just for the record, more people watch local television news than listen all day to WNPR, including Where We Live. Just sayin... I'm just going to respond here quickly to Anonymous: You mean to tell me that TV news isn't "often superficial?" I'm very interested to see which broadcasts you're watching - and how I can see them myself. If you mean The News Hour or BBC News on PBS, or maybe Bob Schieffer's Face the Nation, then you're quite right. But we were talking about local TV news. Now, it's not all superficial, to be sure. But it is often superficial...witness Fox 61's hard-hitting online series: Rachel's Outfit of the Day (left). The fact that more people watch local TV news than listen to WNPR is both true and inevitable. Anyway, I have to stop here...I've got a show to do on the impact of gambling in the state. Tune into Fox 61 for updates on this story that we won't cover today: SUV Crashes Into Building.

Goodbye to WNPR's "Community Builder"

jdankosky — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:40:21 -0500

Today is the final day for Kim Grehn at WNPR. Kim served for more than 20 years as WNPR’s Program Director, and later as Vice President of Radio. If you listen to Where We Live…or any of the news programming on WNPR, you have Kim to thank. WNPR was founded as a classical music service more than 30 years ago – but as times, and listener expectations changed, Kim led an effort to make WNPR into the best radio news service in the state – and one of the leading public radio news operations in the country. And it wasn't without taking personal hits. My favorite listener put-down shouted at Kim during a controversial change in programming? A guy called him a "Bird-brained Wisenheimer." He still laughs at that one. It was through his efforts that Where We Live was born. He wanted this show to be a daily forum for intelligent, civil conversation and without him, it never would have happened. Those of us who know him and his work know that Kim often communicates in charts and graphs. Showing audience trends, programming appeal and listener habits. But more than any programmer I’ve met in radio, Kim understood that those lines and dots represent real people who want to be informed, engaged and enlightened by their radio station. People who want to connect with others, and share stories. Before Kim became one of the national leaders in radio programming and research, public radio stations were known for programming to “personal tastes” or for “educational purposes.” But Kim’s mantra was simple…if they’re not listening, you’re not serving anybody. Kim Grehn taught WNPR to think about its audience as a community…striving for the common goal of living in a better city, a better state, and a better world. He leaves a big hole in WNPR – but he leaves our world better for the work he did. For everyone at WNPR, I wish Kim the best...and thanks.

John Orman: Pundit, Professor, Party-crasher

jdankosky — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:01:36 -0500

The news business lets you meet many people who you might not really "know" - but you feel like you do. People who give pithy quotes and those who stir the pot are favorites of reporters, producers and hosts because they make great copy, great TV, great radio. John Orman was one of those guys. I didn't really know him. But I'll miss him. He died suddenly Sunday at the age of 60. Orman was a political science professor at Fairfield University who was a regular "quote machine" for cable TV news, local reporters and public radio. You knew that if nobody else was available to talk politics on deadline, John Orman would be there. He was a guest panelist for our coverage of a key debate at Fairfield University between incumbent Congressman Chris Shays and newcomer (and eventual winner) Jim Himes. He most recently appeared on Where We Live when we talked about Connecticut as "Corrupticut" - a place of intractable political corruption. A colleague told WNPR that Orman got his students so excited about politics that many of them ran for office. He ran himself against incumbent Congressman Stewart McKinney in 1984, and lost. But he made his biggest mark during the widely-followed Lieberman/Lamont race in 2006. After briefly running as a challenger to Liebeman himself, he threw his support behind Lamont, only to see his candidate win the primary and lose to a newly "Independent" Joe in the general election. In actuality, the Senator's invented party affilation wasn't "Independent," it was "Connecticut for Lieberman." Orman, with a showman's touch and timing, seized the opportunity, joined the "party," became "chairman" and used the platform to blast Lieberman's policies. But, he wouldn't have used the word "blast." He said he did it to be a "watchdog," and he became a darling of the liberal blogs that nearly took Lieberman down. Orman was known for a civil tone, never adopting the name-calling style that has permeated political talk. He was an educator, he cared about politics, and he thought he could do something to make change. We asked Lieberman for a comment, and he put out this statement: "While he and I had our political differences, I always respected John's intelligence and his passionate citizenship."

Listener Supported Music

lconn — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:59:17 -0500

As is often the case when we get a bunch of great guests and callers talking about something they’re all passionate about—we run out of time. Today’s show about the future of music was one of those days when we could have used an extra hour on the air to get to everything. (Special thanks today to The Needle Drop's Anthony Fantano and WNPR intern, Logan Hasson.) We did, however, get to talk about a number of artists using new technologies and new strategies to get their music out to thousands of potential fans. One of those artists is Mark Marshall. He was the first listener to call into the show today. His Four For 4 Project is an example of an innovative approach that many musicians are taking: asking listeners to contribute to and participate in the creation of an album. This new artist/consumer relationship is making it increasingly possible for artists to bypass record labels—taking their music straight to listeners. It’s a great option for people like acclaimed singer-songwriter Jill Sobule who, tired of chasing a new deal with a major label, set up jillsnextrecord.com. Sobule asked her fans to pre-finance the creation of her next album. And her fans responded, putting up $75,000 in just two months. She released “California Years” in April on her own label-- and not without sticking to the man a little. In her song “Nothing to Prove” Jill sings, “I’m here at a meeting. Trying to impress someone at a dying record company.” Guess she showed them. Other artists doing cool things that we wanted to talk about but didn’t get to: Danger Mouse (listen to the NPR piece here), Girl Talk, Fan Farlo, and Radiohead.

Stanback, Double X and Twain

ctalarski — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:18:56 -0500

Well, with Dankosky on vacation, the newsroom is just regular ole party central. Just kidding. We miss the guy. (He'll be back tomorrow, bright and early. Begging for funds). There are some followups on a few recent shows. Monday Lucy Nalpathanchil hosted a sort of "exit interview" with Anne Stanback of Love Makes a Family. Later that day LMAF released a press release: Connecticut Congressional delegation weighs in on marriage equality and DOMA repeal. Also on that show, Meghan and Maureen Freed Murphy. They talk about their experience in their blog. In the discussion about the obligation to come out, Anne astutely added that we shouldn’t make assumptions about what someone’s position on marriage equality will be because of arbitrary factors like how they look or their race or age or ethnicity. We didn’t discuss, although we may have been at least subconsciously aware of it hanging there, the issue of folks being surprised that Mo and I are in a same sex marriage because of how they might expect us to look. Lucy did ask us whether people were surprised to learn that we were married — but I’m not sure whether she was getting at this issue and we missed her drift, or rather she was merely alluding to people’s general unfamiliarity with the existence of marriage equality in Connecticut. If that’s a show she’d like to do, it’s certainly a discussion I’d love to hear. So, maybe we'll have the ladies back to continue this discussion. (Next time, I'll see if I can scrounge up some Manhattans). ********** Tuesday Anna Sale talked about the workplace of the future with Dan Pink and Emily Bazelon. Pink will be speaking in Rocky Hill on October 2 on Living on the Right Side of the Brain. Don't forget to check out Bazelon's posts on the new Slate blog Double X. We’ll be continuing our discussion about work on Friday’s show with two authors who write about craftsmanship and manual labor. One of our guests, Matthew B. Crawford, writes about the future of work in his new book Shop Class as Soul Craft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work: “The MIT economist Frank Levy makees a complementary argument. He puts the issue not in terms of whether a service can be delivered electronically or not, but rather whether the service is itself rules-based or not. Until recently, he writes, you could make a decent living doing a job that required you to carefully follow instructions, such as preparing tax returns. But such work is subject to attack on two fronts—some of it goes to offshore accountants and some of it is done by tax preparation software, such as TurboTax. The result is downward pressure on wages for jobs based on rules. The economic developments command our attention. The intrusion of computers, and distant foreigners whose work is conceived in a computer-like, rule-bound way, into what was previously the domain of professionals may be alarming, but it also compels us to consider afresh the human dimension of work. In what circumstances does the human element remain indispensable, and why?” ************** And finally, in a flash of excitement - Mark Twain showed up at WNPR! And I made Libby take a picture with him.

indie cinema on WWL

ctalarski — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:22:35 -0500

Just before we aired our program this morning on Independent Cinema - CT Voices for Children released a study on how the tax credits may not be as beneficial to the state as we think. We heard from Shelley Geballe on the program - as well as Culture and Tourism Flim Division Director George Norfleet. A bit from the Voices press release: Only 11% of the $113.2 million of state revenues lost through the "film tax credit" subsidized production expenses that were classified as "actual Connecticut expenditures." Eight productions received a total of $9.3 million in tax credit subsidies, though they reported no actual Connecticut production spending at all. Overall, the state has awarded $2.73 in production tax credits for every dollar of actual Connecticut spending on the production of films, television shows, commercials, infomercials, and video games. But that's not all we discussed on the program. We talked about The History of Independent Cinema - also the title of a new book by Phil Hall. Throughout his book - Hall checks in with several folks from the film industry to get their take on the "Top 10 Most Important Independent Films of All Time". Some of the films that showed up over and over were: Night of the Living Dead (1968) Easy Rider (1969) Harold and Maude (1971) Husbands (1970) Check out the book for information about these movies and lots more. We also heard from a few listeners on Twitter who wanted to share their favorite indie films: erikbowen@wherewelive Just so many that I love! Lately I've been interested in Chinese/Malaysian films such as 'The Beautiful Washing Machine.' erikbowen@wherewelive John Cameron Mitchell's 'SHORTBUS' is amazing. Then there's the Japanese anime 'Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat In Space.' capitolcinema@wherewelive We love independent films at the Capitol Cinema Collective. Our 4th annual Hartford International Film Festival is this Nov. heldermira@wherewelive Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep, one of the earlier indie films. Beautiful B&W cinematography. heldermira@wherewelive Great new indie film from Australia: THREE BLIND MICE

rotfl.

ctalarski — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:47:00 -0500

lol @ jd 4 saying "this is WWL". ok, enough of that. We got a lot of tweets on todays program on texting. Mind you, you have a little more space to work with while tweeting (160 characters) as opposed to texting (140). Here are some of our listeners thoughts: heldermira@wherewelive I find that texting is making us jerks: ppl will text others while hanging out, friends while ppl r talking to u (I'm guilty). heldermira@wherewelive Dont get me started on teens in class as teacher instructs! Concerned how they will interact with society in the future. Satur9@wherewelive Text is my lifeline - keeps comms with my ex civil, text-to-IM keeps contact with busy friends worldwide I'd never catch by vox 1199organizerCT@wherewelive SMS msgs have changed the way I communicate; I send 1800+ msgs/month. it's quick, unintrusive, & multitasker's dream! jamiemarie1@wherewelive Better: It's easier to make plans & just send a mass text w/details. Worse: When ppl text while you are having a conversation. ruumis@wherewelive Commercially SMS is a massive industry in 2006 worth over $81bil globally. an avg global price of $0.11& near 90% profit margin erikbowen@wherewelive I like tweeting & posting images of things that I come across such as #hawksinhartford and http://twitpic.com/6yz73 davehaseltine@wherewelive twitter is mostly useless, all the media coverage of it has become annoying. Txting follows stupid, not the other way round. And if you're interested in reading something a little longer than 160 characters - check out the latest New York Times article "Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teens". A few of our guests said we are jumping the gun by claiming texting is causing all sorts of problems in teens. From lack of sleep to permanent thumb damage - other researchers think it's a big deal. Dr. Martin Joffe, a pediatrician in Greenbrae, Calif., recently surveyed students at two local high schools and said he found that many were routinely sending hundreds of texts every day. “That’s one every few minutes,” he said. “Then you hear that these kids are responding to texts late at night. That’s going to cause sleep issues in an age group that’s already plagued with sleep issues.” The rise in texting is too recent to have produced any conclusive data on health effects. But Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who is director of the Initiative on Technology and Self at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and who has studied texting among teenagers in the Boston area for three years, said it might be causing a shift in the way adolescents develop. And yes, I am a member of "The Dumbest Generation", and no I don't think it's all bad. I dig technology and consider myself a relatively high functioning adult who holds a steady job and can multitask like its going out of style. I can certainly see a shift between me and my moms generation - but also a huge shift between my generation and that of my 19 and 15 year old sisters. The younger ladies seem on a whole other plane of technological existance. However, as David Crystal noted - 80% of texts in the world are actually sent by adults. Moms and dads (and grandparents for that matter) are getting in on the fun. (Maybe not so much fun if you're a State Senator). And this:

Happy Birthday to us!

jdankosky — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:28:28 -0500

So, this is what three feels like. We started Where We Live on this day in 2006, just as an amazing political season was heating up. Ned Lamont's challenge to Joe Lieberman put Connecticut in the national spotlight, and we were right in the middle of the fun. The first show was called "Shades of Blue" - about what kind of Democratic Party was emerging. Our guest was Bill Curry, our friend and political analyst (he came back to help us celebrate today). The show on day two? Dental care for children. That's kind of been the point of Where We Live...not just politics or policy, but issues that are important to our listeners. Some that people are already talking about...but hopefully more that they're hearing about from us for the first time. As we celebrate this anniversary, I want to thank our founding producers, Diane Orson and George Goodrich. For years, before becoming the country's best education reporter, Diane produced The Faith Middleton Show (once known as Open Air New England). She helped give our show shape and substance, and set a pretty high bar for us to try to clear. George left us this past year, after helping to craft the sound of the show. He gave us all the tools and formats that allow us to sound like we know what we're doing each day. I also owe thanks to producers Melissa Blanksteen and Evette Cook for helping us to grow the program, and transistion to its success today. The team I work with every day is the most talented staff anyone could ever hope for. Producer Libby Conn is a voracious reader, and our "futurist." Whenever there's a show called "The Future of ______" - that's Libby. Senior Producer Catie Talarski is my brain. She figures out how to make this work on a daily basis. She's also the driving force behind the show's diversity and vision. (If it was up to me, we'd probably talk politics every day. Zzzzzz.....) They are both endlessly creative and fascinated by radio storytelling - it's not a surprise that both of them graduated from prestigious documentary schools. I'm lucky to have this great team, along with some exceptional interns, and the news staff of WNPR to help us produce Where We Live. The biggest part is you. Listeners, callers, emailers and Tweet-ers make the show sound like Connecticut...the place where we live. So, thanks...and Happy Birthday! **** By the way, if you're dying to watch video of our Wednesday wrap-up of the legislative session, it's available on demand now from CT-N.

"Keno is crazy..."

jdankosky — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:59:48 -0500

"...and please God, don't do that." - Jim Horan, Connecticut Association for Human Services on Where We Live That's pretty much been the reaction to Governor Rell's plan to raise some $60 million through the introduction of the popular lottery/bar game Keno into Connecticut. First reading: For a full historically-accurate explanation of how Keno will impact state residents, see Colin McEnroe's column in the Courant this weekend. Second reading: Fellow columnist Rick Green has covered gambing in the state for years, and has appeared on Where We Live to talk about the topic. Here's Rick's take on his blog. He also provides a link to this handy odds table (you can be a winner!). Update: Since this blog orignially posted, Rick has written a column about Keno's dangerous addictive qualities. Today's news: Attorney General Blumenthal says the state might violate the agreement with its two Indian casinos, and that might cost the state precious slot machine revenues. He told a press conference today: "The 400 million dollars could be put significant and serious jeopardy as a result of the state unilaterally embarking on Keno gambling." Our benchmark: The game has been so "successful" in Massachusetts, that it's been expanded into a kind of "take-out" Keno called "Keno-to-Go." This excerpt from a story in the Springfield Republican gives a sense of concerns of Keno gone wild just North of the border: "We feel we didn't want to turn every convenience store, every gas station, into Keno parlors," said Councilor Robert E. Rossi, chairman of the License Committee, which reviewed the matter. "We want to keep it conducive to the neighborhood." The last word: From Anna Sale's story about the AG's opinion, a description of one state lawmaker, who obviously doesn't view gambling as a social ill - Rep. Stephen Dargin, a self described gambler who plans to bet on this weekend's horse race. He told the assembled captiol press corps that maybe a little betting wouldn't be a bad thing: "Help jumpstart the economy in Connecticut!" he yelled. Below, a YouTube video captures the excitement of Keno! (My favorite line, "We'll play another $2200, then we'll go home...")