witf blog - witf.org

'What's Your Big Idea?' video contest

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 14:57:00 +0000

NPR is hosting the "What's Your Big Idea?" Video Contest for listeners ages 13 to 25. We want you to share a video pitching your "Big Idea" on YouTube. The contest launched July 9th, and runs through August 12th.

Your big idea could be a winner if it's powered by science, technology, or math, and is thinking creatively about the kind of innovations needed to make the world a better place.

Contest entrants will explain their "Big Idea" in a video posted to YouTube and by filling out the submission form here. Joe Palca and members of the science desk will judge the video submissions. The Top 10 Finalists will have their "Big Idea" videos featured at NPR.org, and on the Facebook page for "Joe's Big Idea." The First Place Winner will get personalized advice or commentary from a leader in their field of innovation, facilitated by Joe Palca, on how to make their "Big Idea" become a reality.

You can enter the contest as an individual or as a team of up to three members. All team members must be in the 13-25 years age group at time of entry. Official rules are posted here.

The contest and "Joe's Big Idea" series are part of NPR's commitment to offer audiences a greater insight on how scientific developments impact everyday life. The series airs occasionally throughout the summer on Morning Edition on WITF your home for NPR News and All Things Regional.

(Photo: NPR's Joe Palca of Joe's Big Idea.)

Storify: witf 89.5 and 93.3FM changes to all news and information format

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Lebanon boy who raised money for Dick Winters Leadership statue to blog about trip to Normandy to watch unveiling

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:47:34 +0000

13-year-old Jordan Brown, of Lebanon, has raised close to $100,000 for a project honoring the late Major Dick Winters in Normandy, France by selling olive green wristbands displaying the leader of the Band of Brothers' famous motto "Hang Tough." The money will go toward a statue in the likeness of Winters, in rememberance of the leadership of all junior U.S. officers on D-Day in 1944.

Jordan is slated to be among the speakers at the unveiling of the statue on June 6 near Utah Beach, the 68th anniversary of the allied invasion.

witf will have the unique opportunity to cover the events surrounding the unveiling and those marking the anniversary of the largest invasion force in history through the multimedia project, “Hang Tough: Dick Winters in Normandy.” Multimedia News Director Tim Lambert will spend six days in Normandy, from June 3-8, covering how Major Winters’ is remembered and honored.

Brown will also be blogging about his experience attending the Major Dick Winters statue unveiling in France for witf. Follow along with his blog from June 3-8 to get the young man's perspective on the anniversary in France and the memorial that he helped raise money for.

A new threat to public broadcasting

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:16:11 +0000

Friends and supporters of witf:

Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) is circulating a letter in the House of Representatives asking that the federal government eliminate funding for public broadcasting. Congressman Lamborn has also introduced legislation, H.R. 68, to cut all funding for public broadcasting.

Please make your voice heard in the House of Representatives by sending emails, placing calls, tweeting and Facebooking your support of public broadcasting. Call, email, tweet or Facebook your Representative (Rep. Platts, Pitts, Holden or Shuster) as follows:

Ask your representative not to sign Congressman Lamborn’s letter or support HR 68. (To send an email to your Member of Congress, click here).
Or send this Tweet: @Your Member of Congress I urge you to support public broadcasting: I do. http://170MillionAmericans.org #standupforpublicbroadcasting
Post to Facebook: Congressman Doug Lamborn from Colorado wants to eliminate funding for public broadcasting, whose programs are important to us all. More than 170 Million Americans access public media every month! Protect witf and join us at 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting.

Song: Slow Jam the Pledge

Thu, 03 May 2012 13:01:56 +0000

Well our radio spring fundraising campaign is just about over. You’ve heard us talking and talking about pledging, the benefits of public radio and how your contribution helps. But in case our message just wasn’t jiving with you, we thought we’d break it down and slow-jam the pledge for you. Awww yeah.

{mp3remote}http://witf.vo.llnwd.net/o35/fmfeatures/Slow-Jam-The-Pledge.mp3{/mp3remote}

Make that pledge of support today by clicking the “Give Now” link or by calling us at 1-800-233-9483. Because everybody has needs, and public radio needs your support.”

Get information and view photos of some of the great thank you gifts we have to offer for your donation to witf. And if you haven't seen the video of a bulldog singing along to our Auto-Tuned pledge song, don't miss it!

Video: Bulldog sings along to our Auto-Tuned pledge song!

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:19:37 +0000

As many of our radio listeners are probably aware, we're in the midst of a pledge drive.

In order to kick things up a bit, we posted an Auto-Tuned pledge song that our Audio Specialist and "Classical Air" host Joe Ulrich created to YouTube.

Take a listen below:

We shared a link to the song via Twitter and that's when Explore PA host Elizabeth Jennings and her bulldog Floyd decided to turn it up! Luckily, she had a video camera on hand and Tweeted back with this hilarious video of the bulldog singing backup.

We think it's clear that Floyd is a witf (and Auto-Tune) fan! How about you? If you are a fan of our news, educational and cultural programming, please consider becoming a donor now. We're excited to be able to offer you a number of great thank you gifts for your pledge. Find out more here.

Public broadcasting funding update

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:08:35 +0000

The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) is pleased to announce that the final bill that passed out of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations committee provides level funding for all three of public broadcasting’s programs -- the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) two-year advance, Ready To Learn and CPB Digital -- and maintained the two-year advance mechanism for the CPB main account.

The ability to maintain level funding in this difficult environment is a huge win and credit to all of the work that stations like witf and community supporters like you have provided during this appropriations process.

Here are the highlights of the bill:

CPB’s main account was two-year advance funded at $445 million for FY 2014
Ready To Learn was funded at $27.3 million for FY 2012
CPB Digital was funded at $6 million FY 2012

$3 Million in Funding Secured for the Rural Digital Program in FY 2012

APTS is also pleased to report that the Senate Appropriations Committee has included $3 million in funding for the Rural Digital Program for FY 2012 in the Senate Agriculture, Rural Development and Food and Drug Administration (Agriculture) Appropriations bill. The Rural Digital program ensures that rural America is not left behind by the digital transition by providing targeted assistance to rural public television stations.

While funding for the Rural Digital program was cut by $1.5 million from the FY 2011 funding level, the continued existence of this program is a victory for public broadcasting and rural stations.

As you may know, the House has passed an Agriculture Appropriations bill that does not include funding for the Rural Digital Program.

Next Steps for Funding Bills

The next steps in the appropriations process remain unclear. APTS expects that the majority of the appropriations bills will not be voted on as stand-alone bills and the House and Senate will negotiate the bills within an omnibus appropriations package providing funding for many government agencies.

Good News from Congress, Thanks to You!

Kathleen_Pavelko@witf.org (Kathleen Pavelko) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:14:03 +0000

Eight weeks ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that eliminated all federal funding for public broadcasting. Today, Congress is on the verge of approving a compromise bill that preserves federal funding critical to witf. Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting went from being completely eliminated to experiencing just a 0.2 percent cut.

Who changed the mind of Congress? You did.

Thanks to you, members of Congress realized how essential public broadcasting is to our communities and to their constituents. You spoke up and Congress listened – and for that, we say thank you!

But our work is not done. Public broadcasting funding will again be a target when debate on the FY12 budget begins later this week and we will need you to act again to protect your programs and services at witf. On behalf of witf’s listeners, viewers, readers and leaders – thank you again – 170 million times!

“Why is WITF’s image cropped on my screen?”

Ron_Kain@witf.org (Ron Kain) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:11:41 +0000

This is one of the frequently asked questions fielded by our customer service and technology staff at WITF. But there isn’t a simple answer.

Until the advent of high definition technology, television programs were produced with a 4x3 aspect ratio (meaning that the screen was 4 units wide to 3 units tall). Since the advent of high definition programming, television sets and shows have been produced with a 16x9 aspect ratio, which is also the ratio used for films in movie theatres and for digital high definition programs.

Therefore, stations such as WITF have a wide mixture of programs—some older programs produced in a 4x3 format and new national content produced in 16x9. This mixture of content, combined with the television broadcast “supply chain," are the fundamental reasons that shows often appear awkwardly shaped or cropped on your screen at home. It can often times create an awkward viewing experience on analog tiers of cable/satellite and fiber systems.

What’s a “television broadcast supply chain"? It’s all of the equipment that a program passes through on its journey from the broadcast station to the home user’s television set. In between a program might pass through a satellite transmission, a computer storage server, microwave transmission and other distribution gear, depending on how you receive the signal in your home.

In an ideal world, every piece of equipment in this chain would be able to detect the program’s aspect ratio—and adapt the display of the image to each aspect ratio. There’s a “marker” called the Active Format Descriptor (AFD) flag which does just that.

WITF is fortunate that, through the generous support of a WITF donor and technology enthusiast, we have been able to purchase the equipment to correctly capture and re-transmit this aspect ratio information for new programming. This has corrected the aspect ratio on about 90% of the programming WITF transmits, especially during prime-time. Unfortunately, there is still older programming in the archives as well as some national shows that do not have this information embedded which can wreak havoc on consumer television sets!

The issue is further complicated by the cable, satellite, and fiber delivery systems. For display on the basic tiers of these subscription services, providers such as Comcast, Verizon, and Dish Network will “center cut” WITF’s 16x9 digital feed so that a 4x3 image will be displayed on their system. “Center cut” means removing the edges of the image all around so that the 16x9 image will “fit” into a 4x3 shape.

Center cutting often cuts off graphics or material that are formatted outside of the 4x3 area that is being transmitted to you. Most national PBS producers are aware of this practice “center cutting” and try to produce their programs so that graphics are kept to the center of the screen. But we still have weekly examples of programs getting center-cut.

We are hopeful that these technology-transition issues will resolve themselves in time. Generally speaking, if you have a 16x9 television and receive programming over the air via an HD subscription service, WITF’s programming should look okay except for the few cases where older content is being broadcast.

If I can be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me directly or by commenting below.

Later this month, I hope to share a behind the scenes look of the digital translator installation taking place at the same site we transmit 93.3 from in Chambersburg!

Ron Kain
Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer
WITF