Interested in helping with an experiment?

When I started at the station in 1980, we had a community advisory board that met about six times a year, at our studios. Everyone lived within a half-hour drive of Canton. Times have indeed changed. A few years ago, we did an experiment with a virtual community advisory board--via email. Now, we're ready to get serious about the "virtual" concept--we'd like to build a community advisory board on our website. The board will meet on line, in view of anyone who wants to follow--and contribute--to the conversation about issues facing the station and our communities.

Here's how you can help. If you think you'd be willing to make a commitment to participate on this community advisory board in its latest incarnation, please email me with some information about yourself, including where you live, how to get in touch with you, what you do, how long you've been listening to the station or using our website, what matters to you in terms of a regional public media service (i.e., NCPR radio and ncpr.org), or anything else you think we should know about you. All we need from you is a paragraph or two. We have some very concrete problems and challenges to tackle and your help will be invaluable.

We'll put all the names together, look for good geographic and other kinds of diversity, and then we'll send you an informally formal invitation with instructions on how to become an official board member. Please don't be disappointed, insulted (or relieved) if we don't invite you this time around. We expect to select about 30-50 people for this beta community advisory board, but over the next few years, we may add to that number, or original members may circulate off and need to be replaced.

If you're interested, please send your email directly to me: ellen@ncpr.org

Thank you for your help.
Ellen Rocco, Station Manager

An Opening and An Elegy

Neighbors,

I open this North Country Public Radio blog after months of station conversation about finding a place for neighbors across the region--and beyond--to talk to each other about public radio, about community issues, about the natural or political worlds we live in, about art or about family and friends doing interesting work. It's a shared blog. Members of the station staff will post from time to time, and some of you will want to respond or move the discussion in other directions. This post is the sapling.

On the air or on-line the people who work at NCPR are grappling with increased expectations: the more we do as a public media service, the more people expect of us. We are a small staff serving a huge geography with labor-intensive media, like regional news and a content-rich website. It's a daily juggling act--which wonderful (or simply routine but necessary) project should take our attention and talent? Do we invest in a detailed, community-by-community weather service or produce an in-depth series on running a dairy farm? Do we initiate a new weekly feature about food or find a way to train young people to use recording equipment? If our audio producer is devoting most of his time to a year-long regional music series, who will produce the local StoryCorps segments for "The 8 o'clock Hour?"

I'm not complaining. It's a kind of wealth to have so much good work to do. The first step of the work, though, is to make choices. Sometimes our choices may suit you, sometimes not. I'm always interested in hearing about what you like, don't like, or think we should do differently.

I'll use my posts to this space to try to give you a sense of what's happening on this side of the microphone or keyboard, of the conundrums we're trying to finesse--or just muscle--our way through.

I'll also use my posts to let you know I'm human, even if I work at a radio station. One of the things that separates media people from audiences is the sense that the voice you hear on the air belongs to an inaccessible person whose life outside of radio is either non-existent or shielded by a privacy curtain. It's gotta be that way. After all, no one wants to know what I ate for breakfast (even I don't care). But time after time what we hear from you--in notes, in response to surveys, in phone calls and emails--is this: beyond the favorite program or service, what you like best is the sound and sensibility of the people who work here. You want to know something about the people you trust to deliver accurate and complete news, introduce new music, or curate information about culture and the arts.

So, here's the elegy. This is the personal part. My beloved dog Ozzie died 10 days ago. A horrible anguishing death. Not old age. Caught in an 8-inch claw trap. I couldn't get her out of it in time. No animal should die this way, yet who knows how many raccoons, fisher, muskrats and other wild creatures are subjected to this brutal death each year. People do still set traps. A few of them rely on these traps for a livelihood; most do not. This is not like the death and destruction taking place in Iraq or Somalia, but it is a small ghastliness that touched me deeply and directly. I wish I was a wordsmith like Dale Hobson. I could write a beautiful elegy to a loving and sweet creature. Instead, I turn to an anonymous master who wrote this lyric:

...Old Blue died and he died so hard,
Shook the ground in my backyard.
Dug him a grave with a sliver spade,
Lowered him down with a golden chain.
Every link I did call his name.

Here Blue, you good dog you.
Here Blue, I'm coming there too.

The irony, oh the irony…

So, I’ve been following NPR’s coverage of the House and Senate elections all evening, watching and listening to some of this country’s finest journalists keep our listeners up to speed on election returns and informed about the trends and issues underpinning those returns. Talking just now with Joe Matazzoni, who heads NPR’s on-line coverage, and Ken Stern, who is NPR’s CEO. Both of them, along with so many others in the NPR newsroom are residents of the city of Washington, DC. And they have no congressional representation. Think about that. Yes, you probably knew this, but what does it mean—it means that Joe, and Ken, and all the other residents of DC are unrepresented in Congress. They don’t get to vote today—except for city officials. And decisions made by the city—like a proposed commuter tax to offset the city’s non-existent tax-base because every business here, including the government, is not-for-profit—can be, and are, overturned, declared illegal by Congress. (The last thing Representatives from neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia want to see is a commuter tax, right?) So even municipal decisions are subject to reversal by a Congress that does not include DC representatives. Not so fair. Not so democratic. In fact, isn’t this a blatant instance of taxation without representation?

Oh the irony.

Stay tuned tonight and tomorrow for complete election results and analysis from NCPR and NPR.

From DC,
Ellen Rocco

160 on the NPR Election team

Spent the last hour in the NPR control room watching co-directors Julia Buckley and Bob Boylen lead the crew through their paces. Bob is directing the on-air action, with hand signals and voice cues (via headsets) to the coverage hosts, Robert Siegel and Linda Werthheimer. Julia manages the action from out in the field, reporters filing from locations across the country, and from the studio, lining up guest and staff analysts, like blogger Robert Smith who provided some levity during his chat with Robert.

Grabbed NPR President Kevin Klose for his insight into tonight’s coverage. He told me NPR has 160 staff people working—in the building and around the country. If you’ve been listening to NPR coverage on NCPR or ncpr.org this evening, you know the team is out there. Just heard Margot Adler’s report on the statewide races in NY. Still waiting for congressional returns from the north country.

Later,
Ellen

Fast and furious

As some of the polling places close on the east coast, results coming in fast and furious. I’ve been leaning over the shoulder of Joe Matazzoni, executive producer for NPR’s on-line election night coverage. Joe and Maria Godoy, on-line producer, are entering race results as they are called by NPR news analysts.

Joe and Maria are both particularly proud of the deeply expanded on-line election coverage this year. If you haven’t yet explored all the content available from NPR and NCPR on line, do check it out. State by state, NPR is including content and analysis provided by local stations—like NCPR. If you go to the New York State section of the NPR website, you’ll find all kinds of stories drawn from NCPR’s election coverage.

At the national level, check out the blogging being edited by Robert Smith, NPR’s election night blog manager. And, do read Ken Rudin’s political analyis and predictions—he’s NPR’s on-line senior political analyst.

Throughout the night, use NPR’s on-line “scorecard” if you’re interested in following the big picture as national results are recorded. And, again, check out the blogs—and let NPR know what you think about this mid-term election.

Later,
Ellen

Too early or too late

It’s raining in DC tonight but the town is hopping. Here at NPR, all kinds of activity from staff, of course, and from special visitors. It’s NPR Board week, so a number of us are observing the election night coverage in Studio 4A. What does the studio look like? A large warehouse of a room, wide open, with Robert Siegel and guests set up on a platform in the center of the room. Maps and charts across the walls. No sound-proofing. It’s a totally transparent operation tonight.

Just met Daniel Schorr, NPR’s Senior Senior Senior News Analyst. I asked him to give me one sentence on tonight’s election. Here’s the quote:

“It’s either too early to tell what’s happening, or too late to do anything about it.”

Also ran into my colleague, Dave Spizale, who manages the public radio station Lafayette, Louisiana. Asked for his one sentence about the elections. Here’s his quote: “As we always say in Louisiana, vote often…and make sure all your deceased relatives vote, too.” Dave, by the way, was a real post-Katrina hero: he and his son took their small motorboat into New Orleans and literally rescued stranded residents from rooftops and ledges.

More later.

Ellen

NPR is buzzing

Just as NCPR gears up for the evening's coverage of regional elections, NPR is buzzing and getting ready to bring results from around the country. I'm stationed in Studio 4A, election coverage-central. I've received a copy of the 12 page Election Night 2006 game-plan for NPR News staff.

I just asked Jay Kernis, VP for Programming at NPR, what would set NPR's coverage apart from every other radio or tv network's coverage. He said, "Everyone else will give you results, we'll have results plus the best analysis and discussion about what it all means."

Senior Correspondents Robert Siegel and Linda Wertheimer will be anchoring the NPR coverage until 1 AM Eastern; then Andrea Seabrook and Don Gonyea take over until 5 AM tomorrow.

Ellen Weiss, who is acting VP for News, had this to say about what's different this year: NO EXIT POLLS. Ellen says that NPR decided it would not buy any exit polls this year. Why? Because in 2000 and 2004 they were wrong, and in 2002 they didn't deliver in a timely fashion. So, no exit poll extrapolations or theorizing...not on NPR coverage, anyway. The other big deal: web coverage. Very exciting to see the results board in 4A essentially reproduced on NPR (and NCPR) websites, and to follow results with the maps and background info. Check it out!

More soon.
Ellen Rocco, from studio 4A at NPR

Ellen Rocco: Blogging Election Night at NPR in Washington

NCPR Station Manager Ellen Rocco will be in Washington DC this Election Day, attending a meeting of the National Public Radio Board. She will take up camp in the NPR newsroom for election night coverage, and will be sending out regular reports from behind the curtain at this major media newsroom. Who does what? How does it feel? What are folks saying off-air? Drop by this page throughout the evening, beginning at 7 pm to find out how the sausage is made.

Meet the Crew

The NCPR staff is just the right size (fewer than 20) to self-organize at a family or big-band level, as opposed to forming a bureaucratic utopian community. That would make Ellen Rocco, station manager, NPR board member, and host of The Blue Note, our blues queen.

The largest section of "the band" is the news gang, cajoled along by news director Martha Foley, who co-hosts the morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour. David Sommerstein is assistant ND, has another incarnation as music host of The Beat Authority, and serves as the station's commissioner of baseball. Todd Moe is morning host, cultural desk editor and co-host of the regional arts program Open Studio. Brian Mann runs our Adirondack News Bureau and is our outdoor recreation test bed, and latest author, with Welcome to the Homeland, a book on the urban/rural political divide. We are one short on the news side at the moment and have an opening for a reporter to host the All Before Five regional news update.

Our program director and host of Music for a Monday Afternoon is Jackie Sauter. Her stranger half is station engineer Radio Bob Sauter, who also hosts The Radio Bob Rhythm & Blues Show. Shelly Pike is operations manager and Community Calendar maven. Production manager Joel Hurd keeps the sound squeaky clean and runs the production studio.

Membership director June Peoples is Joel's southerner half and also heads up our home livestock division, harboring peacocks, a goat, bunnies, dogs, and anything else in the neighborhood that looks hungry or woebegone. Susan Sweeney Smith looks after major giving, and in her spare time, oversees the one book, one community program North Country Reads. Sandy Demarest is our underwriting director and undercover vox recordist. Development assistant Kelly Jacoby, in the off-season for marathons, does the organizational equivalent of juggling a bowling bowl, a flaming torch, a chain saw, and a live baby. And web manager Dale Hobson does whatever it is that web managers do. Whenever he tries to explain, people go to sleep.

A number of part-timers and volunteer music hosts round out the crew. Announcer Barb Heller hosts NCPR's String Fever and FM in the Morning, as well as a nationally-syndicated show on the internet channel Folk Alley. She is joined in the station folksinger division by announcer Kevin Irwin, and in the oppressed and underappreciated part-time announcer division by Connie Meng, our resident theatre critic, diction coach, and cabaret queen. Receptionist Meg Hawley runs the front desk and is our first responder and minesweeper. Volunteer Guy Berard cools out Saturday night with Jazz at the Ten Spot, and Mike Alzo hosts the long-running Folk Show.

Anyone who can correctly identify all the people in the staff photo above is eligible to win a supply of Radio Bob Brand Emergency Duct Tape.