(upbeat instrumental music) - Radio.

98% of us listen to the radio sometime during the week.

Some of us listen for hours every day for news, for music, for companionship, information, entertainment.

But many listeners never actually see inside the radio station, never actually meet the announcers they hear every day.

Well, right now, we'll give you that chance.

This is the master control room of WVIA-FM, the public radio station serving Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Central Susquehanna Valley, the Lehigh Valley, and the Poconos.

This month marks the station's 30th anniversary, and you're looking at the man who's been at WVIA since Day One, or actually well before Day One, George Graham.

Right now, he's busy on the air on WVIA-FM, but in just a few minutes, he'll join us here on WVIA-TV along with other familiar voices, if not faces, on the radio staff as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of WVIA-FM.

We'll share some memories, take some questions and comments from our studio audience, and take your calls a little later in the program.

Good evening, I'm Chris Norton from WVIA-FM, and like the rest of folks at this table, I'm more accustomed to microphones than cameras.

I have one of those perfect faces for radio, and... (panelists laugh) It's my pleasure to introduce you to the amazing people you hear on WVIA-FM.

Lisa Mazzarella may be the first voice you hear in the morning reporting regional news and weather during NPR's "Morning Edition," and then presenting some of the world's treasures in classical music.

Lisa's also an instructor in public speaking and a fine singer, although I'll not ask for a demonstration on the spot here, Lisa.

The midday host on WVIA-FM is Erika Funke, an authority on classical music and jazz and the regional arts and cultural community.

During her distinguished career, she has managed the station, produced a number of exceptional special programs, served on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, interviewed countless guests and developed the comprehensive weekly "ArtScene" program, Recently winning an award from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters.

The programming of WVIA-FM is managed by afternoon host Larry Vojtko, a man of many talents, a singer, a pianist, and the very model of a modern major general, Recently on stage at the Wilkes-Barre Little Theatre.

Larry has done it all here at WVIA, including managing the station, producing numerous concert broadcasts and other special programs during his 20 years.

Just about everything, in fact, except conducting the orchestra.

And so in celebration of his 20th anniversary and the station's 30th, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic has invited Larry to conduct a piece at their May concert.

Well, Lisa and Erika and Larry are our morning, midday, and afternoon hosts.

What happened to our night host, George Graham?

Where's George Graham?

Oh, still in the master control room.

Let's see what he is up to.

George, WVIA-FM is known for the NPR news programs "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," for the interview program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," and Lisa, Erika, and Larry here all play classical music during the day, but you take a different approach at night.

Tell us about your programming.

- Definitely.

We bring you jazz during "All That Jazz" from seven till 8:00 p.m., the great American music form.

Good, straight-ahead, acoustic jazz.

Then coming up at eight o'clock, we have "Mixed Bag," a program which really spans a lot of musical genres: rock, folk, blues, world music, Cajun zydeco, Celtic, reggae, bluegrass.

A whole host of styles you don't hear elsewhere on the radio.

We kind of pride ourselves as being the program of musical discovery, introducing you to a lot of new artists that you may hear in the future, people like Norah Jones and John Mayer, and people you just kind of treasure on public radio without a lot of commercial aspect to their music.

So, that's part of "Mixed Bag."

We also bring you "Homegrown Music" with regional artist performances from our studios.

- George, you dress very nicely for a radio show.

We'd like to hear about how WVIA-FM got started 30 years ago.

Could you put on a long record, maybe, and join us here with the studio audience?

- Will do.

We'll be out there shortly.

- Over the 30 years, there have been some other well-known voices on WVIA-FM, too.

Let's see if this brings back some memories.

- [Announcer] WVIA-FM's Libby Smith.

To her, "From the Studio" is more than a job.

It's a way of life.

Libby is an active participant in many cultural organizations in the FM 89.9 listening area and has brought that experience as well as a wealth of knowledge to her daily program.

Tune to "From the Studio" Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on your public radio station WVIA-FM.

- Erika, who was that?

- No question, Libby Smith, classical music director of WVIA, was and has been a legend to people who have known WVIA throughout the years.

She has had such an impact on listeners.

People still remember and call with tears in their eyes about the loss and her passing, but while she was conducting from the studio, from the studios where George was really sitting just now, she conveyed a passion for classical music and opera and even Broadway and show music, but it was always with the recognition that the people who were creating the music were in fact people, that Mozart was a human being, and that she wanted us all to know that the wonderful violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter drove a sports car 'cause she thought that that would humanize and make the music more real.

So, when Anne-Sophie Mutter is playing Beethoven's "Violin Concerto," we could remember and think of her driving down those German, the Autobahn at 90 miles an hour.

So, she humanized classical music and she did so so well and so consistently throughout the years, and she is sorely missed.

- Many years.

Very good.

Lisa, you get us started in the morning hosting with Bob Edwards from "Morning Edition."

You've been working with him so long, you must feel like a member of the family.

- We're like this.

Bob and I are like this.

Now, to be perfectly honest with you, I love to listen to Bob Edwards, and no one knows this, but right now, I'm going to tell you what I usually do in the morning.

I raise my coffee cup to a picture of Bob Edwards, and say, "It's you and me against the world," and basically, I had an opportunity, we all had the opportunity to meet Bob Edwards back in 1993, and it was one of those things where, you know how you're in the radio studio and the on-air light is flashing, you have your headsets on, and all of a sudden, I heard this door, (mimics door swinging) open up in the back, and I thought, "Who is back there?

Who's back there?"

And I mean, they didn't see the on-air light flashing.

All of a sudden peripherally, I see this big, tall man coming closer and closer, and all of a sudden, he looked down at me, and it was Bob Edwards.

I thought, "Oh my gosh, it's America's host.

It's America's host.

I can't believe it."

And the nice part about it was I didn't mess up my talk set at all.

I was so proud.

That was one of my big moments.

- You want to sound good when Bob Edwards is in the studio.

- [Lisa] Exactly.

Exactly.

- Erika, not all public radio stations have the same commitment to the arts and cultural community and supporting regional arts organizations.

How did WVIA choose that tack and what sort of things have you done with the "ArtScene" program?

- Well, it all began, I think, with Libby setting the tone for the arts.

She was very active in many organizations and started the Regional Arts Calendar.

But we all did sort of hew to that mission.

Remember the great American writer E.B.

White who did the classic children's story "Charlotte's Web," well, he had a vision for public radio.

He said that public radio should rouse our dreams and just activate our sense and satisfy our hunger for beauty, take us on journeys, let us participate in events, present great music and drama, but always with the idea of excellence in mind.

So, we had that mission, but it was just the sense and the recognition that there were so many individuals doing such good work quietly, and we wanted to make sure that it wasn't quiet.

We wanted to get the word out and the secrets out.

So, that's how it began as the Arts Calendar and interviews and participation by the hosts on boards, and then we saw all this happening in a kind of scattered way, and we thought, "Focus.

We'll bring it all together and we'll weave together a program bringing arts events and interviews and people coming into the area, people who are here doing great work."

And we made "ArtScene" the weekly program and we're very proud that so many people are responding.

- It's a great service to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Larry Vojtko, it's the station's 30th anniversary and your 20th.

- That's right.

20 years.

- And you're going to conduct the Northeast Philharmonic.

Have you been practicing?

- May 9th and 10th, you bet.

You bet I have been getting the old muscles in shape and ready to take on that task.

It's going to be really exciting in that concert.

And I saw the program, and I'm scheduled right after intermission, so have a little piece they carry on from Bizet's "L'Arlesienne Suite No.

1," and then the orchestra goes after that and finishes off with a Franck symphony.

- That'll be great.

- It's going to be interesting.

- May I say something?

- Sure.

- I just wanted to add, those of us who know Larry behind the scenes know that this is perfect because Larry conducts all through the afternoon.

- [Lisa] That's right.

- Well, Larry, did you always know you were going to be a radio broadcaster?

- Absolutely not.

No, that was not what I had in mind for my career.

I went to school for music, music education, and graduated with a degree to be a music teacher, and unable to find that particular job at the time, I was on the path of being a professional student when the job opening came, because I had gone back and was studying business and computer science and the like, and the job open, actually, the way it worked was that there was an ad in the paper, and my now-wife, Bernadine, she was my girlfriend at the time, she saw the ad, and she said, "Well, why don't you apply for this?"

And they said "minimum one year radio experience."

I said, "I can't apply for that.

I don't have any radio experience."

But I did apply for it, and Tom McHugh was the station manager at the time, and I remember him handing me a sheet of a list of artists and composers and you had to pronounce all of these.

There were probably about 30 different names on there.

And I still say to this day what got me this job was the fact that I could say Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

He's the Russian conductor.

So, and that's how it happened.

- I hope you haven't had to say that too many times since then.

- No, he hasn't been on too many CDs.

- You mentioned Tom McHugh.

That's a voice that many people will remember, and he wasn't able to be with us tonight, but we did find some tape.

- [Announcer] WVIA-FM's Tom McHugh.

Tom brings you the best in classical requests every weekday afternoon at two on "Panorama."

Members and listeners, tune to Tom for great classical selections, weather updates, and informative tidbits on music personalities.

Make Tom McHugh and "Panorama" part of your daily routine on FM 89.9 WVIA Radio.

(energetic classical music) - Tom's now head of the Communications Department at Luzerne County Community College, and he's always been a teacher, really, at heart.

He trained me completely from Day One in not only the artistic aspect of radio, how to produce, and how to interview, but all the technical aspect as well.

So, Tom did quite a bit, and he had quite a commitment to community and the arts and fostering that and trying to come up with ideas and trying to make projects that would come together to serve the audience and to support our mission here at WVIA-FM.

So, he's a very important person, not only in the history of the station, I think, but to the community at large as well.

So, great guy.

- I see we have a phone call, another mystery voice from the past.

Lisa, let's see if you can figure out who this is.

- [Lisa] Okay.

Mystery caller, could you just say a couple of things to me?

- [Caller] Hmm.

- [Lisa] Hmm.

Hmm.

- [Caller] So, Neville Marriner climbs atop the English Chamber Orchestra with his horn... - Andrew Morrell, ah.

(panelists clap) - [Andrew] How 'bout that, huh?

- How are you?

- [Andrew] I'm doing great.

- Where are you?

Where are you?

- [Andrew] I'm on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC.

- Okay.

- [Andrew] I am currently working at NPR in Washington.

Matter of fact, I got an email from said Bob Edwards the other day.

He's trying to put together a softball league, and I think I was the only one who replied.

(panelists laugh) - [Lisa] Tell him I said hi.

- [Andrew] I will.

You know he remembers.

He remembers.

So, down here in Washington, trying to pull together as much as we can to try to make it easy for stations like WVIA to help raise money and to help promote the NPR shows on WVIA and all the stations around the country.

- I can remember when you were here, Andrew, that not only were you a phenomenal radio announcer, you just had a wonderful way with you as far as musicianship, to great musicianship, and I'm hoping, I'm hoping that you're still doing that as well.

- [Andrew] As a matter of fact, I am.

I got married almost a year ago and my wife and I oftentimes talk about going someplace where we can actually set up my regular drum set.

(panelists laugh) - Oh, way to go.

- It used to be here at WVIA for a while.

- That's right.

- [Andrew] Oh, I know.

I know.

Thank God for Studio B.

(panelists laugh) Which was where George, thankfully, let me keep the drums for a long time.

Hey, George, how many recordings did that drum set actually get on?

That's what I want to know.

- Oh, probably only about a half-dozen.

I knew you were very, very careful about that drum set, so I was very careful who I let use it.

- [Andrew] Oh, I wish more.

I wish more.

You know, Tom McHugh, I have to mention Tom and Libby because Tom was responsible for so many of us.

You know, Tom had this great way about him.

He'd train you by saying, "Do this, do that, do this, do that.

Here, you'll do fine."

Sort of sent you off on your own.

He was such a trusting, smart, and good person.

And Libby, miss Libby terribly.

Libby somehow or another allowed me to go on the air for the very first time filling in for her when I had no idea who Gennady blah, blah, blah, blah.

(panelists laugh) - But Andrew, what about the weather?

- [Andrew] No, the weather.

- Woosk.

- [Andrew] I was something of a weather freak, huh?

- You were.

- Yeah.

- [Andrew] You know, I'll never forget, as matter of fact, I still have those blizzard warnings from 1993, The Storm of the Century.

- You actually relieved me.

You slid down the Bear Creek Mountain- - I did.

- So that I could go home.

- [Andrew] I did, and thank goodness, because I ended up sleeping on the floor.

- Oh my goodness.

- That's right.

- [Andrew] Yeah, that brought back wonderful night.

- So, let's not forget that Andrew was also very responsible for getting our first website up and running.

- [Andrew] Oh, I forgot about that.

And it looks fantastic these days, so kudos to Mike Burnside and the crew.

- Very good.

Andrew, you brought back some great memories.

Thanks for taking part in our 30th anniversary celebration here.

- [Andrew] It's been my pleasure.

Happy anniversary to everybody, and here's the 30 more.

- Thank you.

- Thanks very much.

- Take care.

- Glad to see George Graham has put on that long record and joined us here in the TV studio.

- Actually, Julia Knaus is on the air right now filling in for me.

- [Chris] Tell us about some of the early days at WVIA.

- Well, there are a lot of memories.

I suppose I could just kind of briefly describe how the station came to be.

It came on the air in 1973.

I was hired before the station came on the air.

The staff at the time was looking for someone who had had some experience with doing that sort of thing.

I was involved with putting my college radio station at Duke University on the air, and so I'd had experience in actually physically putting an FM radio station on the air, which turned out to be very useful for this organization.

And so I was involved with the purchasing of the equipment, the design of the studios, and basically doing a lot of the physical wiring of getting the radio station on the air, the facilities happening.

And we came on the air.

We had a number of delays.

We had earlier plans to be on the air rather than April, I think it was in, I don't know, January or February, but due to, you know, the usual circumstances, things not arriving on time, we were able to get on the air eventually on April the 23rd.

I remember the first day I was here to push the button and I was doing some tests the previous night and had disconnected the stereo generator, and so that morning, we turned on the station, dead air.

(panelists groaning) So, it didn't take me long to realize what had happened, but it was a slight anti-climax to the attempted, "Ah, we're finally getting on the air officially."

So, that was the very first.

And we have kind of prided ourselves as all of us have talked about, associations with arts organizations and trying to relate to the community.

When we were getting the station on the air, one of the things that I had thought of would be, it would be a nice idea if we invited regional musicians into the studios, and at that time, I had no idea what, if we'd go through them in two weeks or something, but it's been an ongoing series, our "Homegrown Music" series, our "Simply Grand" concert series, our involvement in our organizations.

It just hasn't stopped in 30 years, and so it's pretty encouraging seeing that over this period of time.

- And as part of our involvement with arts organizations, as we celebrate this 30th anniversary, we've taken some time to invite some of the distinguished arts organizations to our studio here tonight to help us celebrate, especially those that are themselves celebrating anniversaries this year.

We want to share with them our anniversary celebration, because as Bill Kelly, the president of WVIA has said, "We function as a multiplier of the fine work that is done by many arts and cultural organizations throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania."

And so we're going to share our anniversary with, for example, Scranton Community Concerts, who are celebrating their 75 seasons of bringing performers to Scranton.

Over the decades, some of the greatest names in show business have been here, really, under their auspices, and recent shows have included Philharmonia Virtuosi, whose classical performance was recorded for broadcast on WVIA, jazz singer Nnenna Frelon, the fully-staged opera "Aida," and coming up just in a few weeks on April 25th, jazz pianist Kenny Barron is gonna be here.

That's gonna be a great show at the Mellow Theater in Scranton.

So, we're delighted to be able to share with Scranton Community Concerts our anniversary celebration.

Each organization, by the way, that we're celebrating with receives a certificate as an arts partner from WVIA and the very handsome and brand-new, hot-off-the-press WVIA 30th anniversary pen.

This is no ordinary pen.

It's a special recognition gift to those who have made WVIA possible over these 30 years.

I'm under obligation to say that.

And if you would like to get yours, watch your mail and listen to WVIA-FM next week.

Larry, some of the other organizations that we're sharing the anniversary with include the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra.

- Absolutely.

Williamsport Symphony Orchestra is in its 36th season.

It is a true community orchestra of interested musicians, professional musicians, but also business people, physicians, and teachers and students, and what have you, under the direction of a great music director, Robin Fountain, who's been there for about a decade now.

He's a Brit, originally from England.

He was trained at Oxford University in the Royal College of Music and studied conducting with the great conductor Norman Del Mar.

And he came here in 1984 on full scholarship to Carnegie Mellon where he finished up his training.

He currently is on the faculty of Vanderbilt University, but makes the trip up to conduct the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, so he must really, really enjoy it, and they must have a great synergy.

I know that I was happy to a number of occasions to hop down to Williamsport and do some pre-concert chats with him before the concerts.

The Williamsport Symphony Orchestra also has a great youth orchestra, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of the symphony's Youth Competition.

We just had a little sample for our Williamsport listeners Sunday of the winner Sarah Shafer, and the executive director is is Valerie Whyman, and she's right here.

Hi, Valerie.

- Hi.

- [Larry] I understand that we have one of the winners here as well, one of the past winners.

- Yes, we do.

Timothy LeVan.

He won in 1975 and he's actually coming back in our next season, October.

He's going to be playing a Mozart piano concerto with the orchestra, about 25 years after you won, 28 years after he won the original competition.

- [Larry] Oh, that's terrific.

Now you have a concert coming up very shortly.

Family concert?

- Yes, we have a concert on Saturday.

Bill Kelly is going to be narrating the young person's guide to the orchestra.

It's a free family concert in Williamsport at the Scottish Rite Auditorium.

- And then in May, right?

Is there another?

- May the 13th, we are performing "Carmina Burana" with the Susquehanna Valley Chorale and the Williamsport Area School District Junior Choir.

- [Larry] That's always exciting.

- Oh, it's going to be wonderful.

- [Larry] "Carmina Burana."

- Yes.

- That's wonderful.

- Valerie, thanks for joining us tonight, and we're looking forward to a wonderful partnership with the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra.

- [Valerie] Certainly.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Lisa?

- Yes.

- We have friends in Bloomsburg to share the anniversary with.

- We've got lots of friends in Bloomsburg, and of course, this whole room is filled with energy and celebrations tonight.

We have a 25-year anniversary for the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, and since 1979, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble has enchanted, has entertained, has enhanced and enriched the quality of life in Northeastern Pennsylvania with performances of classical productions and original productions, and they continue to pave the way for young actors and directors, and they continue to be a very, very strong force in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania, and I believe that we have a couple of people here representing the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Scott Atherton and James Good.

James, hi.

- Hi.

Hi, guys.

Congratulations on your anniversary.

- [Lisa] And congratulations to you, too.

- Thank you.

- 25 years.

- Thank you.

- So, tell us, first and foremost, I can tell you all about, you know, you can tell us all about the history with Alvina Krause back in 1979, but let's go right here and right now.

What are you doing right now at the Theatre?

- Well, we're in a flurry of activity in the final months of our 25th season.

We have one more weekend for "The Laramie Project."

Next week we have a virtuoso performer, Joan Schirle, in a one-woman-show called "Second Skin."

Joan is an extraordinarily gifted performer.

This is a masked show.

She uses a variety of masks from around the world.

And while Joan is in town performing "Second Skin," she's conducting us in some workshops in melodrama as we prepare for our last show of the season, a reconstructed melodrama from the early 1900s, which has an interesting Northeastern Pennsylvania connection.

It's a wonderful show called "Human Hearts."

All-out melodrama with musical interludes, and I'm making my aging ingenue appearance as Romeo in an entr'acte So.

- Well, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble has also been noted for an award-winning performance of "Letters to the Editor."

That's an original production.

And can you tell us a little bit about "Letters to the Editor"?

- Well, "Letters to the Editor" was a show that we developed from actual letters to Bloomsburg-area newspapers from Colonial times up to the present day, and it was a series of monologues or dialogues between letter-writers on all kinds of topics, just what you would think people would write about, how they don't like the president or why aren't the roads paved or why aren't schoolteachers earning their salary?

You know, all those topics that we hear today have been around for generations, and we put together a show, kind of an "Our Town" kind of look at Bloomsburg, and it's a show that we toured to California and other states, and which we were very happy to have VIA, the television, do a film of it.

- [Lisa] And it also caught the attention of National Public Radio.

Scott Simon was very interested for "Weekend Edition Saturday."

I can remember you doing a little- - We did excerpts of it here in the studio.

- Excerpt right in the studio there with all the microphones and so forth.

It was so much fun.

What about the kids, though?

I know that you you take the show on the road and you do a lot of things for children as well.

- Yes, every year we do a school touring show.

This year, the show was called "Patchworks" about the anthracite heritage of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

And next year, we're looking at doing a show about tales of the Native Americans from this part of Pennsylvania, and that's a show that tours to dozens of schools around the state, and even beyond the state.

And we've also done a show on the main stage on anthracite called "Hard Coal," which we're happy to say that the script's being published in an anthology coming up soon, so it's been great.

- Jim, well, congratulations.

I just wanted to say, we mentioned the great book classic "Charlotte's Web" at the start.

You've never seen a pig until you've seen Jim Good as Wilbur.

Yay, Jim.

It was wonderful show.

- Thank you.

- The ensemble does great work.

Congratulations on your anniversary and we're looking forward to many partnerships with you.

- [Jim] Thank you.

It's great to be here.

- Erika, we've worked with musical groups.

We've worked with theater groups.

There are many writers in Northeast Pennsylvania as well.

- Oh, it's true, and I think that we forget we do news and public affairs and public information from NPR and all the great music, but there's also a sound and a musicality to words, and it's been a very important part of WVIA's tenure in the region.

I think of a poet like Juan Amador, a Mulberry Poet, who has written a delicate poem about porches in Scranton.

You read and hear Juan Amador's poem about porches, and you don't see porches not just in Scranton, but any porches, again the same way.

We have a Mulberry Poet like Karen Blomain, who had just the most delicate touch when writing a poem about her grandmother in the cellar canning and singing "Tora Lora Lora" and in the coal area.

Just really very poignant and touching pieces about our region, writers, voices from our region, helping us understand and see in a new way where it is we live and why we do what we do in life, life in general.

So, we're very pleased to welcome, to acknowledge the 25th anniversary of Mulberry Poets and Writers Association poet Nancy Deisroth and Michael Paulukonis, who is a poet and writer.

And Nancy, you were with WVIA right from the start when we partnered together on "Poetry Minutes," and that was an exciting probably five-year project.

- I think so.

Four or five years.

And Mulberry Poets owes a great debt of gratitude to WVIA for inviting us to come and read our work and for inviting us back after we had done it once.

It's nice to be asked once, but it's even nicer to be asked twice and three times.

So, we're very grateful for the attention you've given our organization.

- And one of the things that we did almost before it was a national effort, we paid a great deal of attention to acknowledging National Poetry Month, and in fact, that was the genesis of "Poetry Minutes."

20 or so poets from Mulberry Poets would come to WVIA in clumps, in clusters, and we had the poet's chair, and you would each take your turn and read a couple of your pieces, and then Andrew Morrell and I would produce a series so that every weekday in the month, we would have poems from regional writers rotating through the day so that if you only listened in the morning, you got to hear them all.

If you only listened with George at night, you got to hear them all.

And it was a very delightful partnership.

- Absolutely.

And you remember when you were doing a program really built around Karen Blomain's "Coalseam," and we were all together in the room, and it was wonderful.

And you were telling us, "Now, the rest of you have to be quiet when somebody's talking," and everybody was, and it was just wonderful, the exchange between poets and with you, and working with you and being able to share our work.

- And I do think that Nancy has a wonderful ear and a way and a sense of nature and of, again, delicacy, and we're so proud that you've been with us, Nancy, and Michael Paulukonis, who's with you.

- Mike is here, too.

- And we're so glad you're with us, Michael, and you're doing all kinds of good things in the community, as well, theater and performance art, and you're going to come and talk to us about "Ulysses," the great novel by James Joyce around Bloomsday, won't you?

- [Michael] I'll be here.

- Okay.

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you both.

- Keep writing, and when you write, use that WVIA 30th anniversary pen.

- Happy anniversary to you.

- Thank you, Nancy.

- This is our celebration of our 30th anniversary of WVIA-FM, the unique public radio station for Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Central Susquehanna Valley, the Lehigh Valley, and the Poconos.

I'm Chris Norton here with the staff of this fine station: Lisa Mazzarella- - Hi.

- And Erika Funke, Larry Vojtko, and George Graham, and we're sharing our anniversary with some wonderful arts organizations in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

George, some of the contemporary music and and jazz organizations we've worked with over the years.

- Well, among them is the Jazz at Wilkes series, which has been going on since 1981.

It's a venerable series, and it's featured some world-class jazz musicians, some of whom were no longer with us, but they've graced the stage at the Dorothy Dixon Darte Center at the Wilkes University campus.

WVIA was involved with recording and presenting a number of the shows on the air.

Among the performers were Milt Hinton, Flip Phillips, Sammy Price, Doc Cheatham, and as part of that, Wilkes has extended some honorary degrees to, among the others, Dizzy Gillespie and Dick Hyman.

And it's been funded by Wilkes along with a benefactor, and we're pleased to have been involved with it, and it's just a wonderful opportunity for world-class jazz musicians to be heard in a very nice setting on the campus.

Among the other organizations that we have had a great deal of enthusiasm for is a non-profit coffeehouse, a folk coffeehouse in Bethlehem near the Lehigh University campus.

It's called The Godfrey Daniels, which is an expression that W.C. Fields used to use, and it has brought in world-class folk music performers.

It's a fairly intimate location and it has brought in people like the late John Hartford.

One of the big names in acoustic music, a singer-songwriter, John Gorka, got his start literally in The Godfrey Daniels.

And Dave Fry has been involved with it.

They celebrated their 25th anniversary recently, and you look at their monthly schedule and this is the all-star folk performance.

Many of the major people in folk music, this is where they go.

If they're going to come into Pennsylvania, they go to The Godfrey Daniels.

Another series which we have a good deal of enthusiasm for is the Jazz Masters Seminar, which is taking place on the campus of East Stroudsburg University.

It's organized by Pat Dorian, who's a music instructor there and a great trumpet player, too.

He has brought in regional artists, and of course, there's a whole panoply of world-class jazz musicians who are based in The Poconos, along with national performers, and they talk about their career in music, they talk about their experience, what it's like to be a jazz musician.

They bring in people like some recording engineers and producers, and it's pretty fascinating lecture and demonstration, and there's often performances involved with those.

And so that's a wonderful series that takes place on usually a Monday around suppertime, and it's free.

And so that's another thing we'd like to salute.

- Wonderful organizations all, and we're happy to share the anniversary with them.

Larry, just a few months ago in this studio, we were treated to a holiday concert with the Robert Dale Chorale celebrating an anniversary this year.

- That's right.

Robert Dale Chorale is Northeastern Pennsylvania's professional chamber choir, and we've heard them so many times on WVIA-FM through the broadcast of their concerts, and of course, the annual "Messiah" singalong.

And membership to that choir is by audition.

Many of the singers are also vocal soloists and music teachers in the region.

And in addition to its annual concert series, a lot of people don't really realize how much the Robert Dale Chorale does, they go out and do other performances and presentations at public appearances such as community functions, nursing homes, things of that sort, and always has had good critical acclaim for its very large repertoire from Renaissance to contemporary music.

Now the choir's music director and founder, as you might suspect, Robert Dale Chorale, is Robert Dale Herrema, who is Associate Professor of Music at Marywood, and he's studying and collaborate with some of the world's greatest chorale conductors, Helmuth Rilling, Robert Shaw, Alice Parker, and Bob's with us this evening.

Hey, Bob, I think you have a big event coming up this week.

- Ah, yes, we do, Larry.

This is the Scranton Bach Festival weekend with three performances, organ recital, a chamber music concert, and the big choral concert this year is going to be the B minor "Mass," so we're looking forward to that.

It's a thrill.

We're having several excellent people from Eastman coming down to join us for the chamber orchestra concert, and we feature mostly our local soloists, which is one of the things we're really proud of because we take some of the best talent in the area and give them an opportunity to be showcased in such events as this.

- [Larry] Bob, the Robert Dale Chorale's in it's 25th season.

Can you imagine that?

- 25th season.

No, I don't even think I'm 25 years old, although it's my birthday today, so that's another celebration.

- You remember when you decided to form this chorale?

Was it received with enthusiasm by the folks around you?

Or did people say, "I don't know if this is gonna make it.

Is this gonna fly?"

- There was a lot of apprehension, but what I received frequently were requests from people in the community to do special events at their churches or whatever with a college group, and the college group, of course, is bound by the college calendar, so we don't know any music until around November or December or maybe April or May, and so the way the Robert Dale Chorale started was that I said, "Well, if you have a few dollars for a celebration or a jubilee anniversary or something, I can hire a few professionally trained people and in a couple of rehearsals, put together a program that will be appropriate for your occasion."

And so we did that a few times, and then some of the people said, "Well, why don't we do this on a regular basis?"

And that's really how it started.

- [Larry] Now it's 25 years later.

- 25 years later.

Yes, our 25th season.

- Congratulations, Bob, and thanks for joining us tonight, especially on your birthday.

- Yes, happy birthday!

- Happy birthday!

- Well, thank you very much.

- [Chris] Have a piece of cake.

- Thank you.

- If we missed your organization, please let us know when your anniversary is.

Call us, say, tomorrow.

We're a little busy right now.

(panelists laugh) Or you can email WVIAFM@epics.net and let us know, and we'll let everybody know.

By the way, we hope everybody has discovered our new, vastly improved, up-to-the-minute website here, wvia.org.

In addition to the up-to-the-minute news about the war and information about WVIA-FM and WVIA-TV programs, we're proud of our new Arts and Events Calendar, the most comprehensive arts calendar for the whole region.

Arts organizations can post their own events right into the calendar, and the instructions are right there on the website.

www.wvia.org.

We're celebrating the 30th anniversary of WVIA-FM, and I notice we have a phone call.

We better go to the phones here and see who we can talk to.

If you'd like to call and share a memory, it's 1-800-326-9842.

Maybe a question for one of the WVIA staff here or a memory about the station.

Ellen McDonnell is on the phone.

Ellen, thank you so much for sharing the WVIA anniversary tonight.

- [Ellen] Oh, I'm delighted to be part of it.

- Ellen is from the Jessup area and is the executive producer of "Morning Edition" heard on WVIA-FM and just about every other NPR station coast to coast, and then some.

Ellen, maybe a little bit about how you go back with WVIA.

- [Ellen] Well, I can remember WVIA as I was finishing college and listening to it, and then it was a delight when I came to Washington and when I would come back home to be able to keep in touch with foreign and national news in the way that only NPR can bring the news to the people in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

So, I love, I'm a member of WVIA.

I feel like I want to know that it's there anytime I come back home to visit, and I want to know that it's strong and healthy, and bringing all the arts and foreign and cultural programming that I've come to rely on when I come to visit.

- Well, we're so pleased to have had you here several times visiting the radio station.

It's a great honor to us.

"Morning Edition," of course, is just an outstanding news magazine, the in-depth reporting that WVIA listeners- - [Ellen] We're a little busy these days.

- Look forward to, yes.

And you get up about three in the morning to make that work every day?

- [Ellen] Well, during the war, I have been.

Generally, I go into the office about 8:30, but with the time difference and the briefings that are coming from CENTCOM, and NPR has several embedded reporters.

We never know when they're going to call and we have to be ready when they call from the 101s Airborne, from the 3rd Division, when they call, we have to be ready to get them on the air immediately, and so I've been going in about three, and it is amazing how busy the show is at four o'clock, an hour before showtime.

The show's completely different than the way we left it the day before.

- Well, please say "Hi" to Bob for us tomorrow morning.

- [Ellen] Oh, we will.

- On behalf of WVIA listeners and NPR listeners coast to coast, thanks for the wonderful work that you do.

- [Ellen] Well, thank you, and happy anniversary, and looking forward to many, many more years of WVIA.

- Ellen, can you tell the pizza story?

- [Ellen] Oh!

(laughs) Well, it was Bob coming up to Scranton, and I think when you had asked me about it, I said, "Just make sure you have white pizza, and I'm sure he'll come."

And I think you delivered very nicely a lovely tribute to him, complete with the pizza from down the line in Old Forge.

- [Chris] Bring him back.

We'll have the pizza waiting.

- [Ellen] Okay.

- Thank you very much, Ellen.

Erika, over the years, WVIA has provided a number of features to NPR.

- It was a very exciting time when the phone rang the first time and it was the acquisitions desk for the Northeast, and it was my first year here, my first months here, actually.

My first months here.

And they said, "There's a breaking story in your area and we need to know about it.

There's a potential that cyanide gas is being released into the homes of people in the Pittston area, Yatesville, and we want you to go on-location with a borehole team, borehole specialist, follow that team throughout their day and get us a report for "All Things Considered."

Prepare it by this afternoon.

Send it overnight express by tomorrow.

And I had done feature work in Boston, so I knew the NPR style, but still, it was a remarkable thing.

And everybody was in these hazmat suits.

They didn't call them hazmat suits at that time, but they were all yellow.

And it was a challenge to think of how NPR tells a story through sound.

So, it was a question of getting as close as you could while they're back up, and the walkie-talkies were going, and the tension was clearly palpable, because this could have been a really terribly destructive explosion in the home or homes of people right over the ridge from where we were.

So, that was the first story we told for "All Things Considered."

Another one was when Sandy Ungar, Sanford Ungar, was co-hosting "All Things Considered" with Susan Stamberg.

He was from Kingston.

He went to Kingston High School, very fond of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

And when it was time for Dan Flood, Congressman Dan Flood, the flamboyant, theatrical, important political figure from our region to leave the House, they called again and said, "Erika, please, would you do a remembrance of Dan Flood?"

And it was so cold at that time.

I remember we had a big, enormous, old-fashioned stereo.

You remember it, George.

Double-stereo Sony machine that would put your shoulder out after you carried it around.

And I went out to get person-on-the-street interviews, and it was so cold that I got back to the studio, the batteries had frozen, and you had to help me, George, kind of slow down, because (mimics recording speeding).

We had to slow them down.

And then one more, I must say, because Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble is in the audience and it comes around wonderfully.

They called and asked for a profile of Alvina Krause and her swan song.

Ms. Krause was the inspiration of so many of those young theatrical professionals who founded the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, and her swan song at BTE was to do a real old-fashioned melodrama, and how fascinating to know that they're going to do a melodrama in May.

So, I went down and sat it on rehearsals, and had the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, the dramatic music that was being made by the piano.

So, those were some of the things.

And we also remembered when the hostages came back from Iran, they sent me to Olyphant for "Morning Edition" to get those.

- Frank from Scranton's been very patient waiting to get a phone call in here.

Frank, thanks for joining us as part of our 30th anniversary.

- [Frank] My pleasure.

I just wanted to call in and say how much I've enjoyed the program.

I think it's a great salute to the early pioneers of WVIA.

Mr. Graham, I really enjoyed your program very much.

- Well, thank you.

- [Frank] Outstanding.

And you might have to correct me on this, I think there was a guy that used to do a show for you once in a while, late at night.

Was it David Yackee or Yocki?

- Oh, yes.

- Yes, yes.

He was an early figure here at the station - [Frank] Yeah, I think he had an all-night classical show or something.

- Well, we actually did have, we had for a while a locally-originated all-night classical service, and he was one of the people who would do it from time to time.

Yes, there's a figure from the past there.

- [Frank] Lot of great memories.

Of course, Mr. Tom McHugh.

And I just said, Libby Smith I thought was a great lady.

- Oh yes.

- [Frank] And I think you guys are first-class all the way, and if you gave all the people in this area half as much pleasure you've given me over the years, I think we've all got to thank you right now.

- [George] Well, thank you very much for your call.

- [Chris] Frank, thanks so much for calling.

- [Frank] My pleasure.

- Richard from Hazleton is on the phone with a comment.

Richard.

- [Richard] Yeah, I'm a big George Graham fan.

I mean, he's introduced me to so much different kind of music that I never would've heard before.

"Mixed Bag," "All That Jazz," and Friday calling-up requests.

You were kidding him before about putting on a long record so he could sit at the table.

- Right.

- He's done that.

- [Richard] I called and requested a song by Genesis, and he said, "Yeah, sure, no problem."

It's 26 minutes long, so if you would try that on any other radio station, I think they'd hang up on you real quick.

So, I just wanted to say thank you very, very, very much, and congratulations.

- Well, thank you very much for your call.

We try to do the music that is not here elsewhere.

There's so many other radio stations playing a fairly limited number of recordings, and I like to say that we have the other 99.9% of music that we can play on "Mixed Bag."

- Lisa, Ellen McDonnell mentioned her visits, and you've talked about Bob Edward's visit, and you alluded to Scott Simon coming in there with the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble.

Who else from NPR had been distinguished visitors here over the years?

- Well, most recently, Mara Liasson was here, and Mara Liasson was the White House correspondent for six years during the Clinton administration.

A very interesting lady, extraordinarily professional, right to the point.

Whenever you asked her a question, she just made no bones about it.

Boom, boom, boom.

Very, very professional.

Then we also had Liane Hansen from "Weekend Edition Sunday."

Completely different personality.

Very warm.

She was the type of a person that you could sit at the table with a cup of coffee.

She was a soccer mom, and she'd tell you all about life, and just a very gentle person.

She's married to Neal Conan, who's also with National Public Radio.

Again, we had Scott Simon here back in 1991, but then he reconnected with us when Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble wrote "Letters to the Editor," and he did a really nice profile with "Weekend Edition Saturday" with the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble.

So, we had some really great people coming on by and really enhancing us and kind of giving us the morale that we need.

A lot of times, you feel that when you go in there and you're talking about National Public Radio, you don't want to feel that there's any kind of a disconnection.

You want to feel part of it.

And when you have these visits, you have these morale boosters, it makes you feel all the more part of it.

Robert Siegel was here from "All Things Considered."

Larry, you did a great interview with Robert Siegel.

- Thanks.

- It was phenomenal.

And again, each and every one of these individuals, very professional, very well-spoken.

They just know their stuff and it just makes you want to be like them.

It makes you wanna aspire to something of that caliber.

So, it was really nice to meet them.

They're public radio perks.

- George, it wasn't long ago that we celebrated the anniversary of "Homegrown Music," and the mission of playing studio sessions and doing recordings for regional musicians here at the WVIA studios, and presenting live concerts goes back many years.

- Yes.

Well, again, as I mentioned earlier, I thought it would be a cool idea to invite regional artists in to perform in what is a public radio station, which seems like an only a natural fit, and because I was involved with the facilities design to incorporate into that a recording studio, and when we first started, very shortly after we first started in 1973, we started inviting folk musicians in.

I had some calls from people, and say, "Hey, we're folk musicians.

Can we come and play on the radio?"

And that's how it started.

And in 1976, we were doing well enough with it that we were able to say, "Well, we can make a weekly series out of this."

And so we haven't stopped.

In 2001, we celebrated our 25th anniversary of "Homegrown Music" as a weekly series presenting regional artists in performances from the WVIA studios.

I have lost count of the number of artists.

I know there are probably 500 or more artists or groups, not counting the people who've come back, not counting the groups comprised of various large numbers of people, which have ranged from solo artists to jazz big band.

We've had 15- and 20-piece jazz big bands in.

In 1982, we started doing a monthly series of live "Homegrown Music" concerts, actually music on the radio live, which is not something you often hear these days.

And on the TV right now is our friend George Wesley, who's been part of that series many times.

And we thought it would be an interesting idea to present music as it happened, as it unfolded live, without a net, live on the radio, and we've been doing the monthly series since 1982, and our colleagues at WVIA-TV have been broadcasting selected parts of our "Homegrown Music" concerts now at the choice time of midnight on Sunday night, Monday morning, and a lot of people, I've been getting a lot of calls and emails from people who really enjoy seeing those concerts on, but we encourage them to come and be part of our studio audience.

Our next show will be on May 13th.

We're still working on the talent for that one.

The Badlees are coming back in June.

We had originally booked The Badlees, who, by the way, had been appearing on "Homegrown Music" since 1989, we invited them when we had the snowstorm.

I think it was in January.

And so they got snowed in, so they're coming back in June.

So, hopefully they won't get snowed in back then for our next live "Homegrown Music" concert.

- So, hundreds of musicians have come here to the studios, but you've gone out and recorded a lot of performances, too.

I'm thinking of the Delaware Water Gap and Williamsport.

- It actually goes back.

I was thinking about some of the early days.

When we first were going on the air, I was involved with recording.

There was a folk festival at the Keystone, what is now Keystone College in La Plume, and the great Jean Ritchie, the great folk musician appeared there at that time.

And over the years, we've been involved with the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, or this past year.

We've been broadcasting, we've been taping the concerts of the whole festival for the past six years and been bringing it to you, and for the past two years, we've been recording the Billtown Blues Festival, especially now with our presence in Williamsport with WVYA and recording the music from the great, again, non-profit organization presenting a blues festival from Hughesville near Williamsport.

- Very good.

We've got a caller on the line from Clarks Summit.

Gene, thank you for being part of our 30th anniversary show.

- [Gene] You're welcome.

- Do you have a question for one of the staff here or a comment?

- [Gene] Oh, I just want to make a comment.

My wife and I, we listen to your radio station almost all day long.

Long before I retired, my wife would get up early in the morning and put the WVIA on the radio, and it would be on long into the night.

And I just want to congratulate you on your anniversary and I just want to make the comment that we've listened to these voices, Lisa and Erika and George Graham and Larry and Andrew, and now we see them in person here, and I just want to say that those people involved with WVIA-TV better be careful because I think they're gonna have some competition.

- Aw.

- [Gene] Congratulations again on your 30th anniversary.

We've been members for well over 20 years and I hope that we're going to be around a long time to continue our membership And again, congratulations to you on your anniversary.

- Thank you very much, Gene.

And over the next few weeks, in fact, as part of this anniversary, we'll be trying to track how long people have been members of WVIA.

Do they go back to 1973 with George Graham or if you can recall when you first developed a relationship with WVIA, we'll be interested in hearing from you here at the radio station over the next couple of weeks.

Larry, George mentioned concerts in the studio and outside the studio in the jazz and contemporary music vein.

but you've also done a number of classical music concerts.

- Right.

Our history is not as long as George's.

We were held back because for classical concerts, you really needed a quality piano to present classical concerts, and there was then a campaign to raise funds to purchase a Steinway grand, a Steinway B is how it's known, and that was back in 1990, and we had the inaugural concert, and we kind of tried to do that concert so that we would represent all the types of music that we had on the station.

We had the jazz pianist Ted Rosenthal and a contemporary group called Crossings at the time.

And the great Beaux Arts Trio was was here, Menahem Pressler and the original- - [Erika] Larry turned pages.

- I turned pages for that.

I still remember they played the "Dumky Trio" by Dvorak.

I remember that.

But the actual series, the continuous series started the next year in '91 with a performance by the Philadelphia Trio, a piano trio from obviously the Philadelphia area.

They run a summer program in Eagles Mere every year.

And we've had three or four concerts every year since then, showcasing the talents of artists from around the area, and we have one tomorrow night, as a matter of fact.

This is the commercial message right now.

So, please come.

It's tomorrow evening here at the studio.

8:00 p.m.

It's James Douthit, who is on the faculty of Bloomsburg University, a solo piano concert, and music of Beethoven and Granados and Debussy on that program.

So, all you have to do is show up tomorrow night, and we'd be happy to welcome you.

- Erika, an impossible task.

You're so proud of the O'Hara Project that WVIA worked on for such a long time.

Can you tell us about it in about a minute?

- Okay.

Yes.

John O'Hara was from Pottsville and wrote so exactingly and in detail about our region and at a particular time, so WVIA took a year, and we went through the year with reading O'Hara, listening to interviews with people who were experts on O'Hara.

We brought his sister back.

It was the first time she'd been back to the area in 40 years.

We were the ones who actually found the long-lost tape of "Appointment in Samarra," which had been done on television and had a kinescope made of it, and we found it in Florida and actually had an interview with the director.

So, it was a way of completing our mission, of helping us understand our area from the art.

- And don't forget, Fran Lebowitz was our keynote speaker- - Keynote speaker.

- For the O'Hara conference.

- Yes, it was.

She was a hoot.

- Yes, she was.

- Well, tonight is really just the beginning of our 30th anniversary celebration.

We'll be celebrating really throughout the rest of the year, and if you have a comment or a question or a memory of the last 30 years, if you can email us at WVIAFM@epics.net or give us a call at the radio station tomorrow morning or sometime in the next couple weeks, we'd love to hear from you, and we're very grateful for all the support over the years.

Thank you to Lisa.

- Thank you.

- And Erika, to Larry and George for all that you do every day to entertain, to inform, to build citizenship, to build community in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Central Susquehanna Valley, the Lehigh Valley, and the Poconos.

Thank you all for your calls and comments here.

That helps keeps us going.

And we appreciate very much your support for this very unique public radio station, WVIA-FM.

The final word tonight goes to the man who is a major driving force behind the growth and success of WVIA-FM and WVIA-TV: our president and CEO Bill Kelly.

- Thank you, Chris, and congratulations to all of you.

At its best, a public radio station like WVIA acts as a regional common denominator, not just a broadcaster, but a place, a venue where people can meet like we have here tonight.

Also, public radio should be a place where artists can perform and display their work in some, but not all cases, before cameras and microphones.

A great public radio station tells stories, and because it has the luxury of time, can explain why some things are important, whether a piece of music, a very talented regional performer, or a news story told only as public radio can.

I've always been very proud of our radio station, very grateful to George, Erika, Larry, Lisa, and Chris, and those who preceded them over the last decades for so respecting their listeners that every day is an opportunity to share something beautiful, whether a piece of music or an idea.

Much more than people who present arts programming on the radio, every day, these people live the mission of WVIA-FM.

They are themselves volunteers and members of the region's finest arts, theater, and cultural organizations, who, like many of you in our studio audience, give time and treasure to make this area we call home a better place.

Like so many of public broadcasting's finest over its almost half-century history, George, Erika, Larry, Lisa, and Chris do this work as a labor of love.

One could say they are lucky to have found something they love to do, but more important, I think, is the good fortune of 18 Pennsylvania counties who listen to WVIA-FM.

So, tonight as we congratulate the people of our radio station in the fine company of other treasured regional arts organizations, perhaps our best closing would be our encouragement to you at home to listen to our radio station and to sample the abundance of regional concerts, plays, museums, and other offerings that add true richness to our quality of life.

It's all here.

All you have to do is look.

Thank you.

Goodnight.

(upbeat instrumental music) (no audio)