Is this Louisiana, the state we're in with public affairs director Beth George.

Good evening.

Thank you for joining us on this first edition of Louisiana.

The state we're in.

I want you all to know is that we are doing our best to serve the American public.

This week, we'll take you on an alligator hunt in Louisiana's coastal parishes.

Maybe merge all these technologies.

Public television is changing.

You ask someone in public broadcasting about best they know best they know about everything that she's done.

They know about help.

They know about the fact that we have a great record.

It's because of that.

She is.

She has public broadcasting.

She really is Well, let me tell you some friends and I and in 1970 we consider this place to be a sensory deprivation channel.

When it came to television, we had two stations, two stations.

There was an NBC station, CBS station.

They kind of cherry picked ABC programs and all of us were just like, oh, come on.

So at that point I had my parents put up a big antenna because we were trying to get like stations out of New Orleans where we could get something it was totally an information desert.

Radio was still big back then, and all of us teenagers listen to radio, whether it be top 20, top 40 like that, there was a couple of adult stations where they played that old music that that stuff that some of the old TV engineers that I grew to know back when we'd say, Well, that's the good music there.

Yeah.

No, no, not stuff that you people are listening to.

New Orleans was the hub of everything back then.

It was where you went for your movies, for your stage shows, for all everything creative.

It was going to be in New Orleans.

Baton Rouge was still kind of that little river town back at that point.

I had my first full time job as a journalist in Radio WJBO in Baton Rouge.

My first day on the job was on January 10th of 1972, and there was a riot on North Boulevard in Baton Rouge, a terrible riot.

We had racial problems in the city.

Bob Johnson, who was a reporter, WBRZ was beaten and never recovered.

He lived, but he never recovered his faculties after that.

It was, it was a terrible, terrible event of national proportions.

So it began with the riot on January the 10th, and then the news cycle ended and in November of 1972 with two students being shot dead on the campus of Southern University by up to date.

Unnamed police officer politically in Louisiana.

It was the first year of Edwin Edwards governorship.

He was the darling of the press.

Everyone loved him.

He did all kinds of great things and reforms and but everything was about politics.

So that's kind of the scene that existed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at that time.

New Orleans had the first public broadcasting station matter of fact before it was called PBS was in it, and WUIS, which is a community developed station, came on the air, I think in the mid sixties or so, like that There was nothing statewide, I think public television in other parts of the country, particular big cities, New York, Los Angeles were much more advanced than than we were in the South.

And in Louisiana in particular, as I recall, in the early days of public television, you could have 33 kinds of stations, a city station, a university station and a state station.

And you Why, yes, in New Orleans was the first in Louisiana.

I became the commissioner of higher education with the state of Louisiana.

And then I was very much involved with the establishment of public television.

And then the legislature.

And Governor Edwin Edwards said, we need to have a statewide system, and they created LPB.

Yeah, actually, as a reporter, I was very interested in it, and I covered a lot of the meetings that took place in the in in trying to get it established.

And so it was it was kind of interesting and fun to watch it develop, to hear the arguments in the legislature, both pro and con.

It's amazing to me to think back that there were enough forward thinking members of the legislature at that time that saw this as a very important thing to do for the people of Louisiana.

And I was actually there as a television reporter to cover the flipping of the switch, ceremonial flipping a switch and turning it on.

But for the general public, I think it was kind of a, you know, okay.

And I don't think they even really understood what it was going to be.

Just a few weeks ago, the engineers at LPB were making the final adjustments to the electronic gear, checking levels, refining the quality of the program signal.

At the same time, Governor Edwin Edwards, as the chief executive of the state, was leaving the governor's mansion on his way to the studios of LPB for an important function.

We were so young, and yet we were able to put a station on the air before the end of that year.

So in September of 75, pop for a station went on.

And for the years that happened, the few years that happened after that it was nothing but a continual deadline, one after the other, after the other.

We got to get the transmitter out there.

We got to figure out how to do this.

We've got to figure out how to do that.

We began with the Baton Rouge station, and they moved on from that to Lafayette and Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles, all of those stations New Orleans, of course, had their own station WYES.

When LPB went on the air at noon September six, w y es joined it but just two stations cannot serve an entire state of almost 4 million people.

WLPB will serve as the network's flagship station with production capability and network control.

Oh, it was an exciting, very exciting time.

Television was one of those.

You know, it was a high powered medium.

Everybody was still going got you're on TV.

So we needed a program which dealt with the community, which still what was going on, which dealt with the news that was happening in the state and in Louisiana.

As such.

There had been a reporter, a radio reporter out there by the name of Beth George, and she had been working at a local commercial station and had done also some commercials before that.

And the next thing I knew was, here comes this woman and this redheaded woman and she was going to put together a weekly newsmagazine show.

Now, that is something that's very interesting because we had heard of weekly newsmagazine shows, but we hadn't really seen anything like that before.

And it was going to be tough to do because let's just say, well, we had a studio with some cameras, and that's about all we had.

Beth And in the beginning, I think a guy named Ron Blum, you know, kind of did everything.

And the LPB was in the basement of a state education building back then.

Dreary.

Sometimes it flooded, you know, it was not the best place to be, but they'd be down there working on their editors in the late in the night, you know, putting a show together every week, which was kind of unheard of.

She came up with this name.

What do you think about this one?

Louisiana The state we're in.

Yes.

Thumbs up on that one.

Louisiana, the state we're in is a production of LBB.

What I remember about telling me was that, you know, she was she was kind of out there and she had been a history teacher at one point.

And so but when she became a reporter, she found her soul, so to speak.

If you're joining us tonight and we hope you'll join us again next week on Louisiana, the state we're in when we'll have more legislative news, controversial issues and profiles of interesting people.

I'm Beth George.

Good evening.

My mother was the oldest of three children and only daughter in the military family.

Her father, John Spencer Hardy, was from Logansport, Louisiana, and her mother, Virginia Hardy, was from Shreveport.

And they lived all over the world, moving every two to three years, which for my extroverted mother.

She loved it.

Absolutely loved it.

They lived in Virginia, Arizona, Colorado.

They were living in Hawaii.

When she was a middle school in Hawaii, became a state.

He was a three star general.

And though he never was a typical general, for instance, I never learned how to shoot a gun because you never owned it.

You know, he was a fighter pilot and bomber Bomber Command in World War Two, but he wasn't what you would call a typical military man.

He was more a leader than a diplomat.

It was very important that a wife of a general, for instance, or a colonel have a active, engaging, competent, organized wife.

And that was my mother to a tee.

Her parents lived such an extraordinary life.

My mother and her brothers always talk about these unbelievable events.

The parents were either hosting or attending that included heads of state and military leaders and movie stars and actual royalty.

We have the dress that my grandmother sewed for herself to meet the Queen of England.

I remember when we lived in England early on, I was in high school, so it was my brother.

There be a banquet with all these English uniformed officers and my mother being a Southern Baptist, like my father, would stand up and say, Now, Sir Reynolds or whatever, would you please say the blessing before we start the meal?

Which which was not something that they did typically in England at all, you know, certainly not in a and the this nonplused officer as a story was told to be stood up and said, well, thank God.

And that was the end of it.

And my mother sat down, which signaled everybody else to sit down, and she just took it as it came.

My mother, no matter where she was living at the time, always came back to Shreveport to have all of her children with.

You can imagine how difficult that would be today.

And it was even more so then.

But she had it in her mind.

And I think my father did, too, that we were from Louisiana, even though we're not living there now.

So I always say all of us were born in Louisiana, but we never lived there.

Like I say, I never lived here until I went started to shoot.

And but we were ingrained as being Louisiana.

So I think that's also stuck with is it.

Louisiana is important and it has been important in her life and her career.

I lived in Shreveport.

And so what I remember so much about that she was so exotic when she would come to visit Shreveport because, you know, all of us all of us girls, pre-teens, you know, just live in Shreveport, and that was about it.

And then Beth would come in and entertain us with her adventures.

And specifically, I remember I think we were probably 12 or maybe even 11.

And Beth had was living in Hawaii, and she taught us all how to do the hula.

Now, we just thought that was the most exotic thing ever She had a wide world view, and she from all this moving and getting to meet people, etc., and she knew that things could be better, it could be bigger, could be different.

We left Honolulu and she turned up at Biloxi High School and they said, Well, you don't need to go to the 10th grade, you need to skip it.

So she skipped the 10th grade, so she skipped that grade and went to LSU and was on this and that the Scotchgard and the mortar board and you name it, she was on a she was a leader.

And so Beth was ready to start an omnibus television program from the beginning because she knew it was out there to get if you could corral it that means you take half and I take half.

Oh, okay.

Okay, okay.

I have I know.

And you haven't done that.

Oh, what did you have?

September six, 1975.

When B went on the air, I was five and I was absolutely the target demographic for Sesame Street.

I and Kermit the Frog was my favorite character.

I spent a lot of time on Sesame Street, and I'm sure I was aware that my mother had something to do with bringing Big Bird into my life, but that was about the extent of that.

The Tiger basketball team now goes on to the SEC tournament.

And so in the 1970s and 1980s, very few of my friends had mothers who worked full time outside of the home and those who, who did didn't necessarily, I don't know if anyone whose mother literally knew every single person we turned on the news who was delivering the news and was featured on the news and she was on a first name basis with every governor, legislator or anchor or journalist.

No one else had that.

And I guess I sort of took that for granted.

There was a glass ceiling and it was pretty low in Louisiana.

And, you know, I could bump my head on it of all and terrible.

But the things were different.

Well, I'll tell you looking out there on the legislature, as I did when I had a camera focused on him and such like that, it was a it was really just a bunch of good old boys out there at that point.

It was interesting to see were there any women in there?

I'm really not sure.

I remember at that point it was very unusual to have women in in such high authority back then.

She was ridiculed by some and she was laughed at by some.

Some of the some of my colleagues in television joked about, oh, here come these state employees with a camera.

And and because that's how they were viewed.

And actually, when she began coming to the Capitol and covering events and things like that, there were members of the press corps that didn't think she should be credentialed because they felt like, no, you know, she's not a real journalist.

You see, she gets her check comes from the state of Louisiana, and therefore she's a state employee and a flack.

And so she had to that was her first major hurdle to face within that organization.

But she ultimately won everyone over.

She was a dogged she was indefatigable, just as she is now.

Single-Minded about an agenda for what she was trying to put together for news and very professional.

Tonight on Profile, we take a look at a woman who is an activist, feminist and lobbyist and who doesn't take a backseat to anyone.

Our relationship grew as friends and colleagues over about a decade of time, and we got married in 1983 and the World's Fair was coming to Louisiana in the next year.

And I had been talking with my news director about us doing something crazy, and that was to go to Paris because the French were going to have a big pavilion in Louisiana and a number of different things.

And I said Let's go to Paris, let's go to France and let's do stories about this stuff that's coming.

So at some point we convinced both our bosses that we should do it together and make a big deal out of it.

Then I said, Well, look, if we're going to Paris, we're going to get married anyway.

Why don't we just get married before we go?

It'll be our honeymoon, which was kind of a stupid idea, if you think about it, because on our honeymoon, we had an anchorman, a producer, an interpreter to camera operators, and about £1,000 of television equipment because we decided we were going to do live satellite feeds from Paris through ABC and so we took all this gear and we'd have to produce stories every day in Louisiana.

The French Connection the unique relationships between France and like Louisiana were given international attention recently when Governor elect Edwin Edwards returned to the country of his origin accompanied by 600 members of the press, contributors and friends.

It was, on one level an extravagant fundraiser, bringing in more than $4 million to his campaign coffers.

On another level, it was a masterful public, so it wasn't much of a home, but it was a lot of fun.

Since everyone here connected with the show would like to offer our congratulations to our own Beth Courtney.

I know you've missed her the past couple of weeks.

Well, Beth has been selected executive director of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and I'm proud to tell you that she is the first woman in the country to hold such a position.

Well, there was a vacancy.

I can't recall the person who preceded her.

It was a long time ago but yes, I recall writing, writing some letters and making some phone calls.

Not that had made a difference.

She would have probably got the job anyhow.

But I did, though I did participate in that effort to convince the board that she was the right person for this job.

I thought she'd be perfect and actually, it turns out she was she didn't really see gender in leadership.

You just go forward and you give your ideas and you fight for what you believe in.

And to her, it was never just about doing television either.

It was about the issues and making a difference.

Beth Courtney of PBS is the chairman, members of the committee.

I'm Beth Courtney.

I'm president of Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

We operate six television stations in Louisiana, and I have some prepared remarks that I'd like to enter into the record.

But after listening all day to your committee, I understand the difficult task in front of you, but I'd like to share with you my impressions of what public television is and what it does in my state.

One third of our children live in poverty, and our service is their only opportunity to receive these wonderful programs to make a difference in their lives.

I appreciate your consideration, and I would welcome any questions from you at a later time.

I think that Liberty is probably a station that people in government thought was a throwaway, right?

Look, we can just dump some educational stuff there and nobody will pay attention and Beth was able to bring in the community to make it a central part of, I think, Louisiana culture.

Back in Louisiana, she shared her frustration over the congressional hearing with her senior staff and then really troubled me all the misinformation as they don't even know what we do.

We need to spend some more time, frankly, talking about what we're already doing.

The way that she was able to bring in partners and make sure that every voice in Louisiana is heard, every corner of Louisiana is covered, allows it to have so much more influence and power than I think was initially thought of that seventies and and continues today We're delighted to be coming to you from the city of Monroe in Washington Parish.

Such a value.

I mean, I think it's important for us to know our stories.

And I think about so many times, whether it's the civil rights issues in Louisiana, the power of Baptist churches, clemency on our celebrated Louisiana musicians.

We felt BP has never been shy about shining a light on issues that matter and has never really sugarcoated the story.

They've told a very factual story about what has happened in our state, the individuals who've made an impact, who have sacrificed, who have tried to move our state forward.

And again, it gives us an opportunity to say this is who we are.

And who would we like to be helping?

Be came around about the same time as the civil rights movement.

And LBB has always been on the front of promoting civil rights and particularly supportive of programing that encouraged the African-American community of Louisiana.

What made them a serial killer could be a new era of warfare with them simply francophone television.

I was on on from, say, several times.

As I recall, this was a Sunday afternoon French language program with starring States Senator James Fontanel from Abbeville.

French was so beautiful, rare, very fluent.

You still live come so long, Don.

The little lives.

Yes.

Basically, it was to let our French viewers across the state know that we were still around.

The French language was throbbing and ELP was supporting that.

I know my folks never missed it, you know, and I'm sure that when you could multiply that a thousand times across the state, particularly in south Louisiana.

Courtney as a member of the board of directors, are you contending that public broadcasting isn't good enough to survive without a taxpayer handout?

I'm saying that we have room in this country for at least one station where the bottom line isn't making a buck, where the bottom line is quality television and educational.

You have a lot of those on cable TV.

She became the face of LBB and she brought the state together because I don't think anyone had the vision that I knew of that really wanted to see it become something like that.

But she always thought it was going to be something, what, much, much more than people thought it would be.

And I think she accomplished that.

Live from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana Public Broadcasting presents the election.

79.

The governor's race tonight, a forum featuring the nine candidates for governor and a discussion of issues in this year's campaign.

This program has been made possible by a grant from Good Hope Refineries, Inc. A division of good old industries.

Here from Baton Rouge is LBB, director of Public Affairs Beth George Good evening.

Tonight, we have a unique opportunity to listen to and learn something about all of the candidates who are running for the office of governor of the state of Louisiana.

The interesting thing about debates is that no one had ever really had a statewide debate.

Elections are very big in Louisiana, and politics has always had a big place in Louisiana.

It's it's kind of like a spectator sport, as a matter of fact.

The way the way it's always been worked and LBB Through Beth became a place where you would learn more about those people because with the the gubernatorial debates, we became a public broadcasting network that would actually strive to do the baits and send them out around the state.

This was something that had not been done before.

Commercial channels had done a little bit of this, and you'd heard about debates in the distance, but it just became the regular thing for LBB.

Now, from the LP Telecommunications Center.

So quite often Beth and I were competing with one another about who was going to do the day, who was going to get the candidates first, who's going to get the best date So she was competing with commercial television as well because that was a big plum to be able to do that.

And she generally always won.

This is decision 23.

The race for governor Good evening.

I'm Beth Courtney.

Welcome to Louisiana's historic old state capital.

In Baton Rouge.

And the first of three gubernatorial debates presented by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and the Council for a Better Louisiana, the Blanco debate.

You would watch Barth always in her element, never nervous, never seemed to be, you know, taken aback by her response.

Just steady, thoughtful, focused on trying to get the answers that Louisiana citizens needed to have.

And I've always admired that about her, just her sunny smile, just her demeanor, but really her intelligence and her comfort as a reporter.

The biggest debate that we ever did, the most infamous one was the Edwin Edwards David Duke debate.

Former Governor Edwin Edwards is running for a record fourth term against State Representative David Duke.

Live from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Public Broadcasting presents debate.

91 the governor's race.

We had national reporters here, photographers.

We had international photographers and reporters here.

They were all gathered around for this thing.

Edwards was there.

He was waiting.

It was going to be a live debate.

Duke was nowhere around.

And this is before the cell phones where you could figure out where the heck they were.

So it's like that I think about 5 minutes before we were going on the air because we always said, well, I guess we'll talk to Edwin about something.

Suddenly this car just comes right up, just races to the front door, and here comes the weekend.

He stares on out of there.

The car is smoking.

They have basically burned up the engine trying to get here.

In time.

And he ran into the studios and he was there.

And it was a very interesting debate to begin this evening's debate.

We will have opening statements from both the candidates.

Beth was instrumental in all of these debates.

She was the one who would make sure that all the people on.

She also had the foresight or of connecting up with the Council for the better Louisiana to help develop a debate program, which would be something that we could use on a continual basis throughout the many years that we've done these debates.

As Mr.

Train says, it's constitutionally mandated.

So it has to be balanced budgets.

We've not lost you.

You claim credit for a lot of legislative reforms, but don't you also have to accept the responsibility?

They spent a lot of that surplus, didn't they?

They certainly did.

Well, you know, I think all the governors have respected her voice.

She is a staunch advocate, as you know, for a poor public broadcast.

And she's never been shy.

No shrinking violet.

About talking about the importance of the investment and the return on the investment for LBB.

Now, Governor Romer, you certainly had to legislate for me.

I was listening Certainly for me as someone who's worked in governor's offices, I can remember at the dawn of any administration seeing her broadcasting early that morning, talking about the new administration, I met George and I'm Ron Bloom.

We have a brief lull in the ceremonies because Governor elect Dave train has promised that he will be inaugurated promptly at 12 03 so that people all over the state can see him on statewide television.

You have this opportunity to see that particular leader conversing, of course, with Beth Courtney about what mattered to them, what they try to do, what their legacy is and what is left to be done in Louisiana.

On October 13th 1990.

Friends of LP held a Louisiana Legends banquet honoring six Louisiana legends that were featured in the original series hosted by us while the Legends Gala was created in 1990 to honor the best and the brightest of Louisiana so often that Louisiana is not the top of every list.

And we wanted to make sure that we recognize these individuals for their outstanding achievements.

The individuals were either born and raised, educated or reached the pinnacle of their career in Louisiana.

We have honored 149 honorees, including the current ambassador to the United Nations star athletes.

Terry Bradshaw.

Archie Manning.

Lou Brock.

Ron Guidry.

World renowned surgeons.

Dr. Michael DeBakey.

And Dr. Terry King.

In fact, Dr. Terry King is writing his autobiography, and he told me when he's looking back at his career achievements, the legends gala and the recognition ranks right up there with being nominated for a Nobel Prize speaks volumes You know, honestly, tonight has been such a special evening for all of us.

I know when Beth took over as executive director and president, CEO for BE, it couldn't have been more fortunate for for our little network because basically budgets were becoming very, very tight at that point.

And by her being the spokesperson for OPB, we were able to survive a very, very lean time.

I remember when we would actually get the signs and get the neighborhoods and go to the Capitol and have them up there about saving Big Bird.

So Beth, being the person that she is, was able to, in my mind basically save.

LBB Hello and welcome to the lobby studios.

I'm Beth Courtney, president of OPB and you were watching The Spirit of a Culture.

Cane River Creoles.

I was very enthused by the number of people that started actually not only contributing to Louisiana Public Broadcasting, but also wanting to volunteer at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, especially during our pleasure lives and pledge drives or something.

Brand new.

You know, nobody had seen anything like that before.

We got people in who were community activists, who were artist people who knew something about public broadcasting or wanted to know more and wanted to help develop the culture of this state because they knew that with ELP, you would also be able to create a living legacy with regards to the video history of this state, things that were being lost, films that were rotting in some type of archive, we would be creating history because we would be recording history.

I mean, I can remember getting the email from LBB saying, you know, we're doing a Clementine Hunter show or We're doing a show with Irma Thomas, or are some, you know, great cultural or art events that's going to be part of our pledge drive.

Will you come and be volunteer talent?

I always said yes, my calendar allowed if I could, and I try to move my meetings so that I could be here.

Beth would be here with her big smile to greet me and the staff is Dr. Kim to read.

You worked hard for that.

Mean giving you a higher education.

We depend upon our volunteers.

They come in there, phone operators, volunteer camera operators.

In fact, one of our volunteers transcribes our digital archives.

You know, we couldn't do it without them.

And if you ask a volunteer, why do you want to help Marie support LP?

They'll tell you.

I want to make an impact.

I want to make a difference in my community.

And not many organizations give you the ability to make an impact locally, but on a statewide level and beyond.

And how Peavey does that is live television is just a wonderful thing.

We're having the best time, but we need you to be part of all this.

Give us a call.

18769 5000 across the state of Louisiana.

We're waiting on you Beth doesn't really respond to the honor of doing something.

She's response to the challenge of doing it.

So I don't think she ever looked at it like an honor, nor did she even view it as like, I'm the first woman that really wasn't important or it was just the job.

And what we try to do is be involved in all this technology planning so that we can then help give some suggestions.

And we're also plugged in to a lot of our colleagues what colleagues are doing in other states so that we can come back in and share that information or do a teleconference via satellite that says, let's talk about the race.

What are they doing in North Carolina?

So I spent a lot of time trying to find things, information like that out that I can bring back to Louisiana, too.

And it's actually we're, as you say, Carol, I think we're on the up just on the edge of doing some really wonderfully innovative things.

I joined the APB in 1997 after working in commercial TV w vla here in town.

And I remember running into Beth one day in the hallway and she asked me, was I going to bring up all my innovative technology from commercial TV to PBS?

And I told her that was my exact intent to move PBS forward.

Back in the day, PBS actually was about to transition to satellite and Beth's and a couple of the engineers that were here sort of wherewithal to look at this as a method of delivering our signal via satellite state, where and it was also cost effective.

So she moved APB, a statewide network to satellite.

And today, LP is one of the only few statewide networks that still remains on satellite.

And we have our own transponder, so we can go live at any time.

And it will cover state where one to many.

That was under Beth's leadership Welcome to the power of Algebra.

Sherlock Holmes just used algebra to figure that Moriarty's bomb would go off 5 minutes too early.

Education has always been the number one priority with Beth.

She truly believes in the power of public media to educate, especially our young children.

And she's always had that vision.

And that's what drives this Education Department, is to provide quality resources to our families, our caregivers, our teachers and our students.

Across Louisiana.

I can't exactly remember the details, but it offered free Internet to teachers.

And we did classes here at LPI Bay and we taught we had a laboratory and we taught teachers how to access their free Internet and how to use it.

And into that, we turned to opened it up to the general public We trained all kind of people on how to use word, PowerPoint, the Internet, how to use Palm Pilot handheld Palm Pilots.

And a lot of the people who came here were older people who were trying to get on the technology bandwagon.

So not only do we service kids, we serve families, we serve caregivers, we serve teachers, and we serve all children here in the state of Louisiana.

And tonight, we're doing something we've never done before.

We're putting our membership drive on hold to focus our attention completely on education She was telling the tale that right before her confirmation hearing for her presidential appointment, Senator John McCain was trying to I think he was trying to make her feel more relaxed by teasing with her a little bit and almost playing like a little prank on her.

And that was probably not the best move but in 2003, she got through a confirmation hearing.

She served on the CPB board.

There's absolutely nothing that she she can't do.

But the fact that mom had a presidential appointment to this extraordinarily important board really was just completely on brand for her.

She became very well known in Washington, D.C. circles, something that was very unheard of at that time.

And she actually excelled in this And from that, we as LP be excelled.

She testified before Congress.

She was on on news programs about public broadcasting and how, of course, it was being cut.

She was out there talking about it.

24 sevenths where the bottom line is quality television and educational tenure.

A lot of those.

You know, Beth did really become a spokesperson for public television in general, especially in Washington.

I think that the PBS board and the other organizations very quickly realized that she had something that nobody else had.

She had that Southern charm and that great ability and that smile and those dimples.

And she could look so at the interesting, nice and sweet.

And underneath it, there's a steel magnolia.

She loves to debate.

She loves to argue.

She loves to make her points.

And she usually makes them very well.

So there's no fear there.

I've never seen her afraid of anything.

I think completely fearless and just so confident in knowing that she can do whatever she wants to do and to accomplish whatever she needs to accomplish in this whole world of technology, using all these powerful mediums that are coming together for education purposes.

And as a result of her service on that.

On the corporation public broadcasting, she was able to bring a lot to Louisiana public broadcasting, particularly in terms of dollars.

And we'll never they'll never be able to count the millions that have come to Louisiana as a result of Beth's positions and her influence Catastrophic, total devastation.

Their area was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans is nearly isolated and trying not to break down There we go.

Welcome back to our channel for our viewers and those on the Web.

Hurricane Katrina.

I distinctly remember being on staff that day and the front doorbell rang and I went up front and it was a group of guys from WWL standing at the door.

And they said Beth Courtney said that we could come to help From there, we let them in.

They took us home here because after all, New Orleans was red in the side of Katrina.

They stayed from August until November.

Here in our studio operating for WWL because most of the folks in New Orleans were displaced But the main thing that I can remember fear for out of that is she petitioned the FCC to allow WWL to go on air on one of our service channels.

That was unheard of.

And we broadcast WWL, a commercial station along with OPB a public station statewide at the same time right out of our studios here.

And that was a feat Good evening and welcome to Louisiana's Public Square.

I'm Beth Courtney.

And I'm Charles Zewe.

We'd like to welcome you tonight to this program that marks the first in a yearlong series of programs designed to stimulate discussion of vital issues confronting Louisiana.

I think about Public Square, where you bring people in expert panels.

I have been on a panel.

I have certainly watched many panels and conversations and topics that really matter.

Public Square.

Public Square is classic.

Beth Courtney, educator.

Louisiana's workers are considered to be among the most productive in the nation.

You read about something going on in the world where she does best.

Other people just read a newspaper article.

Mom reads a newspaper article about an issue that is going on in the world.

And she's curious.

She wants to find out the data on it.

Let's do our research.

Let's find out the baseline facts.

Now, let's gather up the experts.

Let's gather people with strong opinions.

Let's gather people with no opinions.

And let's get everybody educated on an issue and try to figure out a path forward.

Well, Barry, the audience is engaging still with a lot of very interesting questions we were talking about.

And so that's been the value of LBB, not just quality programing, which is very important, but this idea of saying to us is Louisiana citizens, this is your state, you should care You should be engaged.

And these are the issues that matter.

I think I took this influence for granted when I was in Louisiana, and I think moving to Oklahoma showed me one how important she was for LBB and to other public television stations around the country.

Don't have anybody like that.

She is, I think one of the greatest exporters of Louisiana culture in the world.

You know, we hear Louisiana music, we see Louisiana food because Beth knew that that was important and wanted to make sure that she shared that with the world.

And let me see her movie, Brown Recipe of sorts.

But that come out in German.

Yes, right.

I guarantee that's what often say that LP was the original Food Network.

You know, we have featured great chefs, Justin Wilson, John Paul's, Leah Chase, Miss Lucy.

I just cut they just throw everything in the box.

You know, you can't talk about Louisiana without talking about our great food.

Hello and welcome to Taste of Louisiana.

I'm Chef John Falls.

And today we're cooking Cajun and Creole My first time on television was doing a three minute cooking segment on a local television show, and that was unheard of in Baton Rouge.

Nobody was doing cooking on television, but all of a sudden, there was kind of a growing interest in Cajun and Creole.

So it was in 1989 that Beth actually came and knocked on the door and said, you know, we really want to do a special, a holiday special on the first Thanksgiving in Louisiana.

And would you be willing to do that for us?

And you can write it, you can do whatever you want, and we'll put the team together.

And that's exactly the way it happened.

Well, my first series was called A Taste of Louisiana with Chef John.

Oh, Louisiana.

Hi.

I'm Chef John Paul's welcoming you to the bayous of southern Louisiana today, Cajun and Creole Cooking holds a prime spot in the world of international convenience.

And I would love for you to know a little bit about it.

I think we've done probably over 400 half hour shows.

I'm sure that's a good number.

And when I think of 400 shows and I think of the crew that had to shoot it the friendships we've made along the way, the talent that made that show work, the instructors who work so much with me every day to say, let's do this and let's do that.

What about if we did this?

It was all through this genius.

It was all through Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

Well, there's no doubt about it that what it did for me was make me a cooking star on television.

So this is going to go into a 350 degree oven and it's going to cook for about an hour and a half to 2 hours, depending on how cheap year-round steak was And I'm talking about everybody sitting watching.

A Taste of Louisiana had a different opportunity to say, I'm going to Louisiana.

And it was viewed through the show in the diversity of programing that we do.

Every season must be different.

Every place was different in the state.

So it was a marriage made in heaven, no doubt about that.

I like don't you get excited about that?

It is the greatest gift I've ever received, and that is Louisiana Public Broadcasting coming to me and with the realization that I could go national with not only my my shows, but also bringing Louisiana cooking and culture to the world, not only to the U.S.. All right, Joel, I'm pouring each one of you a barracuda here.

And this I'll be careful.

This thing will come back, bite a joke.

Say, is your coffee table crying for colorful magazines?

Do you search frantically through the newspaper for the public television listings, getting newsprint all over your hands and generally making yourself crazy?

The answer for you is Visions.

Visions is the monthly program guide published by the Friends of Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

Inside, you will discover interesting articles, in-depth reports, on special programs and photo program listings.

If you would like to receive this helpful, informative magazine by the Friends of Louisiana Public Broadcasting at 5049259624.

You owe it to yourself and your coffee table The following program is a production of Louisiana Public Broadcasting before the start of the Civil War.

Louisiana was a place of enchanting beauty, robust prosperity and abundant promise that wanted that series on the history of Louisiana.

It took quite a while to get that to be able to find the funding for that, to be able to bring all that in, to be able to get the correct people in.

You know, writers and directors and graphic artist and the many talents that were involved to do this series on January 9th.

1861.

A band of Louisianians armed themselves and boarded the Steamboat National in New Orleans, then headed north to Baton Rouge.

And I think that's that series right there that Louisiana a history if nothing else that right there is a triumph for Beth and for.

Do you go to bed at night worrying about the economy the crime rate, natural disasters and job security.

Do you feel like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders?

They say laughter is the best medicine and they'll be as just what the doctor ordered.

Relax and enjoy the unique British humor of Sweet 16 Good Neighbors, the fall and rise of Reginald Perrin, dad's army.

And bless me, Father Weeknights at Ten on Elbe.

Of course, let Elbe tuck you in bed with a smile and I think numerous awards that we've won over the decades.

The national programing that we produced out of Louisiana is basically because of that need that Beth has always had to make everything as good as possible to make it be as precise and as perfect as possible.

That's why we've got those awards that's why those programs have been distributed nationally.

Victory or defeat in Normandy would be determined by the valor of men like those whose mission it was to seize and secure life.

Here, help is the tapestry of Louisiana.

It's a value for our states, and it calls on us to be better than we are every single day, because it allows us to really understand what is happening in our state and where we need to lean in to make a difference.

And so that's that's a special person that we have the opportunity to celebrate as she has a well-deserved retirement.

I can't can even imagine.

LBB Without Beth Courtney, they are one in the same, but it's so great to have an opportunity to take a moment to say thank you and to reflect on her amazing contributions at the state and national level and the work that she has done to demonstrate what women can do in our great state.

I think one important thing about Beth is that she can be a really good friend as she is a business person.

She's certainly passionate about public television but she's also passionate about her friends, passionate about her family, and passionate about her community.

She absolutely lives her values in her priorities family, work, community, faith.

They all come out in the way that she allocates her time, her efforts, her energy and her love.

Those things will never be sacrificed.

Well, I don't think it'll be what exists without Beth calling the work that she was doing to showcase Louisiana to the world when so many people thought of Louisiana just as a little hick town of Cajun and Creole, French speaking folks and maybe folks fighting in the governor's mansion or something.

We were colorful.

Beth brought all of that into a new space, a space of professionalism, honesty, relationship, space.

And all she really cared about was to tell the real story of Louisiana and to do it on the medium that she loved so much.

And that was public television.

You ask someone in public broadcasting about Beth Courtney.

They know Beth Courtney.

They know about everything that she's done.

They know about ELP they know about the fact that we have a great record.

It's because of Beth.

Beth has been out there.

She has helped CPB.

She has helped other public broadcasting networks She has worked with so many of the other executive directors out there to create what we consider to be one of the best, best government systems out there.

She is she is public broadcasting.

She really is.

You know, there is no way that people would be the same without Beth's leadership that has developed a top ten program in a state that usually finishes in the bottom ten.

And so we have 40, 50, 45 examples of good stations that LBB could be like if they didn't have best leadership.

But instead we have, you know, a jewel in the network for public television and for the state because of Beth's vision and her leadership.

She absolutely loved going to work every day That's why she rarely missed work.

But I think that she loves it like a child.

And I think that she you know, I'm getting a little choked up.

She she loves it like a child in many ways.

It was like like her own creation.

And I don't mean that in an egotistical way, but she didn't even want to retire now.

I mean, she knew she had to.

She knew she she knew that it was best for her to do so.

But she she would stay as long as she could because she loved it so much in this little state with not a whole lot of money able to do what this network now has been able to do.

And I'm very proud of her for that.

Very proud.

I think the entertainment programing is second to none on the Web.

And Beth Courtney, kind of one in the same to most people in Louisiana.

You know, Beth is is synonymous with with LBB.

Often the case that Donna and I when we watch TV, which isn't that often but we're watching public broadcasting and we're fans of things that that that you all do there.

And it's just been very, very important to our state And again, I wish Courtney nothing but the best in her retirement.

She never gives up.

She always wins.

And that's probably the most amazing thing about her.

She has not only helped to create great programs, but she's also brought together incredibly talented people and created a team of people that will will continue that legacy.

On LP was never just a job for my mother.

It was a calling.

It was a service for a greater and higher purpose LP as it is today, is everything that she believes in education, culture, music, excellence, and being nimble and relevant in a changing world and mentoring and supporting others It's celebrating the best of Louisiana, as well as preserving and learning from its shortcomings.

The station, its staff its programs, its mission and its impact, its friends and foundation all embody and reflect the work the love, the strength, the genius and the unwavering commitment as best for you.

Thank you for joining us tonight, and we hope you'll join us again next week on Louisiana, the state we're in, when we'll have more legislative news, controversial issues and profiles of interesting people I'm Beth George.

Good evening.