(upbeat newscast music) - [Announcer] Live from your public broadcasting studio, (logo whooshing) it's the "State of Pennsylvania," the region's premier news and information program with WVIA President and CEO, Bill Kelly, and correspondents Elizabeth Randall and Suzanne Kelly.

This is "State of Pennsylvania."

And now WVIA President and CEO, Bill Kelly.

- Well, good evening.

Welcome to WVIA's "State of Pennsylvania" tonight, for the first time, in high-definition television.

This is an important occasion for us, and we hope for you.

Those of you with HD TV sets can tell the difference.

My guests and I may look older, maybe not as well shaven, the makeup obvious.

Who knows?

I guess we'll just have to find out together.

For those of you watching on regular or standard definition sets, we hope you can tell the difference between the cameras we've been using these last months, and here's one for you, valued at about $7,000 each, and our new Sony high-definition cameras priced at slightly less than a quarter million dollars each.

WVIA is the first television station in the northeastern Pennsylvania television market to broadcast in high-definition from our studios.

We're gonna give you a tour tonight.

You'll see firsthand all that it took to make this night possible, years of work and planning, well over a million dollars, and some very talented people I am privileged to call my colleagues.

We'll also be joined a little later by WVIA's Chairman of the Board as we make some history in the next hour.

Being first at something technically challenging is nothing new to WVIA.

This station was first in this television market, with network satellite programming in 1978, first to transmit programs in high-definition in 2001, and now first with studio programming in HD TV.

There were other firsts, but that's not really what we're here to talk about tonight.

Beginning on May 1st, all WVIA Studio programs will originate in high-definition.

Many of our popular WVIA documentaries will also be in HD TV.

And at the end of our program tonight, we'll announce something truly transformational for this station.

In our 40th year, we're making changes that will affect the next 40 years.

To help us celebrate all of this, our 40th birthday, the market's first HD TV studio telecast, and much more, we invited the founder of WVIA to come back and help us remember how it all began.

Many of you will remember George Strimel for hosting all those old movies back in the '70s.

That's the 1970s by the way.

George was interesting before he came here though.

For instance, in 1955, he interned with Ted Mack's "Original Amateur Hour."

His first radio experience was in the audience of the "Horn and Hardart Children's Hour," and TV first presented itself to George at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Today, he's the executive director of Radnor 21, a public cable channel serving the main line of Philadelphia.

George Strimel came to WVIA as General Manager in 1966.

The beginnings were indeed modest, but there were many national successes during George's 14 years here in fundraising, promotion, cable audience building, and more.

In fact, in the late 1970s, WVIA Channel 44 was the fourth most-watched PBS station in the United States of America, according to Nielsen.

George, welcome.

- Well, thank you.

It's, as always, great to be back.

- [Bill] Did we do justice to you in that bio opening there?

- Oh, well, it's hard to cram a lifetime into those few minutes.

But yes, thank you very much.

- Well, we tried our best.

I would like to remind all of you, even though we're in high-definition tonight, and I hope you're able to see it that way, our shows, as always, are interactive, we love to have you be part of it.

If you remember George and you'd like to say hi to him, feel free to call.

If you have a question about the future, the past, or right now, you're welcome to be with us on tonight's program.

Our number is 1-800-326-9842.

Call right now, we'd love to get you in.

How does it feel to be back in this building which you built and for which you were on the board back in the early 1970s where responsible?

- Yeah, we moved in here in 1972.

We moved in here, we were almost ready to move in, and of course, Agnes came along, which sort of stopped, took out all of the construction people who actually had a greater mission at that moment.

So, we came in here in '72, I don't even remember when exactly, but we came in, and at the same time of course, or soon after, put radio on the air.

- It's exciting to have you back.

(George laughing) I mean, it's been a lot of years.

I will tell my audience that my own public broadcasting career began thanks to George in 1974.

It's been some wonderful years since.

- Well, I think public broadcasting has certainly changed.

Remember when we began this whole thing, we were operating out of the transmitter.

We didn't have any cameras at all.

Many may refer to that as the good old days, but the fact is, we still did programs, 'cause programs are what it's all about.

It's terrific.

I mean, I'm looking here at a monitor, that's television in the 21st century.

- Well, you know, before we began the show, ladies and gentlemen, I pointed out our beautiful new Sony cameras, which are getting their inaugural flight tonight.

And I said, "George, aren't they beautiful cameras?"

And he said, "Bill, you know, it's about the programs, not the cameras."

- Well, you know, as a kid, I grew up during World War II, and I remember people having really fancy cars, Deusenbergs and things like this, sitting in garages.

Well, they were still beautiful cars, but if you can't go anywhere with them, what was the point?

That was a war.

There's no war now, at least not affecting us the way World War II did.

And so there's a great chance to put good programs on.

I'm interested in seeing what the high-def documentaries look like.

I mean, we're still the same old low-def looking people, but the fact is that we're being seen.

(Bill laughing) - I like that, low-def looking people.

We're gonna make history tonight.

We're going to make an announcement a little bit later about something that's happening to the Public Broadcasting Center that will literally change the nature of our programming, what we can do for the community well into the future, decades from now.

So, it's really a special night for us, and it's special because you came up as well.

- Well, I'm glad I could be here.

And I'm just interested in how it all intermeshes, and I'm looking for the fun, because it was.

- It is fun, isn't it?

- And it still is fun.

- It's why we do it, I guess.

We're going to take a tour around the building, but before I do that, it's occurred to me over the last few years, as we planned for high-definition TV, and it's been years of planning, and a lot of money, and a lot of fundraising, and a lot of grant making, and so on.

What are the parallels to what's about ready to happen to America?

By no means is everyone watching tonight able to see it on high-def.

You were in television at a time when color TV made the transition.

Can you see any parallels for our audiences who maybe were in - - Well, the assured thing on colored TV, the reason the NBC won over the CBS system, was that it was compatible with black and white sets.

So there was a time when everybody could watch, even if you couldn't watch it in color, at least you could watch it.

So the main thing here is to make sure that all those analog sets in February of 2009 won't work any longer, at least directly off the air, that we make sure that we keep the audience with us, that everybody doesn't have to rush out and buy a high-def set.

- Well, we're gonna get to that when we go around the building on the tour in a few moments.

One of the tour makers, if you will, is Joe Glenn, our Engineering Chief.

He'll be along in a few moments.

- Yeah, I'd like to also find out what was going to happen for all of the, 'cause I work in cable, I work with a lot of public domain type things, I run a very small public operation, and we use a lot of public domain things, which are still in the old aspect ratio, how that's going to look on television of the future.

And what will be the television?

I don't know.

- It's going one unfold as time passes on.

But one of the things I want Joe Glenn to talk about, when we go to him, is what George brought up, and that is, what's going to happen to you, all, you folks out there when the older TV set that you have becomes, in effect, obsolete.

And I know Joe has some thoughts on that.

Let's quickly go to Victoria in Hazelton before we start our tour.

Victoria, hello.

- [Victoria] Hello, how are you?

- Wonderful.

Thanks for calling.

- [Victoria] Hi, I am George Strimel's daughter.

(George and Bill laughing) - Well, thank you, Victoria.

- [Victoria] And I remember you, Mr.

Kelly.

- Hi, Tori.

How are you?

- [Victoria] I'm good.

How are you?

- I remember you as Tori, and I won't tell you how big you were.

- [Victoria] Now I'm 38, but I wanted to let you know that I remember growing up in that station with WVIA, all my memories.

And now I have an 8-year-old son, and I've seen it come full-circle, and I just wanted to commemorate the whole celebration of 44.

- [Bill] Thank you.

- [Victoria] And what you have done for this community.

- Wonderful, Victoria.

Thank you for that call.

- And that was not a plant.

(Bill laughing) That was not a plant.

- Oh, it was a plant.

Who are you kidding?

Let's go to my colleague, Tom Curra.

Tom is in the all new production control room here, and you're gonna see some remarkable equipment and truly some wonderful people, beginning with our Senior Vice President Executive Producer, Tom Curra.

Hi, Tom.

- Hi.

Thank you, Bill.

And I'd like to welcome everybody at home to our new facility here.

This is a behind the scenes look, or tour, of WVIA's brand new HD production control room.

And right in front of me here is Carl, and he's actually operating the graphics for this production.

Carl, why don't you just explain what's happening here when you use this machine?

- Well, before the show, I come in and I type in all the names and titles that we need for the show, and I assign every name to a different page number.

And throughout the show, I call up the different page numbers and put 'em on air.

- [Tom] Why don't you change the page for us and show us how that works.

- [Carl] I just type in the number I need and hit Enter, and there we go, your name's on the air.

- Well, thank you.

I'd like to introduce you to our Production Manager, Ben Payavis.

And Ben is actually responsible for organizing all the local programming we have on WVIA.

We had over 300 hours in local programming last year, and Ben pretty much sleeps here, I would say.

But he's also technical directing and directing this program.

And he's sitting in front of a device that we call a switcher, and essentially what a switcher does, it feeds all of the resources, or cameras, and tape machines, and all the other media into this one board that we're able to, you know, punch these buttons and then put 'em out on the air for you to see at home.

And this particular switcher is obviously a state-of-the-art HD switcher, it has over 1,000 buttons, and Ben's going to give us a little on how this works.

Ben?

- Okay, this is the latest and greatest switcher out there.

In fact, they've been punching or taking the shots on Monday night football with this switcher, probably a little bit bigger.

So say, for example, if I wanted to go back to the two box with Bill in the studio, I'll just punch a button here, got the two box.

I then can come over to our touch screen, and I can punch it back over to Bill.

You can see how the video has changed.

And if I wanted to change cameras, for example, I can just come over here, punch camera three up, come back to camera one, and then come back to the control room here, full screen.

So, that's a quick little demo of our new switcher.

- Yes, and if you're watching at home, you're watching football, racing, golf, or whatever you may be watching, boards just like this is our being utilized to put those shows together.

And this is our great friend, Greg Brown.

Greg, where are you from?

Giuseppe, town of Saint Ubaldo.

Giuseppe is a very good place.

We're actually premiering a new documentary May 1st about Saint Ubaldo and Jessup.

And Greg is currently operating our tape machines, and can you feed a tape machine into the switcher?

See, right there.

And that's Greg's responsibility, he's the operating tape for us tonight.

Thanks, Greg.

And we're gonna just take you back into the upper decks of the control room right here.

And this is Kristen.

And Kristen is sitting at a producer station, she's responsible for getting the calls on the air and running teleprompter.

Currently, when you call in on the phone, someone answers the phone, feeds the information to Kristen, and she puts it up on the prompter for Bill to see, and in addition to running prompter so Bill can communicate with the control room and also with the viewers at home.

Right this way, I'm gonna bring you to the audio booth.

This is our tele award-winning graphic designer, Kevin Jones.

He's currently running our Wheatstone audio board.

This is a 5.1 surround-sound audio board, it's a state-of-the-art audio board.

It can generate or develop sound as you would go to a theater, a professional theater.

And currently, we are not broadcasting in 5.1, but when you do tune into WVIA and you watch "Homegrown Music," or you watch any of our performance programs, even in our documentaries in the future, you will be listening to those shows in 5.1, as well as watching them in HD.

So, that's really about it from back here, and it's actually a real honor and a privilege to be a part of this historical show tonight, Bill.

- Tom, do you have your own HD TV set yet?

- No, not yet.

(Bill chuckling) I'm still waiting for the prices to drop, but I will be getting one soon, I'm sure.

- How far do they have to drop for you, Tom?

(Tom laughing) - You know me, pretty far.

- Alright, well, we'll get Joe Glenn to talk about prices of HD TV sets in just a few moments.

When you hired me in 1974, the technology in this building was really state-of-the-art.

- Well, to some extent, a lot of it was.

I was walking around the building today, we were able to bring this building in completed with the new equipment for $23 a square foot.

- [Bill] Yeah.

- Which was a bit of a miracle in itself.

- [Bill] Right.

- But some of the equipment now, the camera right there was an old Marconi, those were bought used.

We bought a couple other, I think maybe three of the Marconis.

Previous to that, we had black and white RCAs with rack-mounted lenses, which were a gift from Channel 12 in Philadelphia, oddly enough.

- A lot of borrowed equipment.

The first transmitter was given to us by Taft, I think it was.

- No, not the transmitter, the tower, the building, the location.

We had to buy the transmitter, because obviously we couldn't broadcast on 16th.

- Yeah, let's talk a little bit about how, by the way, you're watching at home, I know this program is so, I hope, interesting that you're unlikely to go to your phones, but we are live in the Public Broadcasting Center, which is now the High-Definition Public Broadcasting Center, and I'd love it if you became part of the program, call us and we'll put you on the air with George Strimel, and you can ask any questions you may have.

- Yeah, I was thinking of offering a autographed copy of the first edition of the history of WVIA, if I ever write it.

- [Bill] If you ever write it, I'll help you with it.

- That's right.

(laughs) - When I came here in 1974, fresh out of the radio business, on my cable system in Scranton, there were 11 channels.

11 channels.

There were then four local TV stations, the ABC, CBS, NBC affiliate, and PBS Channel 44.

How that has changed.

I have 270 channels on my satellite at home, and yet there are people, George, who say there's nothing on.

- Well, yes, and sometimes there isn't, except on of course, public broadcasting.

There's always something here.

- I wasn't leading you to the promo there.

- No, but the fact is that it's like the library.

There'll always be somebody, you could have a million books, and somebody walks in, they want the a million and first book, the one you don't have.

- There are those, obviously, who think that, in a world of 300 channels, PBS, and probably Radnor 21, are obsolete.

- Neither one of us, I believe so, because we can present the local.

You can't get the local productions, the local interests, the local specialties from San Francisco, you can't get it from New York, you can only get it from where we live.

And that's true on the main line, and it's true here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

- Thank you.

That's the case I wanted you to make for us there.

Joe Glenn is standing by.

Joe Glenn is Vice President Engineering, one of my esteemed colleagues.

Joe, I could go on and on about Joe Glenn, but he has been a wonderful asset to WVIA, and there he is.

Joe, why don't you start with the question of when people should buy HD TV sets.

Tom Curra hasn't found the right price yet, what do you think?

- Well, Bill, I'm here with my colleague, Dan Matter, our Chief Engineer, and we were just talking about that.

And we decided that probably the best time to buy a high definition television was today so that you could watch this program in high def.

But in all seriousness, kidding aside, there's a lot of factors that depend on that, and of course, finances is one of them, and everybody's different financially.

But one of the real important things coming up is that, in about two years, you're gonna have to have to do something.

Right, Dan?

- Yeah, it was February 17th, 2009 is when Congress mandated we shut down the analog transmitters.

- And what that means for a lot of people is probably not too much, because the cable companies and the satellite providers will probably just convert over to picking up our digital signals and converting them over so that you can still watch 'em on your analog television.

However, if you're an off-the-air viewer, and you get your signal directly off the air, over an antenna, you're gonna have to get a converter box that will convert the signal over to your analog set so that you'll still be able to use it, otherwise, it would become obsolete.

So, if that's all right, I'd like to give you a quick tour, if I can, of Master Control.

It's not quite as impressive as Production Control that you just saw from my colleague Tom Curra, but this room is loaded with electronics, there are racks and racks of electronics.

It's used for the daily operations at WVIA, all the PBS programs you watch, from "Sesame Street" to "Pennsylvania Polka," all come through here.

It's the heart of WVIA, it's what we use to control, monitor, and do quality control of everything we do here.

You see racks and racks of electronic equipment.

As Bill said earlier, this transition has cost us millions of dollars, probably about 1.8 million or something like that over the last seven years.

And we're in pretty good shape, all of it was to get to where we are right now, to have this beautiful, high-definition picture that we're able to deliver as of today.

It all came down to today, it was all about today, and we're kind of relieved and happy to be there.

What you're seeing right now is our switcher.

You saw the production control switcher, ours is not quite as impressive, a lot less buttons, but for operations, it's just what we need.

This is where the daily scheduling of programming takes place.

You can see a list of every minute of WVIA's day, every second is cataloged, and if something's supposed to be there, it runs down the list.

And you're now looking over at the camera operations areas, you can see in the background the three monitors showing the studio cameras.

This is where the operator rides levels and does quality control on those cameras.

And that's pretty much the gist of what goes on and happens here in Master Control.

So, back to you, Bill.

- Okay, Joe.

Stay there, please.

What kind of set should we buy?

There's LCDs.

I think you hear this question all the time, people go into their Best Buy or Circuit City, and when they call you and say, "What kind of set should I buy?"

What do you tell them?

- Well, that's a tough question to answer, because I certainly don't want any retailers mad at me.

But it depends on your individual situation.

Some of the sets, particularly the LCDs, have gotten much better in the last year or two.

And I think over time, you're gonna see more and more LCD and less plasma.

For a period of time there, the plasmas had a real good brightness thing, they were able to handle brightness better.

And one of the things I noticed about the LCDs was that they had more motion artifacts, those are little things that happen when there's a lot of movement in the picture that are little undesirable effects.

They seem to be getting better and better all the time.

But I think at this point in time, it's still an individual's choice.

You have to see what's best for you, weigh out the cost versus the quality and feel, and take the decision that fits your pocketbook.

- Well, if you waited, ladies and gentlemen, you probably made the right decision.

I bought mine four years ago, an LCD set, and compared to today's, it's not even close.

So if you waited, congratulations.

Plus the price of the set I bought four years ago is about a quarter of what I paid for it, so that was a good move.

Here's Alan in Scranton.

Alan, thank you for calling.

- [Alan] Bill, thank you.

Alan Sweeney.

And I'd like to congratulate you on this historic occasion.

It reminds me of the Marconi Tele Wireless from Lackawanna Station here in Scranton to their New York office, one of the first.

And now you being with HD TV, I'll tell you, you look great, both you and George.

(Bill chuckling) I don't know George, but I felt I grew up with him.

I used to babysit for my brother who was many years younger than myself, and when you started in '72, he started watching "Sesame Street" and "Mr.

Rogers," and I went through the auctions that you had, and it was very interesting.

So, George, welcome back to northeastern Pennsylvania.

And Bill Kelly, to your staff, and everyone at WVIA TV, we're very proud, as fellow Pennsylvanians, especially northeastern Pennsylvanians, for this monumental occasion of you bringing HD TV to northeastern Pennsylvania.

- Alan, that's wonderful.

Your sentiments, trust me, are truly appreciated.

I'm gonna say to Ben, who's directing in the control room, why don't we show a moment of an earlier auction?

We have a piece of videotape that, for Alan in Scranton, and for Connie in Scranton, who's gonna be on next with us here, will bring back some powerful memories of what WVIA used to do.

Among many other things, we ran a lot of old movies here, and time permitting, we're gonna show you an opening of an old movie, but we do wanna show you a piece of an earlier auction.

What's happening behind the camera, you can't see, is this, (laughs) they're saying stretch just a little bit.

But Alan and Scranton brought it up, he brought up the old auctions that Alan remembers, and I'm sure many others of you, you remember them.

- Oh, well, we started out the Lackawanna Station that he just talked about, and then we went to here.

- Now the Radisson Hotel.

- But that was where we did the first one.

And I remember Jack Palance coming in and auctioning off his tie.

I think they're telling us that we can go ahead.

- Are we being told, David, that it's okay?

All right.

- [Team Member] No, they're not ready.

- No, they're not?

I'm sorry.

This day of super hot, fast HD TV programs.

- I think we threw them away.

- I'll tell you what, we'll go to Connie in Scranton.

Connie, why don't we talk to you while we wait for that piece of video tape.

Connie, are you there?

- [Connie] Yes, I am.

- Thank you for calling.

- [Connie] You're welcome.

I'm just calling to congratulate you and your staff as well.

I've recently returned to Pennsylvania after living away since 1973, and was very accustomed to watching PBS down in the Tidewater, Virginia area.

And I can tell you now that since I've been up in this area, I've believe about 80% of my television watching is on WVIA.

And I just enjoy all the programming, and especially the musicals you have, "The Celtic Women."

And I can tell you every senior citizen I know loves the "Ballroom Dancing" you air on Saturday evenings, and I'll look forward to that.

So, I just wanna thank you, and to take the next step in HD TV is phenomenal.

- Very nice.

- [Connie] And congratulations to you and your staff.

- Thank you so much, Connie.

Thank you.

Those of you who remember George Strimel from the early days will remember him being very poised and very serious, a man who rarely cracked a smile, and showed the other side of anybody other than a stuffy executive.

So here is a moment to remember from an earlier auction, probably the early 1970s.

(logo whooshing) - You got something for us?

- I have something for you.

Okay, here is what you've been waiting for.

The movie coming up is "Charlie Chan."

No, that's not what you've been waiting for.

(audience members laughing) That is coming your way.

But what you've been waiting for is to hear the figure.

Well, we've done some calculating, it isn't the final figure, the final figure is going to be a little higher.

But the figure right now is $141,917 at home for everybody.

(audience cheering) (George yelling) (crowd applauding, laughing, and squealing) (all laughing) (logo whooshing) - The educational television station at work.

Comments?

- Dignity, above all things.

Dignity, Gene Kelly says in "Singin' In the Rain."

That's what we were giving them, real dignity.

- All right, that number is 1-800-326-9842.

A couple of you have called and expressed those congratulations, and we thank you for your sentiments.

It's wonderful, it's a privilege, that's how my colleagues and I feel about this work, and that is truly sincere.

Here's another one of my colleagues, we're gonna go to radio, WVIA FM Radio.

Chris Norton is Vice President of Radio.

We are extremely proud of our radio station, and we have George Strimel to thank for having the vision to acquire an FM radio station.

And I'm gonna ask Chris Norton to talk about that, among some other things.

Chris?

- Well, Bill, WVIA TV celebrating their 40th anniversary, and WVIA FM wasn't there at the very beginning, came along a little bit later.

It was in 1972 when the opportunity came up to put on a radio station, and WVIA put out the call to a Duke University radio engineer named George Graham to come and wire up the studio in this very room.

- And here, oh, he's still here after all these years.

(laughs) - After all these years.

Yes, on the air on WVIA FM.

And we have plans for upgrades here as part of this whole digital movement here.

And, of course, over the years, behind us here are a couple of turntables that you can see, that was our primary means of music back in the day.

And we still occasionally play LPs, but now the technology has come a long way, we're all digital here in this radio control room.

For those who might be up on such things, our signal path is entirely digital from the studio, through the console, this is a Logitech digital console.

This is actually just a control surface, which tells the digital circuitry to do what it needs to do, but everything is digital.

Goes all the way to the mountain, to our transmitter at Penobscot Knob in digital form, and actually goes into the transmitter digitally.

So, our signal is totally digital.

And when HD radio happens, we are completely ready for that.

And that will provide us with a new medium.

- And that should be happening by the end of the year here.

Now, with HD TV, you need two different transmitters, you have two different channels, WVIA's digital channel is Channel 41, many people still think of us as Channel 44, the analog number.

And of course on your cable system, it might be Channel 4 or something else, but it's two different channels for digital and analog.

But in radio, the technology, George, tell us about it.

It allows you to broadcast digitally at the same frequency.

- Exactly.

It's called IBOC, or In-Band On Channel.

And you'll be able to pick us up at 89.9, or our other frequencies.

And that simultaneously carries both the digital and analog signals.

So your plain old radio will work just fine, but with the addition of an HD receiver, you'll be able to reap the extra benefits, extremely high audio quality, better than you'll get on satellite radio, and more channels, more different program streams.

- Well, we'll trust your ears, you have the best ears I know.

That's it, WVIA HD radio will be not only better, but more.

All these years, we've had just 24 hours in the day to divide up between classical music programming, "NPR News Hours," "Jazz at Night," like George has, and "Homegrown Music," and "Mixed Bag," all the specialty shows you like, like "A Prairie Home Companion," and "Car Talk," and "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," and so many more.

Only 24 hours in the day, so many great programs we could put on if we only had more hours.

Well, HD radio is not bringing us more hours.

But with more channels, we'll be able to put more programs on the additional challenge.

It's still too soon to tell what we'll be doing with exactly those channels, exactly what programs will be on and when.

But you can be sure that we will be continuing our mission of public service.

We're all about the arts and culture, about lifelong learning, and we are bringing great opportunities for listening to Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Central Susquehanna Valley, the Lehigh Valley, and the Poconos.

George, looking forward to it?

- Oh, absolutely.

There are just so many opportunities and things that we can do.

We can bring you live concerts, for example, as we do each month, and have been for some 20 years.

We've got a "Homegrown Music" concert coming up on Monday night with two jazz pianists, Skip Wilkins and Eric Mintel.

And we'll be broadcasting it live on WVIA FM, and it'll be videotaped for future broadcast on WVIA TV 44 on the "Homegrown Music" TV series.

So it's an example of the synergy I think that goes on between radio and television, and even more so in the digital domain because we'll be able to produce arts events here at WVIA, as was alluded to by Bill earlier in 5.1 sound, with surround sound, and those of you with home theater systems will get the real benefit of being immersed in such events that we'll be producing for radio and TV.

- Thank you, George.

Thank you, George Strimel, for getting it started for WVIA radio.

And thank you, Bill Kelly, for keeping it going.

And thanks to all our audience for making it all possible.

Bill?

- Chris, would you leave George there for just a moment?

- Oh, he's here.

- Give George the mic.

- Okay.

- George Strimel hired George Graham.

There are a few of us around here who qualify as ancient members of the staff.

(George laughing) And do you wanna share any particular memory of George Graham and how that all came about?

- Well, having gone to the University of Virginia, I forgave him immediately of having gone to Duke.

(George Graham chuckling) But I did appreciate the fact that here was a multi-talented person who was ready to grow.

And he certainly has over the years.

He's, whether you know it or not, a brilliant engineer, as well as being an excellent on-air host.

He's what the creative energy demands of public broadcasting.

And George, I pointed to a lot of things that I'm proud of here and you're not one of the things, you're one of the people.

(George Graham chuckling) And I won't say that about everybody necessarily, I'll talk about Bill later.

But the fact is that, right now, thanks for coming on board and staying on board.

- Well thank you, George.

It was a real pleasure, you know, meeting you for the first time just after graduating from college.

And this was just a wonderful organization to just kind of slide into.

And I've kind of taken residence here and seen a lot of changes going on here at WVIA.

And this is really exciting, what's happening now, the transition to digital, the opportunities that the new medium will provide.

And so it's really been quite a great experience seeing all of this happen.

And George and I were talking in the hallway before we went on the air, and we were reminiscing at length about things going on here at WVIA.

So, great seeing you again, George.

And we'll send it back to Bill, I guess, in the studio.

- Okay.

George, thank you.

Thank you, George.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're welcoming somebody else to our table tonight.

I think you may have met or seen the chairman of the WVIA Board, Skip Weider, before.

Skip, welcome back.

- Nice to be here tonight, particularly in such distinguished company.

- [Bill] Well, it's a huge night, as you know.

- Certainly is.

- You have walked us through this as Chairman of the Board.

Let's talk for a moment, 'cause I've gotta get to the phones, and we have much more to cover tonight.

But trustees, the Board of Directors, you represent the community, you're the Chair of that board, so you bring us the view from the outside, if you will, and you hold management accountable for serving the community.

- Well, first, I think the board is proud to be a part of this organization.

I think, George, as you've seen earlier, the professional staff that Bill has assembled here under his leadership has just done an extraordinary job.

And I think northeastern and central Pennsylvania is fortunate to have this enterprise, this resource available to it.

And it's nothing but good, and it's gonna get better.

And I think tonight you've seen the first of many examples of how this will get better, and better serve the people and the needs of this region.

- Mr.

Weider, how do you think you look on high-definition television?

- I'm afraid to look at the monitor.

(Bill laughing) (Skip laughing) Older than you two, I'm sure.

- I know Mrs.

Weider, Linda, is at home watching you on high-definition, you bought a set.

- Maybe giggling by this point.

I don't know.

- You bought a set, right?

- Oh yes, at Christmas.

And, again, there's nothing like it.

I think, as your folks were saying, this is just extraordinary, to see something in high-definition.

And it's going to allow stations like this, within the mission of WVIA, to do things in this region that are gonna make the region proud.

- Well, you please, at home, all of you at home, stay with us, because in probably about 15 minutes, we're going to make an announcement about something that's about to happen here which will change our programming, will change WVIA, and trust me, it'll be for the better.

Before we do that, we have some phone calls.

Richard, thank you for waiting.

Richard in Wilkes-Barre.

- [Richard] Hello.

- Hi.

Go ahead.

- [Richard] Hey, George, I don't know if you remember me, you used to come up the Wyoming Valley Theater.

I was a projectionist there.

- Absolutely.

Yes, absolutely.

Good to hear from you again.

- [Richard] I often wonder what happened to you.

(laughs) - Well, I still love movies.

- [Richard] I'm watching you on high-definition right now.

I just hooked it up today.

I bought a Pioneer.

- [Bill] How about that for timing?

- [Richard] It looks like three-dimensions.

(George laughing) Beautiful.

- It'll remind you of the old days in the theater, it's that clear.

- [Richard] Yeah.

Remember Joe Balkin?

- Yes.

Good to hear from you.

I remember you well, I couldn't get as close to the films as we were up in that projection booth.

You were a good friend.

- All right, I'm gonna throw our director another curve.

Ben, forgive me, but we're gonna come back in a few moments, and I'd like to show that opening to the movies that we had to bring back memories for some people.

And I'm sorry to do that to you again.

(chuckles) But while he does that, let's go to our phones.

Paula in Pringle.

Paula, thank you for calling.

- [Paula] Hi, Bill.

- Hi.

- [Paula] Yep.I'm Paula Heatman, but I was formally Paula Berish.

- Oh yes, of course.

- [Paula] So yep, my dad is one of the originals from up there.

- Yes.

- [Paula] Pass that place often, and really wanna pop in many different times, but this is really good to hear, that you guys are going high-definition.

It's certainly something that we're happy to see, and certainly something that my father would obviously be proud of.

A lot of work went into the station, and it's really good to see it.

- Paula, stay there for a moment.

We all very fondly remember Joe Berish, your father.

And you wanna say a few words?

- Well, all I can remember is his dedication, because when we went on the air, we operated entirely from the transmitter, which meant, every morning, somebody had to go up to that transmitter and stay there, 'cause we only broadcast in the morning, and the afternoon, and the evening.

There were breaks in between, so the person had to stay.

And I remember one year where we had to come up and drive over the ridge in order to get to it in a four-wheel drive that I happened to have, and I took Joe with me, and we went across the ridge, and to get the station on the air.

Things were much different in those days, but his dedication and his imaginative approach was always welcome.

He was a great member of the team and I remember him warmly.

- Paula, thank you.

Thank you so much for calling.

Let's have another memory.

Many of you calling tonight will remember the days when WVIA was what I learned to call the "maverick" PBS station.

And we'll define maverick in just a moment, but here's one of the reasons why it was a maverick station.

Take a look at this.

(logo whooshing) (dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) - Mysteries here on Channel 44, unusual mysteries.

We're running a little late this evening, but we still have time for a triple-feature, and we'll presenting three films, two mysteries, and a World War I story of warfare in the sky.

That'll be the third film.

(logo whooshing) - Skip, do you remember the movie days on WVIA?

- I always wondered who that guy was.

- Yeah, I don't remember that fellow with the mustache.

(all laughing) I can remember George coming on with much more colorful attire.

- [Bill] Oh, yes.

- Yeah, and you know, he was quite a host, and I think he he kept your attention.

He knows movies.

- [Bill] No question about it.

- No question about it, and he can provide the insight.

But those were good days.

But as I recall, the mission was much different then.

- [Bill] Absolutely.

- You were really educational television.

There was no Movie Channel, there was no Animal Planet, there was no Discovery, you did it all.

- We began as, obviously, the Northeastern Educational Television Association, and that was made up.

You'd be interested to know, the initial board was somewhere around 50 people, so it was a little larger than the board of these days.

But the fact is that we had multiple missions, and obviously, the coming of cable has changed that somewhat.

- I'm not gonna let you get away that easily on the movies and the old TV shows.

I can remember going to a professional conference, PBS executives, and at the time I was working for you, no, maybe it was slightly thereafter.

And one person came up to me and said, "My God, you are the 'Leave it to Beaver' station."

(George and Bill laughing) - [George] Well.

- How do you justify that?

- First of all, 168 hours in every week.

There's room for everything, even unto this day.

Oddly enough, I still do films where I am, and I haven't gotten rid of that passion.

And you're making a monumental announcement, I'll make a equally monumental offer of willing to return with a couple of movies, or one movie.

- [Bill] Which would it be, what would be the movie you would return with?

- Well, it depends.

If it's "Armistice Day," I'd be doing "Walk in the Sun," I'd be doing public domain films.

- Here's what I remember, George, the Shirley Temple Film Festival, the John Wayne Film Festival, the Deanna Durbin Film Festival.

- Many of those are still available.

(Skip laughing) - The Charlie Chan Film Festival.

(all laughing) - Modo, don't Forget Mr.

Modo.

(laughs) The John Ford Film Festival.

Yeah, I picked up the little leaflet for that just the other day.

Many of those are still - - So on the cable channel you're running on the mainline of Philadelphia, you're running a lot of movies.

- Well, about the same amount.

Maybe not as many as I ran here, because we're running it with far fewer people, so I can't get to do it.

We're doing English films right now.

- Well, I would share with my audience the fact that the "maverick" label worked in our favor.

I mentioned in the beginning we were, WVIA was, the fourth most-watched PBS station in the United States.

- And I think we were the most watched UHF station.

Because the VHS, obviously, I mean, New York is a little bigger.

- But I guess my point is, wouldn't we like to believe it was "Masterpiece Theater," "Nature and Nova" that made that happen?

(George laughing) In fact, it was the movies.

- [George] It was the mix.

- [Bill] "The Lone Ranger."

- Well, "Thrilling Days of Yesteryear," which this whole program reminds us of it.

- Maybe it was the personality of the host.

- [Bill] It was the personality of the host.

(all laughing) - There you go.

- How many hours a week were you on the air, George, in those days?

- Well, it depends on who you are.

Some thought too many.

(Bill and Skip laughing) Some, namely, obviously, my daughter who just called in, and not enough.

But the fact is that I couldn't even tell you.

But when I left after those many years, I figured I had been on about 7,500 times.

- [Bill] Oh, my God.

- That'll scare anybody.

(laughs) But that included openings, and bridges, and closing.

- [Bill] But you are, you are truly well-preserved.

(all laughing) Despite HD TV.

- That's right.

It doesn't see through, does it?

I mean, we can always go back to what they did in the silent films, and that is drop gauze in front of the camera to make everybody look better.

- Well, I think we have Gene on the phone.

Gene, I don't know where you are, all I see on the screen is Gene, are you there?

- [Gene] Yes, I am.

- Please, go right ahead.

- [Gene] George, I don't expect you to remember the name of every rapscallion who rode that train with you in Eckley, but I was one of them.

And you remember it was a fake train that came from an amusement park, and they built a little hangover on the track that said Eckley.

Do you remember?

- You're breaking up a little, Gene, on the monitor here, so I didn't hear it as clearly as I might have.

I certainly remember the Eckley incident and all the rest, but the rest of it, I'm not clear.

I mean, I may look good, but the memory is still that of a - - [Bill] Senior.

- That's it, a person in his 70s.

- Well, we hope you're enjoying what you're seeing tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

And if you have an HD TV set, you're seeing us in crystal clear high-definition.

If you have a standard TV set, we hope you can tell the difference in our cameras, which truly are state-of-the-art.

And we talked to you earlier about what will happen, what must happen in 2009, when WVIA TV 44 has to surrender that channel, Channel 44.

Do you wanna mention, make any comments about that, what it's going to mean to people?

- Well, certainly people are used to, I mean, today so many people get it by cable.

- [Bill] True.

- And the people who are getting, I guess it's even available by satellite, so perhaps the 44 is not as fixed as it is for the over-the-air people.

They're gonna have to make some serious changes.

And quite frankly, I don't think the industry, the government, or anybody is ready for this changeover.

There's supposed to be money available for you to get a box, and the government will help subsidize that box.

But when and how much?

It's going to be a hard transition.

A much better transition would've been the one that's happening with radio, where those who only have the regular sets can still continue to enjoy it where they've always known to enjoy it, and then the rest is added on.

So the government has not done a good job on this one.

And I think that you're gonna have to go in, you build a brand.

- [Bill] Right.

- It's 44, and it's a little hard to change that.

- Well, we're changing.

George, we're changing our brand here as we speak.

What we have recognized is the across-platforms approach to media.

Right now, we are TV, FM, web, and something we're about to announce here in just a couple of minutes.

But our approach here, increasingly, is that each of those, we call them platforms, are equal.

The TV station should and will promote WVIA FM, and our website, wvia.org, and the others will do the same.

So we are multi-platform, and extremely fortunate, and we are grateful to you for radio.

As a matter of fact, when Chris Norton was on a few moments ago, you leaned over to me and said, "Of all the decisions," why don't you finish that?

- Well, there's a lot of decisions I'm proud of as I walk around, and seeing what came of this building is one of them.

But getting that radio station was something that, really, I was the fire on that one.

- [Bill] And there were doubters weren't there?

- What was that?

- [Bill] There were doubters.

- Oh, yes.

Namely, people said, "Okay, where are you gonna get the money from?"

Went out and got a grant for it from the federal government, it's not that expensive, but getting the channel was very difficult, getting that frequency was difficult.

And quite frankly, I'll be honest about it, it was the University of Scranton that basically turned over that license to us because they felt we could do a better service to the community, and I think we've lived up to that.

- Yeah, I think so too.

The radio station's become enormous.

And Skip Weider, you live in Lewisburg, Winfield, and you have watched what radio has meant to this place.

- Oh, no question, Bill.

And I think radio, in a sense, public radio is a cult following.

You've got a group of people who are just mesmerized by your program in classical music, for example.

These are loyal listeners.

And what's of interest to me in the western end of your territory is the growth in that end of the territory that benefits not only radio, but it benefits television too.

And so I think this bodes well for the future.

- By the way, I don't wanna get to George in just a minute.

A few people realize that, because of all the translators, WVIA FM has, those little repeaters in communities such as Lewisburg, Sunbury, Allentown, Bethlehem, and many other communities.

- [Skip] And up north.

- And up north.

Now, Wellsboro, Mansfield.

WVIA FM has the largest coverage area of any radio station in this entire region.

So we have recognized this as a tremendous asset, George.

- And it should be noted that right before I came here to put Radnor, I mean, wrong station, (laughs) Channel 44 on the air, I had put the Bucknell University radio station on the air.

- [Skip] WVBU.

- That's right, I put that on the air right before.

So, it was sort of my training ground to come here.

- I want to get to the big announcement, if you will.

And Skip Weider, Chairman of the Board, is gonna join me in this.

But we just can't wait to tell you about it, and because we're television, we're going to show you it as we tell you about it.

Skip, do you want to take the lead, or do you want me to go?

- [Skip] I'd like to have you take the lead.

It's your project, and your people have done the work on it, so go forward.

- Thank you, Skip.

The WVIA staff came up with this idea, and we're gonna show you some animation of a theater and here you can see it.

This facility, this 105-seat, high-definition television and high-definition radio theater is going to be built in this building starting next month.

We will not break ground, because we have the ground, we'll break walls to make room for this theater, but it will be Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Central Susquehanna Valley's first, and only, high-definition television and radio theater.

And trust me, it is going to make a tremendous difference in the kinds of programs we can do.

And, Skip, that's probably the cue for you to run with.

- Well, I think the flexibility it's gonna give, in terms of meeting a major part of the mission, which is regional and local programming.

I think we've found, through experience, that every time you do something significant on a regional or local basis, you get tremendous response.

And here you have a facility that's going to be available to the public, not just for our programming, but backing up just a minute, it's going to give Bill and his staff much more flexibility in providing more types of programs to advocate for Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania to bring groups in from the region to participate in live productions, and also to make available educational opportunities for students and classroom instruction, who can come in, either use the facility here, or be a part of it remotely with something that takes place here in the studio.

So, it's tremendously exciting, and it adds a dimension I don't think that's comparable to anything else in the region.

- [Bill] There may not be another one of these in the country in terms of PBS stations that we know of.

Does this make you proud as the founder?

- Oh, yes.

I mean, especially since we provided the room to put this in.

(Skip and Bill laughing) I mean, I can't say that, oh no, I will say, actually, we had often thought of putting a fifth, no that's not true.

- [Bill] You named it Studio B.

- That's right.

- We've called it that for 30 years.

- [George] And it was there for expansion.

Wasn't 100% too sure what we would expand into, but there it is.

- Well, it was warehouse, it's warehouse today, but it's about ready to become studio.

- Well, you know, this fits into, I think, an unspoken motto of this institution, and I hope of myself individually, and that is, make no small plans.

- Yeah.

I wanna speak to that.

A lot of our colleagues, Skip and I have spent a lot of time over the last few months visiting with donors, foundations.

And by the way, thank you to so many of you who have helped us get this far.

I mean, we've raised a lot of money, and we're still at it.

But it's a tremendous compliment to you and the Board of Directors of this place when you made the commitment to build here that, almost 40 years later, we don't need more space.

You know, all over the country, my colleagues are doing huge campaigns to build new buildings, and here we are, in a building that you opened in 1973, and we are expanding in it.

We don't need to start over again.

- And this was a cooperative effort too, because the industrial development group down in Wilkes-Barre actually gave us the plans for this building, which is actually the Bendix building up in the Crestwood Industrial Park.

- Yeah.

- And we then formulated what it would look inside the box, but the exterior was given to us, those plans.

And that was, again, making a part of this community effort.

And the entire inside was designed based upon an easy flow for guests to come in and be part of what we are doing.

- Let me bring my colleagues into the conversation.

Tom Curra, Chris Norton, Joe Glenn, I believe are in Master Control, you're hearing the flow of the conversation, gentlemen, do you want to add anything to what's being said in here?

- Bill, we've been thinking a long time, and we have a lot more deliberation to do to think of some of the many ways we can use this theater, radio, television, and website at wvia.org.

Imagine, for example, doing a teacher training program in this theater, and beaming it via the website to many schools throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Of course, we already do concerts, Simply Grand concerts and Homegrown Music concerts, we can do theatrical presentations, we can share speaker presentations with many, many viewers on television, on radio, and through wvia.org.

The possibilities are really endless.

- Absolutely.

And our plans have already started.

I mean, the facility's starting to book up with programming that we will deliver on our multi-channel, as well as on our web, radio, and TV.

- Let's not forget how much we'll increase the comfort level.

For the people who attended the concert just this last Sunday at Simply Grand Concert, and we had people sitting on plastic chairs, now they'll be in nice, comfortable seats.

It'll be great.

- I can't wait.

- Okay.

(chuckles) Thank you, Chris, and Tom, and Joe.

I must say, and I know Skip, Chairman of the Board, feels the same way, it is such a privilege to work with such great people.

- Absolutely.

Is there time to just mention one more thing?

- Sure.

- I think, again, you mentioned it earlier, it would've been very easy, as you put this challenge in front of your staff, what is our future, for them to say, "We need 50,000 square feet of additional space."

They didn't do that.

They sat down, George, and you'd be proud of this 'cause it's part of your heritage, they sat down and they looked at what they had, what they wanted to be, and they defined their future within this facility.

And that's important, because it means that we can go out and we can raise the dollars that are not only necessary to do this project, but hopefully to make a next step forward, and that is to provide for not just this year and next year, (upbeat newscast music) but for the next five years.

And so kudos to the staff.

- George, let me shake your hand.

(George chuckling) Thank you for bringing me here.

And all of us, thank you for what you've accomplished here over all those years.

- And we thank, of course, as always, the people who really make it possible.

- [Bill] Absolutely.

- That's who makes it possible.

- [Bill] And, Mr.

Chairman, I hope you had a good night tonight.

- Enjoyed it.

Thanks for having me.

- [Bill] Okay.

- George, congratulations.

- Thank you.

- All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for watching.

Happy HD TV day.

Good night.

(upbeat newscast music continues) (upbeat newscast music continues)