From WXXI news.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

That's fantastic.

The job team.

Our connection this hour was made in 1958 when the Rochester Area Educational Television Association was formed.

This was the seed that would essentially become KCI in 1966.

Yes.

We are celebrating 60 years of WXXI.

Those early days were all about finding a way to broadcast educational programing via television and into classrooms.

If possible.

In many ways, that hasn't changed.

To commemorate 60 years, my colleagues have put together a timeline of events that are both informative and, to me, fascinating.

Congress passed the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967.

Rochester I was the program that launched a year later after President Nixon visited Rochester in 1971.

Local public media aired political debates.

We could spend the hour reading the rich history of how I came to serve this region.

We believe 60 continues to be the public square at a time when so many other media outlets are suffering and shrinking.

This hour, we look back a bit and we're going to look ahead in our second half.

Our CEO, Chris Hastings, will join me.

We're going to share feedback from the public.

Producer Megan Mac's been out asking people, what do you want in the future from your public media?

We're going to share some of the things that they said, and I'm sure Chris will have a lot to say about that.

First, we're joined by my colleagues in studio, the person who was here at the founding.

Actually, she was not.

She was here starting in 1977.

I'm not that old, Marianne Carberry.

It's nice to see you.

1977.

Yes, yes.

Was your start date?

It was.

It was a it was a baptism by fire for all of us.

And it was a blast.

All I can say, it was an absolute blast.

Well, it's great to have you here.

Getting ready to celebrate 50 years of marriage.

Yea, yea yea.

John Andres was not there at the founding.

Although, you know, I might remember some of those early days.

You've been here since 1995.

Welcome here.

Thank you Evan.

I do remember the very first night the WXXI TV went on the air.

You had to have a UHF dial to be able to dial channel 21 at 7:00.

Greetings from our first CEO, John Porter and board member, Harold Hacker.

That was at 7:00.

Then at 730, the very first program that was on the air was the front chef with Julia Child.

And the rest, as they say, is history from the former East High building, which at that time was also Monroe Community College until they moved out to their Brighton campus.

Resident historian John Andres I should also mention John's to Sunday morning host of WXXI classical.

Marianne Carberry, Saturday afternoon host of WXXI classical Cara Rager's, director of Early Learning at Oxford Public Media.

And even though you haven't been here as long as our other guests here, I know you.

You appreciate some of the music that we opened with.

So great.

The way that your work, you see that decades of work that is built up in these families where some people grew up with Fred Rogers and people grew up with, Lady Elaine Fairchild and the whole the whole team, and now it's Daniel Tiger and it's still Fred Rogers for some, and it's still Sesame Street for others.

So what do you see in terms of the generational change in the consistency there?

I think it's exciting.

Thanks for having me first.

It's great to have you on our floor.

Yeah.

It it's exciting when you can see families have a public media connection all the way through, like grandparents who watched WXXI come on the air and then saw Sesame Street and Fred Rogers, and now their grandkids are experiencing Sesame Street.

Still in a different, maybe package.

Or a different platform.

And, and now they have Daniel Tiger's neighborhood.

But the consistent intentionality behind the work has carried through forever.

The focus on education, the focus on learning goals, the focus on supporting families and having joint media experiences is something that's a staple to the work.

So, that hasn't wavered and that's exciting.

You know, we talked to a ton of people who said, like, thank goodness Homework Hotline was there for my kids.

There's so many different resources over the years the WXXI has brought.

But of course, there's an evolution of platforms, as you say.

Is that made it harder to reach people to figure out how to be in a classroom, to bring the classroom here or to bring the families there.

Is that made it harder?

I think it's challenging, but I think that's the work of a local station.

Right.

Like we're lucky because we have an education team, and that's our job.

That's our job to be paying attention to what's happening in the community, what the curriculum might be, what the struggles for families might be.

You know, like we hear on a regular basis now, like the screen time is a challenge, that YouTube is challenging.

And it's our job as part of the mission.

Right?

The part of the mission is working collaboratively and using the expertise that our team has on the education front to go.

How do we work around that?

How do we support families?

What are the tools that we need to and the messaging that we need to make sure it's getting into the family's hands.

So that can be a really useful thing in their life.

So that changes on a regular basis.

But that is part of our job, right?

That that is part of the local station work, especially stations that have education teams like that is what we're finger on.

The pulse is supposed to be for hey, listen, I'm putting together a video for Instagram today based on yesterday's show.

I'm trying to be on different platforms that, you know, if I wanted to be grumpy and yell at clouds, I'd say I don't.

But the world is changing, right?

You got to be where the people are.

And so let's kind of look back.

And by the way, listeners, audience, if you want to join the conversation, I would love to hear, especially when the CEO joins us in the second half hour, we've been asking people, what do you want in the future from your public media?

You can email the program Connections that WXXI York.

Send us your comment.

What do you want from from where you are from classical in in educational services, in every facet of public media in the future its connection to Zorg.

And we will share your feedback in that second half hour.

What do you remember from those earliest days?

Marian Carberry just the the thrill, I think of being in this new venture and realizing, well, first of all, I think, there was so much support from, Foundation to support from Congress support, which was so critical then to allow a station to develop from nothing, but also figuring out who we were and thinking about who our audience was, was just thrilling.

Every day we come in and say, okay, what do we want to do?

Who do we just like we're doing now?

Who do we want to be?

Who are we trying to reach?

What kind of classical music do I want to play?

What kind of news and information do we want to offer, what kind of children's programing?

And, it was just an everyday process.

And then the craziness of, you know, working 80 hours a week and all that stuff.

But it was thrilling.

That's all I can say.

In over your nearly five decades, you've seen how this station has to say, this building hasn't always been this building.

As John Andrew said.

But how this broadcasting entity has grown as a news operation.

Right.

So 1988 is when newspaper circulation peaked in this country, and now newspapers are an endangered species.

So much has changed.

The one, one of the the rare pieces of growth in the last decade in media has been in public media, in public journalism.

What what did you see over the years that stands out to you in terms of the way journalism has grown here?

Well, I mean, I think the there is a DNA of of commitment to journalism always here.

And in both television and radio, I think it became more difficult in television because it was so expensive.

But at one time there was, I think there was a, a nightly show.

And then they realized that's not terribly practical.

Then they did a weekly show, but there was always a commitment to public affairs and TV.

And then we had a nightly, news program on WXXI leading into All Things Considered.

So it was always part of our DNA to grow, to be more.

And then we had the one class, one station which had to do everything, had to play the music.

And there was this, like, how do we get how do we do all the news and the music and then looking for a second station was just an obsession, really, until until WXXI in 1370 was purchased.

So that was that was the mission.

No, that's really interesting because those early days, if you if you go back and read some of the conversations, even in the 1950s that were being had, there's questions like, well, how are you going to feel?

How are you going to phone that?

By the time you got there, we had so much to fill.

You needed another station.

Exactly, exactly.

And, at some, at one point, Morning Edition came on the air, but we had a very popular program, Simon Pontin with the Sunshine Show, and we couldn't say, Simon, you can't be on the air anymore.

So that's when it the board realized we have to find another frequency because we need to run Morning Edition.

And there were it's a couple of years before Morning Edition was on the air in Rochester until we got that second frequency.

So there was a ton of stuff that we weren't broadcasting before we got.

I think it was 1984 before the Am station came on the air.

So it was an embarrassment of riches at that point, John, and you have become kind of a resident historian in some way, sharing so much with us, educating your colleagues about our history and even in your digging.

Anything surprise you?

Well, as I was researching the music for my program on Sunday morning, I found out a lot of information about music that was used on PBS TV programs and some that I did know and some that I didn't know.

But going back to how you started the program with Rita, the Rochester area Educational Television Association, of course.

You know, the act 1958?

Yes.

There.

You knew that.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, man.

I would have failed that test.

There were shows that this organization did for the commercial stations before channel 21 went on the air.

And as we mentioned ten years ago, channel 21 actually was going for channel 13, did not win that license.

So when channel 21 became available, they jumped on it.

My original thought when I saw the first broadcast, they were on a night before school started.

Why would they go on that night?

They wanted to get on the air, and as Marian probably remembers, they didn't have a full schedule right away.

Eventually they did, probably within the three year period.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

But one of the most important parts is it's all about local, local decisions made here, not somewhere else, all part of the community.

That's why there's so much support all over this region for this TV station and all of the other stations that came after it.

And because of the local events here, think back to some of the educational programs I'm thinking of homework hotline, of course, Monday through Thursday, half our program carried by many of the members of the educational society here and broadcasting in New York State.

I'm also thinking of Assignment the World, which is a 15 minute program.

I think Larry Richardson was one of the host two and, 15 minute program, centered around fifth and sixth graders, but adults could watch it, too.

I watched it with my fifth grade students, and one time a letter was written by a member of the, Assignment World staff.

So many local programs, you think back to the, auction that they had the channel 21 auction that on on the air for, so many years.

And, the Chuck Mangione Friends and Love concert, 1970.

Here's a funny story told to me by Chief Engineer John Bell.

Remember him?

Well, John told me that 15 minutes before the broadcast.

Don't know whether this is accurate news, but here's what I heard.

Okay, 15 minutes before, they were to either pre-record it or go live at the Eastman Theater with the Chuck Mangione friends and Love.

John Bell told me our equipment did not work.

I said, John, what did you do?

Easy.

I banged on the table and it came back in order.

That's what isn't that amazing?

You'll never know the power of public broadcast, the amount of people who claim that they were there at friends and love has grown over the years.

Everybody you meet, Mary and I, is there.

I know, I know of a huge, seminal event in this community.

And by the way, Cara Rager, what a great nugget from John Andres aiming for the night before going back to school shows you the kind of the educational roots here, doesn't it?

Yeah.

I mean, I think the interesting part is most people forget that, education is core of everything, you know?

I mean, we talk about Sesame Street.

We were talking before we started about like the, the purpose of a series like Sesame Street was, of course, to invite kids to learn.

But it was more so a reaction to watching what television wasn't doing, that it was a space full of junk at the time.

And so Sesame Workshop at the time was a children's television network, and they were really interested in using a new platform for good.

How could we create an educational space on television that more kids had access to, especially kids who had less access to resources, but less access to preschool environments?

How could we teach over this space?

And that core component is still true to all the work that we do today.

And and it and even bleeds into things like homework hotline.

Right.

Having a station be responsive to the needs of their community and act by creating something really interesting that would help kids do their homework.

That is core to everything, that's core to all of the work that we do, but it's also core to like what all public media stations are doing when it comes to their education work.

Like it's about making sure that kids, families, educators, community feel supported and can use these new tools in really appropriate ways.

And not having to navigate that on their own.

I've gone back and been watching some 1970s and 80s Sesame Street because I've, we've got a 14 month old and, you know, we don't watch a ton of screens, but Mister Rogers and Sesame Street is going to be on sometimes.

Yeah.

And some of it's just fun because when I was growing up, in my mind, Big Bird had Snuffy nobody believe Snuffy existed.

That was his ostensibly imaginary friend.

And then I sort of graduated from watching Sesame Street with my age.

And so I went back last week and I thought, didn't it ever find out that Snuffy was real?

And yes, they did.

It was like this big reveal episode.

Yeah, I watched the whole thing, like on the edge of my seat, my 14 month old like, what's the big deal?

And that was really purposeful to like, you know, there's a lot of reasons why, you know, imaginary friends or imaginary friends, but there were concerns I think, in the child development world that, you know, that could also mean a lot of other things.

You know, there is a possibility that kids who have been through traumatic situations make up imaginary friends for safety, for security too.

There's so many things.

And so Sesame Street said, well, he was just imaginary.

So we would really we need to reveal that Snuffy is actually real so that kids know that big words.

Okay.

And then to your point, the adults around Big Bird, they all said to him, I will never doubt you again.

You will believe trust in kids.

You know, it was a really such a smart episode.

So smart.

And I think that just speaks to the the research and the experts behind the scenes in the development phase of all of this.

It's intentional.

There's so everything is and it's so intense.

You know, it's funny, you talked about watching these shows with your child.

I have a three and a half year old and we watched Mister Rogers, and we watch a lot of Daniel Tiger in my house.

But we watched an a, a couple of episodes of, Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and it was really exciting to watch him put the pieces together, like seeing trolley.

In a different form and then going, but we.

Oh, having watched Daniel Tiger first.

Yes.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

And so like he has like the opposite reaction.

But even as the adult like even some of like the phrases and the mannerisms and the questions and like obviously the character connections are there, but you know, one of the characters on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, they all have their little like, catch phrase and different things like how you touch or, you know, and you see those little nuggets pulled from the original series that's like the legacy to like that's there for the grownups.

It's there for the kids, but it's there for us adults who grew up watching that series.

These little Easter eggs.

Yeah, it's like fun to watch that connection to and, and to watch the learning be present still as vibrantly in both.

It's so smart.

I mean, it's intentional.

It's brilliant.

I'm going to use a word that's probably overused, but it's brilliant because for the kids, it's entertaining.

Yeah, but even the choice of Mister Hooper dies.

Yes.

Are they going to acknowledge it?

They do a whole episode.

They let adults cry.

Yeah.

They let people see the power of real love and friendship and loss.

Yeah.

When they could have hired another actor, it could have just moved on.

Yeah.

All of those things.

I'm sort of reliving now.

Yeah.

With a younger child in the house.

It just makes me appreciate public broadcasting so much because it is so thoughtful.

It's so thoughtful and and even like an example of that today, too, is like Sesame Street has a whole special on, experiencing a storm.

There's so many places in this country where really big weather events happen.

And they said, well, okay, well, we have to show kids what it means.

How do you prepare for that?

How do you, you know, help each other?

What does it look like when a community rallies together and responds to it like it's not going to look the same for everybody, but acknowledging that the world is changing.

Kids needs the families need support to talk about these difficult topics, from weather related things to personal experiences of loss like that.

The media is there for as a support tool, and it can really help the ups, like some of us didn't have those tools or supports from the adults in our lives.

And to have something that's so trusted give the grown ups the language or the tools to be able to go, this isn't scary.

Like Fred Rogers said, whatever's mentionable is manageable, and that is something that public media definitely takes to heart.

And I think it helps us as a team when we go out in the community, because that respect is there and parents feel that caregivers feel that, educators feel it.

And so it's easy to see how it can get used.

Marianne Carberry, when did you know that everything that that you were also fired up about, you know, again, if you're just joining us, Marion's got the longest tenure in our building, 1977.

She really formally starts in 1966.

So you said that those early days really felt like there was so much energy, and it felt like this incredible mission, but nothing is guaranteed.

And like it wasn't guaranteed to grow and work.

When did you know it was working?

Did you have moments where you'd meet people in the community?

Public events?

Was there something that stands out that says to you like this, this, this is actually working?

I mean, so many I mean, one fun thing that we did is, we celebrated, Earth Day or, you know, whatever it was called.

And we, we called it National Sun Day.

For some silly reason.

I think that was my idea.

And we did it right.

We did a broadcast out on State Street with Simon Parton in the morning.

We did.

Through the whole day.

This is like 1979.

So, you know, the stations were still pretty young.

All the stations were.

And people were driving by and honking and yelling, and people were invited to stop by for coffee.

We had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people coming and stopping and it was just this outpouring of love.

And we realized we actually saw the people, you know, before, too, just spent like the phones ringing during a membership drive or the really were people out there that that that loved us, you know.

So I think that for me was one of the things that I where I actually saw the people and, you know, of course, auction, which was a huge undertaking, just enormous.

You felt the love constantly.

And I mean, people gave hundreds of hours of their time for the auction, but for them, they told you every day it was more about public TV at that point.

But, we were we were at the public TV radio station.

But they told us every day during the auction how much they loved public television.

So those those were really important things back then.

I'm going to before I get some of John's reflections here, let me just grab a phone call.

Mike in the city has been waiting to jump in.

Hello, Mike.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

So, look, I believe I'm just calling to say thank you.

Calling to say thank you.

Because I was a kid in the 70s.

And, you know, for you, a younger folks out there, there was a time in Rochester when we only had four TV stations, and WXXI was one of them.

And as you guys were talking about this show, you played the for me, it's cringe music from Fred Rogers.

I never got into him as a kid.

But, but but as you guys are talking, I, I had two other shows pop in my mind as we're talking about anyway, as we're talking about educational television.

And it was zoom, which was it was again, I'm a, I'm a, I'm an elementary school kid in the 70s.

This show was by kids for kids about kids.

And it wasn't a fun and I couldn't get enough zoom.

And the other show was The Electric Company.

And, you know, for, I'm sure whatever you guys have going to arena, come into town, there's a bunch of there's some oldies in in room going, come on.

Hey, you guys right.

Oh, and but but that was educational television.

And it was incredibly impactful.

And I just never, you know, as I'm sitting here, old guy now, I'm like, I never realized how impactful educational WXXI was.

Now, with that said, I gotta call you guys to task on a couple of things.

The first thing is, I'm a committed fan of Doctor Who.

That's totally your fault.

It wouldn't have been played the only the only place you could see Doctor Who was WXXI and some of my favorite memories as a kid growing up was sitting around with family members laughing at the cheesy production values of Doctor Who.

The other thing I have to really kind of hold you guys accountable for was Benny Hill.

And we'll just we'll just we'll just leave it there.

You don't know what it was.

We won't go any farther.

Don't Google it.

Oh, my God.

But just hey, man, thank you all for the work that you have.

I didn't realize how incredibly impactful you have been on my life until I heard this show.

Mike.

Thank you.

What an awesome phone call.

And I know there's just read in the emails, which we'll get through as many as we can in the second half hour.

Thank you for the reflections, Mike.

Thank you for just the note on what it meant, to have children's programing growing up.

But again, this was a new frontier in so many ways.

And we kind of look back and we're very proud to kind of be at the at the center of that.

So give me a sense, what do you think the future of, of educational work in XYZ is going to be?

I think it's going to be just bored deeper and more impactful then, you know, we've we've got a lot of we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

I think, you know, the the community is telling us what they need and what they want.

Families are very vocal about the supports that they're looking for.

You know, when it comes to media, new technology and things like that.

And, you know, our ear is always close to the ground.

And like Marianne said, like, we don't do this work because we think it's good to do.

We do it because the community is looking for it.

And so, it'll just continue to be deeper and more impactful because we're listening closely to what our partners are asking of us, what our families are asking of us.

The media might change, the platforms might change, but the commitment to doing, high quality work, with the media content that we have will stay the same.

And, you know, it's just going to continue to be joyful to you.

Like, there's a big part of this work that is joyful.

And I think families are craving that, too, in a world that is really hard sometimes.

So more of that.

John Anders I just like to, piggyback on one children's show that was not mentioned.

It was Captain Kangaroo, and Captain Kangaroo came from commercial TV, and at one time he was going to be moved to 9:00 in the morning.

He refused to do it because he did not want to be up against Sesame Street.

Finally, he did get over to PBS after being on network TV.

He was here in the 70s and 80s.

But another thing I like to mention, think of all the documentaries that this station has done over the years.

Absolutely.

We have excellent PBS documentaries.

Thank you, Ken Burns.

But you look at the list of all the documentaries that we have produced, probably more than any other New York State educational system.

Anybody else in New York?

Yeah, I think that's right.

And I think that is such a value.

And people do value the service via TV or radio or streaming or any other device, the educational part of it too.

And my favorite thing is to bring people here and give them a little tour.

And you would be surprised.

Just recently two people came in, man, and a woman from Spencer Port, New York.

I gave him the tour.

At the end of it, they reached into their pocket, each handed me a $20 bill.

I said, I don't need this.

This is for the station, and I've yet to give it to the powers to be, but I promise I will.

So that's right.

You got it?

Yes.

Thank you.

You know what?

As we get ready to go to break, we're going to bring our CEO, Chris Hastings.

And in just a second, let me just say this to John's point.

This is not a fundraising day.

We're not having this show for fundraising purposes by now.

If you're hearing my voice, you probably know the importance of the membership model, because, I've been in commercial broadcasting and in different places in different states, and a lot of people are hurting.

And the amount of people in this community who have stepped up over the years to say, yeah, Marianne's right.

We wanted you to grow.

We didn't want you to just be one station.

We wanted more.

We wanted classical to have its own.

We want the educational department to be there.

We want in-person events for our kids.

We want all of the investigative journalism, the local journalism led by great reporters and journalists throughout the years.

We want that to grow.

John story.

There are so many stories like that, and I just want to say to people who have stepped up over the years to make sure 60 years is not like some endpoint, and we're doing this today because we're having a little fun looking back, but we're looking ahead.

We're growing because the community demands it and it's awesome.

So thank you for that.

And John Andres and Marianne Carberry and Cara Rager, you are all just gems.

Thank you for sharing your reflections.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you Evan.

Appreciate it.

Wonderful and such great voices.

You could be a broadcaster two Kerry there you go.

I'm pretty busy though.

The CEO is going to come in.

We're going to answer some of your questions.

What do you want in the future from your public media?

That's next.

Coming up in our second hour, we've been bringing you special rebroadcast with a look at local history.

This week and next hour, we bring back a conversation about a local civil rights icon that maybe you know all about.

Maybe you don't.

Constance Mitchell and the children's book Constance Mitchell Stands Up meant to bring that story to kids, but really, a story that her family believes everyone should know.

And you'll hear it next hour.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Excel US Blue Cross Blue Shield working with members to find health coverage for every stage of life, helping to make care and coverage more accessible in more ways for more people across the Rochester community.

Details online at Excel USB, CBS, dot com and Mary Cariola Center supporting residents to become active members of the community from developing life skills to gaining independence.

Mary Cariola Center Transforming Lives of People with disabilities More online at.

Mary Cariola.org this is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson, 60 years of WXXI.

Once again, we're going to put in our show notes.

If you haven't seen the timeline history that my colleagues put together, take some time.

Just take five ten minutes.

It's so interesting.

It's really fun.

It goes all the way back to the 50s before the actual birth of Z. Great history in there.

And so we're looking back, but we're looking ahead and we've been asking the community, what do you want in the future from your public media?

CEO Chris Hastings is with us.

And, we got a lot to answer with the community.

So it's great to see you.

How are you feeling these days?

I'm doing okay.

You know, just working hard, tripping every once in a while.

But I'm good for people watching on YouTube.

They're going, that's a purple cane he's got.

That is a purple cane.

I went on vacation and trip down some steps.

Some vacation.

Oh yeah.

That was the first day of vacations you have.

Of course.

Of course.

It couldn't be like when you're coming back.

So I want to start by listening to some sound.

I think we've got that.

So producer Megan Mack has been out in the community this week.

She's been at libraries, at public events and parks, just talking to people and asking them, what do you want from the future of your public media?

We got a little cross-section.

We'll have the CEO respond to it.

Let's listen.

I would like to see that they do it honestly and fairly and don't hold things back, and only put out what they think I want to hear.

I would honestly like to see more like community events.

Just kind of, sharing what's going on in the Communities More Children program, I guess, because I grow up with like Sesame Street and stuff like that.

Like Mr.

Rogers, like all kinds of music that just kind of news, all kinds of for PBS.

One of the things that I, I think I've used the most often is watching part of probably their website, but watching different plays and things that are available.

So I personally would love more classic works like Reading Rainbow is pretty good too.

I like that that one's pretty good.

Interactive shows.

I really like that.

Like the ones that like you can call into like different people.

So you should make sure the programs have time for some.

Oh, and bring back car talk.

Oh, car talk was so amazing.

I have this going on with my car and you probably don't know what that is, but, if they ever would know that I have it, I would be lost.

Since the public wants to see what direction you're going, and to know that you have us in mind as you move forward.

Great job, producer Megan Mack getting that, just a little collection of sound, and I'll read some of your emails coming up, but let's start with what you just heard there.

So CEO Chris Hastings is here.

Number one.

The first thing I heard was I want you to do the work honestly and fairly with diverse programing in mind.

Tell me what you what you think of there.

I think that's important.

That is that is at the core of it.

That's the mission of public media to be diverse and to be this big umbrella so that we have something for everybody.

And I think what's important is we do that and we're going to continue to do that.

And I think it's important that we we listen to that need that affirm something that we're trusted, that we're going to be diverse.

We're not just one thing.

Community events was on the list.

They're they love community events.

We're doing a lot of community in Rochester.

I make this joke that Rochester has a circus every week, and she happens to be part of a lot of that, but we host our own community events, like we've been taking Connections on the road recently.

That technically is a community event, too.

So look there.

You know, my big thing is, particularly this age of digital, it's more important than ever that we get out and we touch the town with this content that we hear from people in person.

And I think this community wants it.

We like to get out before it snows.

We like to get out even when it snows.

But and I think as part of a strategy, we try to make sure that there's a good presence of us for us in our community.

And I think the awareness part to that.

We also own the little theater.

So we have a place to bring people.

Yeah.

And that's a really interesting point about in a very digital world, still being together in person, because it would be easy to kind of retreat to digital space.

Totally.

You heard Marianne Carberry in the first half hour say, you know, in the early days, they're working hard.

They're hoping the community reacts.

But, you know, you don't know when you're in a quiet studio sometimes.

And then you get out and hundreds of people are showing up and saying, thank you for doing what you're doing.

You need that in person sometimes even in the digital world, don't you?

Do you do?

I really do think the pandemic really took something away from people during that period of time.

And what's starting to happen even more is that people appreciate convening and listening and sharing.

And what I think we provide is a trusted space.

No matter where we do it, that when you show up to our events, it's going to be quality.

One thing we can't do is I don't think you can guarantee car talks coming back.

No, no, no, but but I think we should listen to that.

That need of, people want how to write and that's and that's a, that's a like a category that we have.

And maybe it's not car talk and Click and Clack is their name.

Maybe we need to develop something else that's more how to or you know, I know people get into like, well, I had to fix your Mac I don't know.

But that's that's good to hear because as we're sort of, you know, sitting around talking about what what's the next podcast we should listen to that.

One of the comments was, children's programing remains important.

Children's programing, as we've been talking about, has always been at the core of public media.

It remains at the core, but some of the children's program crosses over into community events because Cara and the team, they host events here, we feel like they're literally out in the community every weekend.

Yeah, taking PBS content to the community, it's super important.

Like you don't have YouTube kids shows going out in the community.

And and I'm not hating on the YouTube kids shows.

But I think what's important is because all of our kids shows that come through PBS, there's education built into it.

There are teachers who worked on it to make sure that it's of quality, and it's really made so that to be in person so you can do activity, so you can learn probably.

In the first several decades of public media, the entry was Mister Rogers Sesame Street children's programing.

And then people get older and eventually they become a NewsHour viewer.

But they know they're public media.

They get it from a young age.

Now.

There's so much competition.

It's so fragmented, as you say.

There's there's YouTube programing, there's there's TikTok programing.

There's all kinds of different things competing.

Yeah.

I know you wouldn't be here if you think we compete with the, with the different fragmentation, but it is harder isn't it?

I mean, just harder to get attention.

I think what's important is and then, you know, I've heard I've said this internally.

I'm not competing with that.

What I'm doing is I'm creating a safe space from something that is just evolved.

People consume media out of habit.

I think we're one of those habits, I hope, but I think our habit is it's a safe space to consume and learn, and engage.

Now, the hard thing about it is there's more of everything.

Yeah, for sure.

But on YouTube, like this show right now on streaming, on YouTube, it's a safe space in the midst of everything else that's out there.

And I think if we keep that in mind, we're not competing.

We're just making, a safe environment for learning and for engaging that's centered, that, you know, and we have a doorway for it for all ages.

And I think that's important that we continue to do that.

Music was also mentioned.

Music will still be at the core of XXI in the future.

Did you know we run like seven radio stations?

Yeah, we we do.

One of them is a classical station.

One of them is a way station.

Did you know we do music seven nights a week at the little theater?

So six nights a week at the little theater.

Music is really a big part of the station in many ways.

We're talking about news on this forum on the first, where we're doing a lot of music.

I'm excited by some of the things that we're developing with the team.

We're even talking about doing podcasts and interviews with some of the artists that come through the station.

You had a music performance on this show a couple weeks ago.

I looked up and just like we're doing music, going Connections yesterday, we need to do more music.

On connection.

I agree we all felt the same way.

We're sitting look at rye bread and saying yes, yes, and it sounded great because we've got great engineers.

And speaking of music, Jackie in Fairport writes in to say, how about Tiny Desk concert featuring regional talent?

There's ideas.

Funny, the mayor asked me about that.

The mayor?

Yes.

All right.

You know, he's like a big music fan.

Yeah.

And he said to me, Tiny Desk is his favorite show.

And so we need to think about something like that.

And maybe it's a tiny little desk.

I don't know, but we'll take that to heart, because there's so much music in this community with the Eastman, lot of students here.

Everybody has a band like I have like, I've realized there's about ten different people in this building, whether they're side gig as a band.

So we'll look into that.

And speaking of mayors, here's another mayor riding in.

This is Tim out in West Bloomfield.

Tim, are you the supervisor or the mayor?

You got to remind me here.

Tim's a somewhat regular.

He's a, runs a a very popular to the locals auto mechanic shop.

And he says, I'm 62 years old.

I can't remember a time without I, as a child, a bit old for Sesame Street, but I still watched it just right for Mister Rogers.

Too cool to admit it then, but zoom and that show was a huge influence on me as an impressionable youth.

Can't you just tell?

He says, love you guys for all you do and have done.

Keep on keeping on.

That's from Tim.

And again, he is now the mayor or supervisor out in Bloomfield.

So, thank you, Tim.

Thanks for listening.

When you're doing work in the shop all day.

Well, I mean, I it's always nice to hear that people have got you on in the background when they're working, right.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Or maybe in the foreground.

Sheila says, Wow.

Evan, you have a variable who's who of public radio on the show today.

It's great to hear this anniversary being celebrated.

One of the things that she has always excelled at is the news, your show, the new shows, the reporting of legends such as Randy Gorman and now Gino Fanelli have always illustrated that the kind of professional, unbiased journalism that Rochester is so sorely lacking.

Sheila mentions the music programing.

She mentions the work that was done here on September 11th and around it.

So she said, what I would like to see as a listener and a sustaining member is more in-depth news.

It would nice to see, more print from whether it's city or elsewhere returning to more print roots.

And also, she says, I love the idea of a local Rochester based news program focusing on issues in our community, such as Peace Village.

So she suggests some other, other ideas there.

But news at the core of what she wants.

I've got a couple of comments on news.

Let's talk in general about how you see the future of news and what we can do for the community.

I think it's important that we continue to do news.

And again, I'm going to go back to this idea of safe space right now, journalism as a whole.

It's it's it's there's a lot going on here in terms of sustainability of news platforms.

But because of the age of digital and I, there's a lot of just slop out there in terms of what's true and what's not.

I think as I look at the investments that we have to make, news is one of those investments that I think it's vital.

It's essential you know, it's it's you talked about 911 being a safe space during the nap during that time.

And from what I've heard during the pandemic, this show was a safe space for people during the pandemic, when people were locked in.

We have to remember right now and technology is is enabling things to get to people so much quicker.

And some of it's not true.

We have politicians who are trying to shut us out of places where we need to be to get truth, but what I, what I try to remind myself is the balance of it is news costs money, you know, and we have to make sure that as we're building slates and thinking about, the pace of this happening, we have to make sure that we're continuing to do the beat reporting.

But we also need to do things like podcasts where people are consuming news more.

So we have to think about vertical video as a way to get news out there.

Because that's how people are actually getting more of their video online.

But I think the investment for news is going to be one of those solid places where we're going to continue to put money in, and we want to partner with other news organizations who are trying to serve their community with news.

I made the comment and also last week, I'm not competing with all these other news organizations.

We all have to really look at news and information is a vital part that our community needs.

And I'm not rushing after the fire truck to get the story.

First.

I just want to make sure you get the facts about why the fire truck went down the street.

I was in journalism school when a lot of newsrooms were deciding, okay, we're creating a website.

Should we paywall this?

You know, the Wall Street Journal decided to paywall The New York Times for a while.

Did not.

Washington Post was kind of back and forth, and then local stations had to decide.

And for the most part, news was not paywalled.

And and then I got into journalism as a professional, and I heard a lot of people saying, well, that was a mistake.

Everything should have been paywall, because now we've created this culture where people expect everything for free.

And I look back and I think now, I don't know that that would have saved these newsrooms.

I think more than ever, I look at our model and say, this is the model that works, at least in my mind, because we're not going to paywall journalism, we're not going to paywall the news in our community, in our region, in our world.

But we are going to tell people, you know, if you can afford to give, I need you to give because some people cannot afford to give.

And we're not going to paywall this, we're not going to deprive them of the chance to hear this, to see this, to learn this.

Do you look back and think that news in general made any mistakes with how things were done or.

I mean, the digital world was so wild and open at the time.

I mean, that's a it's a hard question.

Yeah.

I don't know with technology if, if, if anything is ever missed that you can't hold back change.

Right.

I think what has happened in AI is, is, is taking it into an, a whole other, universe.

The idea of monetization, that's a hard one.

You know, it's like if you put it behind the baseball, it's like you're holding back water that people need, right?

Yeah.

I think the hard question that journalism is trying to reckon with is, how do we sustain that when the journalists have to get paid?

How do you sustain it when the technology costs money?

It's a it's a question that a lot of commercial and commercial material reckoning with a lot of for profit newspapers are going nonprofit and making it free.

It's something that I, you know, I've been on a few different panels on this, and I don't have a, an answer to what it's going to look like in the future.

But there's such a need for factual information in the time of AI that if we put it behind a wall, I wouldn't feel comfortable because they're going to get free information just because you have a lot of people are just throwing stuff out there.

Yeah, I, I like our model best.

I like it too.

I'm a big fan.

As we look at the future, we're not just looking back, although we are.

But it's not easy to find this out.

And I don't want to.

I don't want to.

Oh, not say the title.

Of course I you know, we need to we we have to really be thoughtful about the revenue models.

And I talk a lot about this and I know the team is like, well, we're we're mission we sometimes we might need to come up with different ways the fund, what we do to fund the mission.

And then it's a hard question.

We're dealing with within this building with the federal court.

But it's also, a question that, quite frankly, people who are in our industry are dealing with all around the world.

So let me get to other because there's a lot of emails on news.

I'll get two more on news, and then I'm going to get to a couple other subjects with CEO Chris Hastings.

And if you're just joining us, WXXI celebrating 60 years, and we're very proud of that, but we're also looking ahead here.

So this is Jim.

He says, what do I want from local public media for the future?

Very simple.

I want strong, intelligent, investigative reporting on local issues and events, not just within the city, but also from the suburbs and the county legislature.

There's a desperate lack of investigative reporting from print and broadcast media, and there are too many instances of local news stations and print media using AI to write an initial article with no follow up.

There are no updates on fires or injuries, or very little in-depth reporting on complex local events.

In a perfect world, local broadcast media would also provide investigative coverage of relevant, relevant events in Albany.

But who am I kidding?

Thank you for all your years of service to the community.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future.

Jim.

No, I on Connections.

No, I writing stories for the WXXI newsroom and we have you not I mean I you've probably heard Samuel K it's about to say we got a reporter we've had since I was here was Karen DeWitt and now Samuel King, who is fantastic.

Yes.

We have some outstanding coverage coming.

Second, watch him on the air now and out of our sister station and in Albany.

He was great last week on the air.

Now on.

I want to get to know Samuel better because I'm worried he's on a rocket ship and I'm like, dude, I want you to stay with us.

Yeah, yeah.

He's can he is can right is on to.

He's an outstanding reporter.

Yeah.

Really really good and and matters to us by the way Jim.

So I know it matters to CEO matters to us in the newsroom that we're covering Albany, that we're covering events regionally and we're not writing with I understand I'm not going to talk about what anybody else is doing well, to talk about us, but but then let me get, and let me get Laura, who says, bring back more investigative journalism, especially to print.

So, you know, I mean, print is tough because, we have a print publication.

We cover the arts as well.

And I get it.

I get an email every week about what city used to be.

I would I'm gonna be I'm gonna I'm going to, I was I was working on a publisher's note about this city used to be an investigative art weekly.

And after the pandemic, we hadn't made it more arts and culture.

But I would say to you, city is part of WXXI news, and we still invest in investigative journalism.

And every once in a while, investigative journalism ends up in city.

So I think the evolution and the acquisition of city, I think, was a bright, bright, smart move.

And it's one of the reasons I took this job that we still have a newspaper, a print newspaper.

I think the evolution of that hearing from people that they want, you know, more longform journalism, that's I'm glad we still have it.

And it's still a distribution point for our journalism.

So I would say to you, it never went away.

It just kind of evolved into what we are as, as, journalism hub in Rochester.

I would say keep an eye on city because that is a doorway for us.

One for our district, point distribution point for our journalism.

But it's also a great it's, it's a it's a full team.

It's one team.

And Gino, who used to write for city, still writes for city, right?

Yeah.

Exactly.

Right.

And he, you know, he, he he's part of the team.

He's still doing investigative journalism.

Brian Sharp is his editor.

We have a really small, smart team, and they're still doing investigations.

It's one of those things that I go back to where I said funding.

It is something that we need to really figure out how to do, and I think that's why they hired me.

I'm going to read three more quick ones.

Cindy and Spencer report as part of my morning routine.

I'm so happy the app lets me tune in when I visit our daughter in Colorado.

My yoga wouldn't be the same without Zee.

Thanks to all of you.

Thank you.

Tom says WXXI is the soul of the community.

Thank you Tom.

That's awesome.

And what a story from Steve in Rochester.

My brother was born in 1974.

My parents want to name him Adam.

I was four years old and I loved Daniel Striped Tiger.

I told my parents I wanted my brother named Daniel, and my parents insisted they wanted to name him Adam.

I told them whatever they named him, I was going to call him Daniel.

They named him Daniel.

It's amazing.

So we got a Daniel Tiger named brother from Steve.

Steve wins the battle, is a four year old.

That's the power of public media in that family.

90s CEO Chris Hastings.

When when we look at the future, we also are inviting creators to come in and bring their talents here.

Anything you want to mention about that?

As we get ready to close, I would say to you that public media, when it started in the 60s, it had a mission right to be more bottom up.

And my vision on that is we need to continue that in our future.

One you should listen to people, but give me a comments.

What makes us who we are is by the people in the community.

And within this community, there are a lot of creators.

There are a lot of independent journalists, there are a lot of content that is just being made.

And I think it's important that we lean in to that community as we figure out our future.

You know, I don't have any big announcements on what this is going to look like.

But when I look at us, I see us at a studio and a studio.

The whole concept of it is there's some things you do from the top down, but there's a lot that you do from the bottom.

So maybe one way to think about it is for anybody who is a creator of any kind, there may be a partnership that makes sense.

And I think that's right.

So it's it's worth the conversation.

I think that's right.

You guys.

We're talking about Mister Rogers earlier.

Yeah.

Mister Rogers was an independent film maker that wanted to make a show for children and has partnered with WQED in Pittsburgh.

WQED came with the idea Mister Rogers, an independent company.

To this day, his company is still an independent company.

You know, I want to partner with people who want to do right with the in the world.

Thank you for popping in here.

Oh, thank you for having me, captain.

Into his day, the CEO, Chris Hastings.

Looking good.

Moving well, recovering from his injury on vacation.

I'm going to be in sneakers by October.

He deserves another vacation.

And I want to thank as well, Marianne Carberry, John Andres, Cara Rager.

Really?

Anybody in this building could have come in and shared great thoughts.

And I hope that the audience who's listening today, who's watching today, you understand?

Yes.

We're celebrating 60 years.

We have big plans for the future, and we want you to be part of it more Connections coming up in a moment.

But.

This program is a production of WXXI Public Radio.

The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of this station, its staff, management, or underwriters.

The broadcast is meant for the private use of our audience, any rebroadcast or use in another medium without expressed written consent of WXXI is strictly prohibited.

Connections with Evan Dawson is available as a podcast.

Just click on the Connections link at WXXI news.org.