Vol. 4, No. 11: November 2011
Signal
An Online Newsletter from WSIU Public Radio P o w e r e d b y Yo u ®
This Month on Morning Conversations November 1 • SIUC Chancellor Rita Cheng November 7-11 • The Tragedy of Bataan
See the article below for details about this radio series and TV documentary by Jan Thompson, an associate professor in Radio-TV at SIU Carbondale. WSIU Public Broadcasting is the presenting station for this series, which is airing on public radio and television stations nationwide this fall.
November 15 • Science Café November 28 • SIU President Glenn Poshard All Morning Conversations episodes are available online at www.wsiu.org/live. You can also find them on our podcast page and get a calender listing of upcoming events at www3. wsiu.org/radio morningconversation. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Jan Thompson (right), an associate professor in Radio-TV at SIUC, talks with WSIU's Jak Tichenor about her documentary series The Tragedy of Bataan on the set of WSIU InFocus. The interview will air on WSIU-TV on Friday, November 11 at 7:30pm. See below for additional broadcast details. Photo: Monica Tichenor.
The Tragedy of Bataan to air on WSIU Radio Series • Nov 7-11, 6:33am & 8:33am on WSIU Radio | TV Documentary • Nov 11, 8pm on WSIU-TV (repeats 11/12, 12:30am; 11/13, 1pm; 11/14, 1:30am; 11/15, 2:30am; 11/21, 9:30pm; 11/22 & 24, 4:30am) WSIU InFocus: Jan Thompson • Nov 11, 7:30pm on WSIU-TV (repeats 11/13, 12:30pm; 11/15, 2am; 11/18, 5pm) The Bataan Death March. Drawing by Ben Steele.
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arrated by actor Alec Baldwin and produced by Jan Thompson, an Associate Professor in Radio-Television at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, The Tragedy of Bataan is a five-part radio series and half-hour TV documentary that chronicles the fall of the Philippines and the Bataan Death March in the early months of World War II. The series contains first-account interviews with over 20 survivors of the conflict, archival photos, diary excerpts, and never–before–seen Japanese propaganda film footage. The Tragedy of Bataan is being distributed to public television and radio stations nationwide through the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) and PRX. WSIU is the national presenter. Learn more about the series online at www.tragedyofbataan.com.
SIRIS Volunteer: Joyce Lynn Metcalf
SIRIS Volunteer Joyce Lynn Metcalf. Photo: Katie Tullis.
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f you’ve been a fan of WSIU for many years, then you probably know that Joyce Lynn Metcalf is no stranger to the WSIU community. Joyce was born in Carbondale, but spent a few years traveling around the country. After spending time in Lombard and Rochelle, Illinois, Atlanta, Georgia, and Ohio, Joyce began to miss Southern Illinois and decided to move back to her hometown. “I learned I’m not a city girl,” she says, smiling. “I like my rural settings.”
After returning to Carbondale, Joyce was presented with a unique opportunity to get involved at WSIU. In 1982, she received a stipend to help develop a 10-minute local children’s educational segment entitled JoJo & Joyce, which debuted in 1983 and aired before Sesame Street. “It was fun helping to create and launch the show,” says Joyce. After traveling around and working in other parts of the country, Joyce returned to Southern Illinois and took a job at SIU’s Morris Library where she now works as a Senior Library Specialist. Two years ago, a co-worker introduced her to SIRIS and since then, Joyce has enjoyed helping to keep SIRIS listeners informed as a volunteer reader. “Services like SIRIS are a wonderful resource for people who are blind or have physical disabilities,” Joyce says. “I know that if I lost my eyesight, SIRIS would be incredibly important to me, so I want to make sure it’s there for others.”
Joyce’s love for SIRIS also extends to public broadcasting. On WSIU Radio, she enjoys listening to Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?, Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me!, Celtic Connections, and Sounds like Radio. On WSIU-TV, she enjoys This Old House and Masterpiece Mystery. In her spare time, Joyce loves spending time with her new grandson, born this past September, as well as walking outdoors, swimming, and reading a good book. “Reading is educational and entertaining,” she says. “I always carry a book with me, just in case I’m standing in line somewhere. While I wait, I read!” After retirement, Joyce wants to spend more time with her family and devote more volunteer hours to SIRIS and in the community...after a much-needed vacation, of course! If you’re looking for an opportunity to volunteer, why not give SIRIS a try? Find out how you can get involved at (618) 453-2808 or wsiu.org/siris.
WSIU Radio Celebrates Fall 2011 Community Support Celebration
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e’d like to thank everyone who made a contribution to WSIU Radio’s Fall 2011 Community Support Celebration. Thanks to your generous contributions, we were able to raise over $20,000! Yes, we say this a lot, but it’s true: your membership donations are our single, most reliable source of funding. Dollar for dollar, your investment in WSIU Radio goes a long way towards improving the quality of life in our region. Your donations help to support intelligent and entertaining programs heard around the clock, from Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Fresh Air to Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?, Car Talk, and Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me! Your support also makes it possible for WSIU to produce high-quality local programming, including local news and election features, Morning Conversations, Radio Voices, In the Author’s Voice, Eye on the Market, Sunrise Sports, Celtic Connections, Rhythm in Bloom, and Sounds Like Radio. SIUC Radio-TV Associate Professor Lisa Brooten
helps out on the air during our Fall Community Your financial support also helps to fund the Southern Illinois Radio Support Celebration. Photo: Beth Radke. Information Service (SIRIS), a radio reading service for people who are blind or whose physical disabilities prevent them from reading. Your donations also make it possible for WSIU to help SIUC students get the professional training they need to be broadcast industry leaders.
We’d like to extend a special thanks to WSIU staff members Laura Cobin, Susan Patrick, and Lisa Morrisette for coordinating and supervising this event, as well as the WSIU and University staff, students, and community members who volunteered to answer phones and serve as on-air talent. We appreciate you! As you can see - and hear on the air - great things happen when we work together for the common good. And it’s all Powered by You. Thank you!
Poisoned Places: An NPR Investigation
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Jeff Galemore leans on his pickup truck near the Ash Grove Cement plant in Chanute, Kansas. Photo credit: David Gilkey for NPR.
wenty-one years after Congress ordered the EPA and states to go after the 188 most toxic chemicals released into the air, regulators still struggle to control many of the pollutants. NPR and the Center for Public Integrity investigate how air pollution has affected lives in many communities across the country. The investigation shows corn processing plants, paper mills, power plants, and other industrial repeat offenders continuing to foul the air for months or years without resolution by regulators -- and residents are paying the price.
NPR’s correspondents include Elizabeth Shogren, Howard Berkes, and Sandra Bartlett, and the Center for Public Integrity’s team of reporters Jim Morris, Ronnie Green, and Chris Hamby. NPR/CPI is also collaborating with NPR’s State Impact stations and members of the Investigative News Network to expand the investigation well beyond the headlines of the national stories. The investigation includes communities in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New York.
This four-part series begins Monday, November 7, and airs throughout the week on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
First Episode Airs on Monday, November 7 on Morning Edition Poisoned Places: Watch List | Morning Edition • Monday, November 7 NPR and the Center for Public Integrity are making public for the first time a watch list of the chronic violators of air pollution rules. The list was created in 2004 to help crack down on long-term violators that had failed in compliance with the Clean Air Act. Poisoned Places: Tonawanda Coke | All Things Considered • Monday, November 7 For decades, vast quantities of cancer-causing benzene and other toxic emissions emanated from the dilapidated Tonawanda Coke plant on the Niagara River in western New York. Thanks only to a group of ailing residents, regulators are now cracking down on this facility. High-tech monitoring shows benzene emissions were 30 times what the plant reported -- and that was after the plant started to clean up. Poisoned Places: Cement Kilns and Hazardous Waste | Morning Edition • Tuesday, November 8 At the start of the nation’s environmental age, the EPA rushed to respond to hazardous waste dump disasters by pushing toxic garbage incineration. Some “incinerators” already existed in the form of massive cement kilns operating at high temperatures and burning fossil fuels. Hazardous waste was defined as “fuel” and funneled into cement kilns, which are not designed to be hazardous waste incinerators and are not regulated the same way. NPR’s Howard Berkes visits Chanute, Kansas, home to the first cement kiln to get a hazardous waste permit. Poisoned Places: Carbon Black in Oklahoma | All Things Considered • Tuesday, November 8 One of the EPA’s high priority violators is a plant in Ponca City, OK that produces carbon black, a substance used to make tires and other products. Some carbon black escapes the Continental Carbon Company plant, and residents say it discolors their cars, houses and even pets -- and causes illness. Continental Carbon purchased and then razed the homes closest to the plant and spent millions on better pollution controls. NPR’s Howard Berkes explores why the company is still considered a problem plant.
National Day of Listening Friday, November 25 Everybody’s story matters. Every life counts. StoryCorps’ National Day of Listening is an important part of their mission to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. Tune in to Morning Edition and All Things Considered this Thanksgiving weekend to hear inspiring stories recorded by listeners just like you as part of this fourth annual celebration. This year, StoryCorps suggests that everyone reach out to their favorite teacher or mentor to say “Thank you for changing my life.” Some may want to call, while others may dash off an email or a written note. Some may want to schedule time to record an interview, while others may prefer the immediacy of a post dedicated to their teacher on Facebook or Twitter. How you say “Thank you” isn’t important, but taking the time to say it will make all the difference in that teacher or mentor’s life. StoryCorps has also debuted an interactive map on nationaldayoflistening.org to showcase participation across the country. Help turn the country StoryCorps orange by getting involved. Learn how in the next paragraph! TELL YOUR STORY Visit nationaldayoflistening. org and download a do-ityourself kit by selecting the “participate” button. Click “Share” to share your story!
Host Bryan Kelso Crow. Photo: Rachel Snow King.
Airs Saturday @ 7pm • Sunday @ 6pm November 5 | New Releases New and recent vocals and instrumentals are highlighted in this week’s sampling of the latest in Irish, Scottish, and North American traditional music.
November 12 | New From Scotland This week’s program takes us on a musical tour of Scotland, with new recordings from the Highlands to the Lowlands.
November 19 | A Visit with Bachand The exciting young sibling duo Qristina (fiddle, vocals) and Quinn (guitar) Bachand visit the studio and share some live tracks along with their friend Zac Leger (pipes, flute, whistle) and some tracks from their recent CD Family and their earlier CD Relative Minors.
November 26 | Music & Poetry Poets provide the words, then musicians turn them into songs and perform them. In this program, we feature vocal recordings that highlight the close relationship between music and poetry.
Thank You, Underwriters! Please join us in thanking the underwriters who recently began, renewed, or expanded their partnerships to make public radio possible: Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, IL F-W-S Countertops, Carbondale, IL Greenridge Landscaping, Carbondale, IL Long Forestry Consulting, Cobden, IL Old Town Liquors, Carbondale, IL SIU School of Law Dean’s Colloquium Series, SIU School of Law Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture Series, SIU School of Law Graduate Legal Studies Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL Southern Recycling Center, Carbondale, IL WKMS Public Radio, Murray, Kentucky For a complete list of WSIU sponsors and information about sponsoring WSIU programming, visit us online at www.wsiu.org or call (618) 453-4286.
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e think former Southern Illinois University Carbondale journalism professor, Harlan Mendenhall (shown above), would be pleased to know that the public television station he and other University visionaries, including Delyte Morris, Buren Robbins, and Jacob Bach, helped to build is thriving 50 years after its debut on November 6, 1961. Today, WSIU boasts three radio stations and three digital television channels broadcasting around-the-clock; a website that offers on-demand listening, podcasts, and videos; a nationally-recognized education and outreach department; award-winning local radio news and TV production departments; and the Southern Illinois Radio Information Service (SIRIS), a radio reading service for individuals who are blind or physically unable to read for themselves. “That 50 years ago, our founders had a vision for what WSIU could be and how it could improve the lives of people in this region is an inspiring thought,” says Greg Petrowich, Executive Director of WSIU Public Broadcasting. “Who could have known that 50 years later we’d have a vital service that not only meets the needs of so many residents throughout the region, but also continues to teach hundreds of students each year the art of broadcasting?”
WSIU 50th Anniversary Events
WSIU plans to host 50th Anniversary events between now and November 2012, including at least one children’s event. Stay tuned for details as they become available!
Learn More and Share
This month, WSIU will launch a 50th Anniversary web feature at wsiu.org to include historical information and photos from our 50-year history. Additional photos will be posted to WSIUTV’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wsiutv. Be sure to “Like” us on Facebook, then look through the photos and share your favorite WSIU memories – as a listener or viewer, or as a former/current employee, SIUC student, or WSIU volunteer. We’d love to hear from you! WSIU Public Radio Communications Building 1003 - MC 6602 Southern Illinois University Carbondale 1100 Lincoln Drive Carbondale IL 62901 • 618/453-6101 • www.wsiu.org • wsiuradio@wsiu.org