Tag: NPR

Support For NPR And Frank Tavares

frank tavaresIf you listen to NPR at all you have heard Frank Tavares. Frank is the guy who does all the underwriting announcements nationwide from his home in Hamden!

For those of us who’ve longingly lusted after a Herman Miller Aeron chair or knew the names of obscure charitable foundations who support public radio, it was because of Frank.

A few months ago NPR decided to replace freelancer Frank with a staff announcer. His last session happened this past weekend.

He posted this on Facebook:

Well, barring any unexpected emergencies during the 7 weeks remaining on my NPR contract, the 4-hour-plus recording session I did Saturday morning with Wilma Consuls may be the last of the Tavares voiced funding credits. These are scheduled to air the weeks of November 11 and 18. Bundled together in various groupings, there were just short of 600 individual credits in this last session–about average. The final one was for our friends at The TED Radio Hour–CIG01, “And from Cigna, a global health service company, dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and sense of security. At Cigna dot com,” followed by our nipper. At the end, a little anti-climactic. Wilma and I chatted for a minute or so, “Well…talk to you sometime….” followed by, “This is a good night from NPR Hamden.” Closed the mic, dropped the line, then had lunch standing in the kitchen, while the dog watched closely, hoping I’d drop something. Sigh…

I commented on Frank’s page it won’t be the same, not having him in the shower with me. He’s in the car too and in my office.

I don’t like change. I don’t like this change.

Support for Frank Tavares comes from NPR listeners everywhere, listeners like me.

Radio Daze Part Two: Colin McEnroe On WNPR

I was joining Colin, Rand Richards Cooper and Irene Papoulis. I was the intellectual bottom feeder in the group!

This morning was WPLR. This afternoon WNPR. Can two stations be any more different? WNPR, on Asylum Street in Hartford, is the mothership for Connecticut Public Radio home of NPR programming. Colin McEnroe’s show is part of their expanding commitment to local programming.

Here’s how this works. I’d asked Colin if I could be on. He said yes.

The Friday show is called “The Nose” and features guests who talk about the context of current events. I was joining Colin, Rand Richards Cooper and Irene Papoulis. I was the intellectual bottom feeder in the group!

Today on The Nose: Kobe’s ugly outburst, the little boy with pink nail polish and how today’s gadgets are making yesterday’s classics obsolete. Hear Irene Papoulis, Rand Richards Cooper, and special guest, weatherman, Geoff Fox! Call us from 1-2 at 860 275 7266, email Colin@wnpr.org or TWEET-TUSS! @wnprcolin.

I found the Kobe incident most interesting because it’s a story of a shouted outburst widely reported without actually quoting what Kobe said. My peripheral point was we diminish the ugliness of certain words by keeping them out of the conversation or hiding them with euphemisms like “the ‘N’ word.”

An hour goes quickly. i’m glad I went.

Additional photography (the better shots) by Chion Wolf playing the part of Bill Curry.

NPR Was Wrong To Fire Juan Williams

I have thought about that day many times and have tried to use it positively to make me a better person. I am not proud of what was going on in my head.

Juan Williams the analyst was fired from NPR because of comments he made on Fox News where he also worked. On the face of it that doesn’t seem right. It’s not right when you look deeper either!

It’s not often I agree with Michelle Malkin or Bill O’Reilly. I do one here. I will side with the politically right who feel Williams was jobbed.

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” – Juan Williams on Fox News “The O’Reilly Factor

As soon as I read that I thought of a similar story from my life. Stef was young. She and I had gone to New York City. We were on our way to the Museum of Natural History when we boarded the Uptown Express instead of the local.

As we blew by 81st Street I realized we were the only white people on the train and were headed to 125th Street Harlem where we’d have to get off, walk upstairs to the mezzanine, walk back to the downtown platform and hop a local to the museum. I was upset. I was apprehensive.

We got on the downtown train not far from a group of young black men in their teens and twenties. They were a little loud, but not in a disturbing way. I held Stef close to my side because I was fearful.

I am writing about bigotry within me. It was unfounded. I was not threatened. I should not have judged those young men based on their age or the color of their skin. I was wrong. I still had the fear.

I have thought about that day many times and have tried to use it positively to make me a better person. I am not proud of what was going on in my head.

Juan Williams was making a parallel point.

To have real dialog we have to confront our own weaknesses. Looking back on what Williams said makes it clear he was doing just that.