Leslie Wilcox Blogs

Next Stop for Digital TV--Princeville and Hanalei

Our PBS Hawaii team has been making quick progress on Kauai, converting public television's analog translators to brand-new digital equipment to serve over-the-air viewers.

  Today our head of Content Delivery, broadcast engineer Steve Komori, is working on our northernmost  facility serving the Princeville/Hanalei area.

Here's his summary of the digital installations on Kauai that began three days ago.

 -Lihue on the air, Tues., 12-15, 5:30 pm

-Anahola on the air Wed., 12-16, 6 pm

-Waipake and Kilauea on the air Thurs., 12-17, 7:30 pm

We're getting initial word from the southern part of the Big Island, where Steve's team worked before moving on to Kauai, that the digital picture quality is beautiful.

 In the first month of this year, PBS Hawaii's transmitters on Oahu and Maui began transmitting with revolutionary digital technology, in accordance with a federal mandate. There is no federal mandate for other transmission equipment. But in this final month of the year, it's a pleasure (and an achievement in a tough economy) for this nonprofit organization to make our extensive translator system all-digital, for upgraded service.

New Digital Translators on Two Islands

The deed is done. And it's a good deed! 

 PBS Hawaii's new digital translators have been installed and we're beaming digital pictures to over-the-air viewers all over the island of Hawaii.

 If you're an over-the-air Big Island viewer, you need a digital TV, or a converter box on your old analog TV set. Do a channel scan to pick up and enter our new channel frequencies. 10.1 is our main channel in high-definition and 10.2 is all keiki shows, all the time, on the PBS Hawaii Kids Channel. 

 Our chief of content delivery, Steve Komori, worked with a crew to install the digital translators on the Big Island and has moved on to Kauai  to do the same thing. The Kauai installations are still in progress.

 If you're wondering why public television in Hawaii didn't go digital in these areas earlier this year, during the federally mandated digital transition--it's because the mandate applied only to transmitters, not the smaller translators that we use to take our signal farther into rural areas. (We erected new digital transmitters on Oahu and Maui on Jan. 15, 2009.)

But we want people throughout Hawaii to see to crisper, richer picture quality. We're listening for feedback and we stand ready to make adjustments.

 If you have questions, feel free  to call us at (808) 973.1178 or post here and we'll work to get you answers.

What's Onscreen This Week

  Here are highlights of what's available this week from the comfort of your sofa, if you're watching primetime PBS Hawaii.

 ---In "Anatomy of a Pandemic" (Mon. Dec. 14, 2009, 9 pm), senior correspondent for PBS NEWSHOUR Ray Suarez reports thoughtfully on the ongoing H1N1 flu virus pandemic. This seasoned journalist understands that context is important--so besides providing the latest developments, Ray supplies comparisons with past pandemics, including the sweeping 1918 influenza outbreak.

--PBS HAWAII PRIME PICKS (Mon., Dec. 14, 2009, 10 pm) brings us "Between the Folds."  Yeah, you can make a paper crane or a paper plane. Watch and see origami being taken to a wild new level. 

--Broadway star and Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell celebrates "Christmas with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir" (Wed., Dec. 16, 2009,  8 pm). Both the magnificent choir and the orchestra consist of unpaid volunteers. Songs to be performed include "Angels from the Realms of Glory" and "Sleigh Ride." Actor Ed Hermann reads "The Christmas Story."

--GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET "Tosca" (Wed., Dec. 16, 2009, pm) presents a new production of Puccini's "Tosca," starring soprano Karita Mattila in her first Met performance in the title role. This three-act Italian tragedy combines a love story with political significance. It was dissed by critics when it was first performed in 1900, but became a popular staple of opera.

--INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAII (Thurs., Dec. 17, 2009, 7:30 pm ) circles back to check on how anticipated changes to national health care will affect us in Hawaii. Dan Boylan moderates a discussion, televised live, with local medical doctors and policymakers. Howard Dicus provides economic perspective.

--GLOBE TREKKER SPECIAL "Ethiopia" (Thurs., Dec. 17, 2009, 10 pm) takes us bargain hunting in the controlled chaos of the biggest outdoor market in Africa and visits the purported resting place of the Bible's Ark of the Covenant.

--"From Mao to The Met with Hao Jiang Tian (Sat., Dec. 19, 2009, 8 pm) features song and story by the Met opera singer, sharing in his resonant bass voice what it was like to come of age during China's Cultural Revolution. He also recounts a life-saving experience.

--Have yourself a merry little Christmas as you listen to the throaty baritone of an enduring singer. SOUNDSTAGE presents a special concert, "Michael McDonald - This Christmas" (Sat., Dec. 19, 2009, 10 pm).

* Encore of the week:

--PBS HAWAII PRESENTS "Bhutan: Taking the Middle Path to Happiness" (Thurs., Dec. 17, 2009, 8:30 pm). Maui-based director/producer Tom Vendetti has won a Telly Award for this film since we aired it last April. Bhutan has a captivating concept, using the inexact measure of Gross National Happiness rather than the traditional stats of Gross National Product to assess the Buddhist country's quality of life and well-being.

Soda Cans' Lasting Holiday Shine

  My family decorated the Christmas tree this weekend, gently finding places among the branches for ornaments full of memories of kids' holiday school projects, travel, loved ones' hobbies, favorite sports teams, fun experiences.

  As always, I brought out the unlikely ornaments given to me by a man I met only once, back in 1986. He'd noticed me working as a volunteer on a holiday charity project. One day he thrust a paper bag of ornaments into my hands and said, "These are not for (your charity). They're for you, so that you can have a good holiday too."

The elderly gent had cut up soda cans, shaping them into stars and circles with curled metal strips, and adding beads and glitter. This may sound funky--and in fact, the ornaments looked pretty funky in the paper bag--but trust me, they look great on the tree! Then and now.

I always remember the man's thoughtfulness. 

 He represented a subculture of givers--helpers who help helpers. I've come to meet quite a few of them. People who stop by with cold drinks, snacks, manapua or a casserole dinner during an all-day volunteer effort. Or who leave sweet little wrapped gifts of remembrance to thank those giving their time.

This kindness outlasts the holidays. My soda-can ornaments still shine with sentiment, 23 years later.

Social Safety Net, Artists, Guam Build-up, Barracudas

  Just want to give you a heads-up on interesting programs coming up tonight and tomorrow night on PBS Hawaii:

TONIGHT (Thurs., Dec. 10, 2009)

---What's the longterm human fall-out of the budget cuts to Hawaii's social service programs? That's what INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAII will look at tonight at 7:30. Dan Boylan moderates the hour-long live show and welcomes viewer phone calls, email, Twittering  and live blogging at www.pbshawaii.org Guests on "The Legacy of Social Service Cuts" are:  Joann Freed, Executive Director, Family Support Services, West Hawaii; Alex Santiago, CEO, PHOCUSED; Karen Umemoto, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii at Manoa; and  Kevi-Ann Andrade, teen mother who was able to graduate on time with help received from the Early Head Start program at Family Support Services, West Hawaii.

---Following INSIGHTS, at 8:30 pm., a brand-new locally produced special, ARTIST2, will be shown on PBS HAWAII PRESENTS. A follow-up to last year’s ARTIST show, ARTIST2 gives us an artist’s eye view of the creative process. This time, the diverse artists include Tadashi Sato, Doug Young, the Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Festival and the band Oriental Love Ring. (An encore of the first ARTIST follows at 9 pm.)

--At 10 pm, the Globe Trekker Special “Best Dives” plunges us into the world’s top 15 dive sites. I can do without #1—Borneo, home of a huge school of barracudas that surround divers.

TOMORROW (Fri., Dec. 11,  2009)

--At 8 pm, the national show NOW ON PBS looks at the U.S. goverment's plans to move thousands of military personnel to Guam. A huge business boom is expected, because of the need to beef up Guam's infrastructure and housing. In Hawaii, it's not unusual to run into construction tradespeople, engineers,  Realtors, investors and others who've been checking out prospects in the Guam market. What's this huge military/construction influx going to mean to little Guam?  This episode was partly funded by Honolulu-based Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC).

Sleeping to the Sound of Thunderous Surf

There's more high surf to come, but my North Shore neighbors are getting sleep, now that predicted epic waves are rolling in something less than that.

 We're experiencing shock and awe, all right, with the thunder of crashing waves and heavy seaspray visible in the air at least a full block inland from the shore. But no property damage and no need to flee for one's life. And there's no point to washing one's car...

The night before the first of the big swells, one of my neighbors was out in his yard until at least 11 pm, wearing a light on a headstrap to illuminate his work, trenching and buttressing his yard. Other residents put up a line of steel panels held in place with big chains wrapped around trees in their yard. 

But most folks in the Waialua/Mokuleia area whose houses are too close to the waves for comfort simply removed their yard furniture and anything else that might roil around in invading surf. They figured that's all they really could do.

"You don't live on the North Shore and still feel you can control Nature," a resident said, sipping a Full Moon beer and watching the churning whitewash covering the beach. "You don't live here if you're too connected to your possessions. The only thing I need to do is be ready to leave."

  I do worry that in the event of an evacuation, residents will take too much time rounding up their pets, much-loved animals who have room to roam in this rural setting.

   

General's Orders

   Kirk Matthews and I were emceeing the National Philanthropy Day awards in Honolulu, when retired Gen. Fred Weyand asked me to hand him the microphone.

  That wasn't the plan. Entertainer Jim Nabors was to make a speech on behalf of the general and his wife Mary.

  Gen. Weyand, still crisp and regal  in a wheelchair, nonetheless motioned for the mic.

  I handed it over.

  "Leslie knows she needs to follow the General's orders," Fred smiled.

   Gen. Weyand wanted to personally acknowledge the award being presented to him and Mary--Hawaii's Philanthropists of the Year 2009.

  The career military man said he was having a tough time justifying being singled out for the honor. After all, he said, all soldiers pledge the ultimate gift.

     "I can't think of any gift that is more significant than pledging one's life for the well-being of others. It truly is the highest form of philanthropy," he said.

  In addition to having pledged his life for his country, the General, hand in hand with Mary, has given more than $700,000 to the Hawaii Theatre Center.

  The center nominated the Weyands for the 2009 award from the Hawaii chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals.

NOVA's News on Historic Dec. 7

On this 68th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports on research by PBS' NOVA series, suggesting that a Japanese midget sub helped sink the battleship Oklahoma in 1941. 

  It's a matter of grim history that the Japanese attacked with devastating results from the air. But from the sea?

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091207_sea_yields_clues_to_41_attack.html

  The story is written by longtime journalist Helen Altonn. Another veteran Star-Bulletin writer, Burl Burlingame, served as a historian on the NOVA project. Burl is the author of "Advance Force Pearl Harbor."

  Did this particular 80-foot-long, two-man midget sub slam a torpedo into the USS Oklahoma? And why was wreckage of the midget sub found miles outside of Pearl Harbor?  NOVA, working on the basis of discoveries made by University of Hawaii researchers, lays out its propositions.

  But those immersed in the investigation don't claim to have all of the answers.

  Reporter Helen quotes author colleague Burl, "The more we learn, the more mysterious it gets."

   Dive in and watch this NOVA special on Tuesday evening, Jan 5, on PBS Hawaii.

   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/killersubs/

Bocelli Inspires "Sustained Chicken Skin"

  "Andrea Bocelli gave me 'chicken skin,'" a viewer told me about tonight's PBS GREAT PERFORMANCES presenting the soulful tenor and the "hitmaker" David Foster, performing in a holiday special with others, including Reba McIntire and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

  "Actually, it's more than that," the viewer went on. "It's sustained chicken skin. The experience stays with you."

   Other phone callers agreed, calling in their pledges of support to PBS Hawaii. Our Board of Directors, led by Chair Robbie Alm, staffed the phone bank. They didn't just answer the phones; they used their mobile phones to text, email and Twitter invitations to watch the program and call with support.

Some came farther than others to help out in our Manoa TV studios--Hokulani Holt and Keiki-Pua Dancil, Ph.D hail from Maui, Jason Fujimoto is from Hawaii Island, and Marissa Sandblom is a native of Kauai.

Hokulani, a respected kumu hula and cultural programs director, and fellow Board member Ian Kitajima, a technology/research company mover-and-shaker voted one of the "Top 20 Social Media Geeks in Hawaii," agreed that they have a great deal in common, including commitment to timeless values and cutting-edge strategies.

Taking phone calls, Board Vice-President Ron Hansen noted that callers were saying  the episode of GREAT PERFORMANCES was the best holiday show they'd seen, and it was only available on PBS. Board Member Cameron Nekota said people wanted to give the gift of good programming to the community.

With Bocelli's pipes, our Board's energy and enthusiasm, and the inherent appeal of quality, noncommercial media, viewers came through to support Hawaii's only public television station.

Bocelli and our Board of Directors

You're used to seeing people on PBS phone banks, taking pledges of support for public television.

Tonight, on Hawaiian airwaves, the people staffing the phone bank will be the Chair of the Board of Directors, Robert Alm, and other Board members of PBS Hawaii, from every county in the island chain.

 I always like to get a sense of the top leadership of  nonprofit organizations that I support, and I invite you to look over and listen to our Board.  Tune in-and call! Pass along a comment or suggestion, and make a contribution to viewer-supported, statewide public television. Or go online at www.pbshawaii.org/support

The live pledge program starts at 7 pm (Sun., Dec. 6, 2009). Viewers will hear from Board members briefly between portions of a GREAT PERFORMANCES concert featuring wonderful tenor Andrea Bocelli and hitmaker David Foster.