Leslie Wilcox Blogs

Post-Outage TV Gremlins

     It should have been a relief to see the PBS Hawaii back on the air after the Oahu-wide power outage during a weekend thunderstorm.

     But some viewers weren't seeing PBS Hawaii programs on PBS Hawaii. Instead, Oceanic Time Warner Cable subscribers found themselves looking at infomercials and Japanese-language  programs, on PBS Hawaii's cable channel 10.

     Oceanic Cable restored our programs to our channel, but I'm told it still isn't able yet to explain how the switch happened--except that it had to do somehow with Hawaiian Electric's massive power loss. (Also as a result of the outage, PBS Hawaii is experiencing loss of overnight programming for Oceanic cable subscribers only. Our VP/Content Delivery, Steve Komori, is working with Oceanic to resolve this.)

     Crazy stuff. We send out our programming and once in a blue moon something else takes its place. It's our second such odd experience of late. At least the earlier switcheroo was explained. When a satellite TV company transitioned from our analog broadcast to our digital stream, a technician's error resulted in kiddie programs replacing our flagship NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

     Speaking of analog-to-digital, we're plenty busy getting ready for the federally mandated broadcast shift to digital-only signals, coming up on January 15 in Hawaii.

     TV Gremlins, if you're going to get involved--lend us a hand, not somebody else's programming.

 

 

Getting a Lift to the Party...

The youngest celebrant at the PBS Hawaii staff holiday party, held in our TV studio the other day,

was this sweet little bundle in pink, Ella Bosworth, with eyes that never stopped observing.

 Her dad, Bryan Bosworth, is our graphic artist.

When Bryan brings her to the office  to visit, he has to practically fight off his colleagues who want to hug and hold Ella.

Guess what TV channel Ella will be watching for children's programming?

Not Such a Dark Night

     When the power went out in Waialua last night, rain was gushing off our roof, thunder was booming and a car alarm was screaming outside, triggered by the weather trauma.

      My husband Jeff went into a zen-like survivalist mode, setting out flashlights and lanterns, turning on the NOAA weather radio, seeking a vantage point to gauge the extent of the outage. From Kaena to Sunset Beach, the only light he saw was car headlights, obscured by rain.

      Jeff's no one to wait anxiously for power to be restored. He's self-reliant and ready to make the best of loss of power. He keeps a propane gas stove handy, along with some surprisingly tasty add-water-and-mix food pouches left over from the latest camping trip.

      A longtime North Shore resident, he's had experiences going without water and power. After Hurricane 'Iwa, there was no electricity  for two weeks  in a 5-block area of Haleiwa where he lived in a household that included two little ones in diapers.

       Another time, a storm sent a tree crashing down, blocking the narrow lane that serves our neighborhood. Jeff went out with a chain saw and unblocked the road.

       The point is, Jeff doesn't expect the utility companies or government or anyone else to come to his aid right away. He knows that rural areas, with smaller populations, are often the last to be served. He's going to do what it takes in the short run and I think that more times than not, he rather likes the opportunity. (Just don't tell HECO.)

         Our neighbors didn't miss a beat last night either. Their front windows showed the cozy glow of flickering candles.

       We feel fortunate that an overnight islandwide power outage was not much of an inconvenience for us; rather, at our house, it was a safe bit of adventure. It'll be interesting to find out what knocked out power. The weather was bad, but in our little piece of turf it certainly didn't seem wild enough to black out almost all of Oahu.

       I'm just sorry that the North Shore took another drenching,  before residents who recently sustained flooding had a chance to thoroughly dry out and recover.

Small Things Stick

      Funny how small things stick. 

      In 1992, when I was offered a job at Hawaii's #1 (commercial) television news station,  it tickled me that coffee was available for free in the station kitchen. It was a nice touch, a nod to the staff's hard work and a waker-upper in working extra hours in pursuit of the news.

     Unfortunately, six months after I started working there,  it was decided that in a business downturn, the coffee service was an unnecessary expense. Business rebounded, but free coffee was never seen again.

      Fast-forward 15 years. I was visiting Hawaii's (nonprofit) public television station, PBS Hawaii,  deciding whether to accept a job offer, and I found myself in a  kitchen where free coffee and tea were readily available  to station staffers and guests.

     "This and our TV studio are the heart of the place," said my longtime colleague and friend Michael Harris, who was showing me around. Indeed, staffers popped in for a hot beverage, and they stopped by to warm up their home-made lunches in the microwave, and they dropped off goodies to share.

      I was happy to accept the PBS Hawaii job.  The friendliness of the kitchen wasn't a breakthrough reason. It was a small thing. But I was impressed.

      It seemed to underscore an interest in employees' comfort. The  modest expenditure in the kitchen  was also an investment  in morale-building and a sense of community.

      Looking to 2009,  our management team is reducing expenses, as the recession is expected to deepen in the first part of the new year.

      However, the free hot beverages in the kitchen are not on the radar screen for cost-cutting--especially as our staffers are called upon to stretch and multi-task in this digital age of media.  

       Funny how small things stick.

Mary Bitterman: Skills, Heart and Collaboration

     Across the country, this month's college commencement speakers must've swallowed hard in preparing to address graduates entering the job market in the midst of a global recession.

      My hunch is, the prospect wasn't all that daunting for the speaker chosen by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dr. Mary Bitterman, who heads the Bernard Osher Foundation. Regardless of the circumstances, she's always about hope and possibilities.

     In a previous position, she's credited with turning around the once-failing San Francisco public television station, KQED.  At a young age, before she was 30, she headed Hawaii's public television station; she had the job which I hold today.

     Mary Bitterman's hope has always been accompanied by fresh ideas, expertise, personal influence, professional networking, persistence and that magical quality, heart.

    So it's no surprise that in a newspaper interview after her UHM commencement address,  she said it's "a time for people who have both skills and heart to get in and move America forward."

    In her speech, she said: "To the solution of these terrible problems, each of us can bring only limited expertise. But it is to be hoped that together--and remember the parable of the bundle of straws--we will be able to solve them."

    

Terrence Quinsaat Look-Alike Contest

 

PBS Hawaii dedicated our staff holiday party to Terrence Quinsaat, on the left, who has run our educational outreach program, Ready to Learn, for five years.  

In Terrence's honor, we held a look-alike contest. Three employees vied for the distinction of looking like Terrence. All opted to dress like Terrence in his other  role as a PBS Hawaii television studio technician. Robert Pennybacker won the prize by wearing a backwards cap, T-shirt and shorts, perching a video camera on shoulder, and saying "Will someone please tell me what we're doing?" His impression struck our staff judges as just right.  

As PBS Hawaii's Ready to Learn coordinator, Terrence has held hundreds of workshops all over the Hawaiian islands over the last five years. He's met with parents, teachers and guardians of young children to prepare the little ones for literacy. He's enjoyed sharing many fun books and other creative educational materials to get keiki  interested in reading.             

We dubbed our holiday party "Ready to Learn--and Ready to Party."  We had a great time together in our TV studio.  And it felt good to let Terrence know just how much we've appreciated all the miles and smiles he's put into his work with children and adults.                 

Robert Pennybacker, Terrence's look-alike winner, is PBS Hawaii's VP/Creative Services.

Online Ode to Obama

     I'm online a lot--researching content and other information for PBS Hawaii, keeping up with news and trends, and of course, writing this blog.

     But so far I'm just scratching the surface.  So different from children and young adults who create online.  Not in connection with school or their jobs--but just because they can. 

     Here's an example of one of those online creations, a family endeavor by PBS Hawaii's self-described "web guy" Jeff Langcaon and his daughters. They wrote, drew, voiced and edited a homegrown, topical version of a favorite holiday song. Their subject is the Hawaii visit of President-Elect Obama. The project was no big deal for them, just a fun family thing to do and a future warm memory. The Langcaons posted the piece on youtube.com and went on with their holiday season. That's life on the web.

 

High-Definition Children's Shows on PBS Hawaii

    Do you have a high-definition television set? If so, check out the children's programs that PBS Hawaii runs every morning. As of today, more of them are available in HD. 

    We  have a big television set in our lobby at PBS Hawaii, and this morning the new dimension of of keiki-show clarity is stopping adults in their tracks.

    The quality of the picture is so sharp, it looks like kids can reach out and touch their favorite character. Most of the shows encourage participation and interaction--and they're more inviting than ever.

 

Golden News--KHET Digital Service Restored

     3:45pm. That's the time today that PBS Hawaii's VP/Content Delivery, Steve Komori, confirmed that PBS Hawaii's KHET is back to normal, sending out digital TV signals.

     If you're a digital over-the-air TV viewer on Oahu or if you're a satellite company subscriber, you haven't been able to catch KHET for 10 days. Now you can, finally.

     I'd like to thank new Hawaiian Telcom executive Steve Golden for getting this matter resolved one day after it reached his desk. Until he got ahold of it, we were being given expected HawTel repair dates that kept getting pushed back.

     The outage. which occurred during heavy rains, was traced to a Hawaiian Telcom cable that runs underground in steep, densely wooded terrain in West Oahu. The cable is a pivotal link in our digital transmissions on Oahu.

     PBS Hawaii will be pursuing means of better protecting digital links and ensuring swifter resolution in the event of a problem.

      Mahalo to affected viewers for their patience and understanding.

10 Days and Counting on Oahu Digital Outage...

     10 days after heavy rains caused an outage in a Hawaiian Telcom cable used to send out PBS Hawaii's KHET digital signal from Oahu . the cable remains dormant and our Oahu digital signal remains stilled.

      Never before in PBS Hawaii's history has a weather-related transmission problem taken so long to be restored. And it comes as we want our over-the-air analog viewers on Oahu to convert to digital reception, ahead of the approaching big  digital transition Jan. 15.

      This morning, Hawaiian Telcom informed us the source of the outage has been isolated to a mile-long stretch of the cable in steep, densely vegetated terrain in West Oahu--and this portion of the cable is buried.  Apparently, HawTel says, this cable set-up comes from old military use.

      And so today, HawTel has engineers on the mountain, looking for new options to put PBS Hawaii's KHET digital transmitter back on the air.  We at PBS Hawaii are obviously more than eager for word, and we're also investigating other alternatives to restore service as soon as possible.

       PBS Hawaii is not the only HawTel customer affected by this outage.

       We apologize to our over-the-air digital viewers and viewers who subscribe to satellite companies (the companies pick up our over-the-air digital signal) for the extended break in service.

       This problem does not affect the majority of our viewers, including cable subscribers and over-the-air digital viewers on neighbor islands.

       I'll be sure to update you on this. Any questions, please feel free to email me at leslie@pbshawaii.org. You may also participate in our VP/Content Delivery Steve Komori's "Digital Dialog" blog elsewhere on this website, www.pbshawaii.org, or call PBS Hawaii viewer services specialist Christina Kanemoto at 973-1187.