Leslie Wilcox Blogs

Mike McCartney's Good Friends

    Mike McCartney, the new nominee to head the Hawaii Tourism Authority, used to hold the job that I have now, President and CEO of PBS Hawaii.

     I recall that in my first months in this position, people I ran into (on several islands) congratulated me on my move to public television. A large number of them added, "I'm a good friend of Mike."; or "I'm a very good friend of Mike."  Wow. How  many good friends can a guy have?

       It's no surprise that Mike, a former State Senator, appointed State official, and longtime political leader, has plenty of supporters. What was stunning to me was the variety of friends--many ages, backgrounds, and importantly, all kinds of political leanings including disdain of politics. They all felt embraced by him.

     Mike brings with him the willingness to listen to everyone, to motivate, encourage, and to share leadership. After he left PBS Hawaii, he continued to touch bases from time to time, letting us know of an opportunity here and there to move the organization forward.

     A collaborative leadership style is considered a key to success in the 21st century. And that's not only Mike's style,  it embodies who he is.

Your Choice: Fire or Ice Computer Wallpapers

    I'm already turning the page to March. Just changed my computer wallpaper to  a March calendar and a striking photo of lava flowing from Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii Island. "Kilauea: Mountain of Fire" is featured on Nature at 7 pm Sunday, March 29, 2009 on PBS Hawaii. 

     Here's the link: http://www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/wallpaper.php

      I picked the wallpaper over another PBS Hawaii offering--another stunning photo that makes me shiver. It's from "Extreme Ice," the subject of Nova  at 8pm Tuesday, March 24, 2009.  

       A third wallpaper offered for the month is from "Maya and Miguel," the PBS  animated series  featuring pre-teen twins. Both Spanish and English are spoken on the program.

Daily Tweets by the Hundreds

     A young woman pulled out a slim black case, and the person next to her assumed it was make-up compact. Heck no, it was a fold-out keypad that  included a mount for her cellphone. The 20-something student was ready to file photos and text to keep her online community informed.

     Whatever y0u do, don't try to separate Kara Andrade from her cellphone!

     Kara receives about 600 tweets a day, from feeds she's signed up for. She admits liking celeb gossip and  she "follows" people she admires, particularly fellow citizen-journalists. She doesn't read all of the tweets she receives, because that would take time away from  sending  her own bulletins and blogs entries and videos.

      As a citizen-journalist, she's proud of the time when she was in the Bay Area, where the Olympic torch arrived to be held aloft by runners. Protesters gathered, angry about human rights violations and pollution issues in China, the host of the summer Olympic games.

       Kara  hooked herself  into Chinese Twittering circles and found out about a bit of deception meant to evade protesters. She says she hailed a cab, went across town, documented a decoy torch with her cellphone camera, and posted it. All, she said, before mainstream media had the story.

      You think Kara watches "appointment TV"? Not interested. She wants media on her time.

      She's part of a next-generation hunger to be connected, to participate and create, to speak with their own voices.

      And PBS Hawaii wants to be a relied-upon media source for the next generation, just as we've been there for the  sit-back-relax-and-watch-what's-presented viewers.

       Like many TV stations busy with broadcasting, Hawaii's only public television station has only begun to dip our toes into the deep pool of what's now possible in digital media.  Soon we're going to be diving in. And we hope that Kara will hear our splash. If not, we'll send her a tweet...

Candy Suiso's Lifelong Learning in Waianae

  By all accounts, Candy Suiso was an excellent Spanish-language teacher at Waianae High School. Until she concluded that there was another language that would inspire and motivate Waianae's underperforming, low-income students to do better in life. She proceeded to teach herself that language, then taught herself to write grants to obtain needed tools.

The language? Multi-media. Under Candy's leadership, Waianae High has developed the largest video and multi-media program of any school in the state. And the students have won national competitions, including a national student Emmy Award. 

Candy, born and raised in Waianae, says Waianae's children are creative storytellers "because they don't grow up with a lot. ..so they entertain themselves by playing the ukulele, sitting around, talking story, they draw, they doodle, they sing. And it carries over. "

With new tools like cameras, computer editing programs, graphics and music software, the students create at high levels. And when they tackle public service announcements--say, about the dangers of crystal meth or DUI--there's a freshness and a rawness that come from  personal or family knowledge and pain.

"There's a lot of dysfunction. So Much. And you know, that's my world. I grew up there...And they come to us and we give them hope," says Candy.

Hundreds of students are learning life and workforce skills. Newly confident in their skills, they're giving back to the community. It's a social movement taking place on Oahu's leeward coast.

Candy Suiso will be featured tonight (Tues., Feb. 24) on Long Story Short on PBS Hawaii. The program repeats at 11 pm tomorrow (Wed., Feb. 25) and again on Sunday (March 1) at 4 pm.

The Late Bob Sevey Back on KGMB9

     Tomorrow night (Tues., Feb. 24) from 9 to 10pm, KGMB9 will run the late Bob Sevey's final substantive television appearance, commercial-free. The two-part conversation was taped for PBS Hawaii's Long Story Short program and broadcast for the first time in Nov. 2007.

     KGMB Channel 9's general manager Rick Blangiardi asked PBS Hawaii if he could run the back-to-back half-hour shows as a tribute to the memory of the TV station's longtime anchor. Bob died Friday after being diagnosed more than two years earlier with inoperable cancer. 

       Bob Sevey was one of the most trusted and respected people in Hawaii during his two decades in the KGMB9 anchor chair. He left the news business in 1984.

        Much of the conversation on Long Story Short  has to do with differences between Bob and KGMB station management.  Those differences, over news content and presentation, caused Sevey to quit, leaving behind a new five-year employment contract.  Clearly, with Blangiardi, a former colleague of Sevey, KGMB9 is under different management.

       PBS Hawaii is happy to share the video with the television station where Bob put journalism ahead of entertainment values.

       If you'd like to listen to the shows by way of  podcasts, they're available on our website, www.pbshawaii.org  .  So are written transcripts.  Check back soon for online video of the conversation.

Bob Sevey's Final Two Years

     The Academy Awards show is in progress right now on another TV station.  I  chose tonight to watch the encore PBS Hawaii broadcasts of my 2007 conversation with former Hawaii news anchor Bob Sevey, at his home in Washington State.

     I'm still coming to grips with Bob's death Friday, more than two years after he was diagnosed with cancer (lymphona).

     CV, or Captain, as we members of his old KGMB (Honolulu)  newsroom called him, taught me by example about television news. Over the last couple of years, he also taught me by example about facing a terminal disease in a straightforward and even-keeled manner.

      First he did everything to inform himself about his illness. He found an outstanding doctor. He asked the doctor a lot of questions. The doc presented analysis and choices; the Cap made his choices and followed a regimen.

      CV didn't spend time in self-pity, even when his friends offered sympathy and opportunities to vent, rail and cry.  He didn't bring up his condition-- unless asked. 

        When friends did ask--and they always did--he knew they cared, and he conveyed a great deal without using a lot of words.

        And he did so without much emotion. After all, he would say, most of the time the cancer didn't bother him. He was lucky that way, he said. He'd driven himself home after most of his chemo sessions.

        He was interested in talking about other things. He wanted to ask questions---about people and places, about opinions and predictions. He was staying connected.

        CV  had a life to live and he was going to live it, whether it was going to last a long while or a short while.

        Cap  said he never wondered, why him. After all, he pointed out, he'd already beaten the average life expectancy.  

       He kept enjoying life. He played golf (just as badly as ever, he pointed out), shared meals with friends, explored the wide world of the web, had a spot of whisky, traveled with his sister, looked forward to his sons' visits.

       One day last year he decided to stop chemotherapy. The latest "cocktail" formulation was terribly powerful and caused debilitating side effects. CV knew that the disease had grown stronger than the potent drugs.

        While continuing to live in the present, he planned for the future. He tweaked already careful plans to ensure that if he died before his wife Rosalie, who requires 24-hour care for Alzheimers, she would continue to receive the best of care.

         When two of his favorite hires and close friends, Linda Coble and Kirk Matthews,  flew into town to see him, they spent the weekend sharing memories and laughing.  And off they went, with CV using a walker, to gamble the night away at a nearby casino.

        It was tough for me, in that TV conversation, to ask CV how he'd like his obituary to read. He wasn't the least bit fazed by the question--he'd reported many deaths and he'd written obits of some people he loved.

        He decided he'd want the obit to say that he did the best he could.

        Yet another answer, from this consummate communicator and exceptional person, conveying a great deal without using a lot of words.

Overheard at a Twitterfest

      Everybody's good at something. You just have to discover it.

       But what if what you're good at hasn't been invented yet?

       Twittering came along  just in time for a guy whose twitter nickname is "Lonely Sandwich."  The opportunity to write at will, using no more than 140 characters at a time, and share his observations immediately with an unlimited number of others, was an epiphany for him.

       Overhearing a group of young adults reading and sending tweets, I learned they all subscribe to the Twitter feed of Lonely Sandwich.  The Sandwich shares funny comments about things that happen. All day long.

       "Who is he?" asked a passing friend of theirs, wondering at Lonely Sandwich's stature. "What's he done?"

         "Nothing," came the answer. "He admits it. The only thing he's good at is Twittering--but  he's great  at  Twittering!"

         I wonder. Maybe this Twitter master  is just beginning to discover his talents. Anybody who comes up with the nickname Lonely Sandwich might have a calling in naming rock bands.

In Memory of Bob Sevey

      Bob Sevey, Hawaii's most trusted news anchor for two decades until his retirement in the mid-80s, died today following a long battle with cancer. He was living  with his wife Rosalie in a retirement community in Lacey, Washington.

       In memory of the former KGMB anchor, PBS Hawaii will re-broadcast his last substantive television appearance. In 2007, he talked with me at his home about his health, the declining quality of news coverage, and why he left  Hawaii. Join us for the extended conversation in two back-to-back encore episodes of Long Story Short on at 7 pm Sunday (Feb. 22, 2009). A written transcript of the conversation is available at www.pbshawaii.org  -- click on the Long Story Short page.

Sevey, fondly nicknamed "Cap" by his newsroom staff for his command of the newsroom ship, faced cancer matter-of-factly. When asked how he was feeling, he was factual--and brief. Last year, when he returned to Hawaii to attend a reunion of his former staff, he arrived at the party walking with the aid of a cane and accompanied by a dear friend who's a registered nurse. He said he was no longer having cancer treatment. No point, he explained evenly.  He had a good time at the party,  trading stories and chuckling.  There were a lot of people who cared about him and were eager to connect with him. He tired and left early, after a warm and gracious good-bye.

Until a few weeks ago, he and I continued to exchange emails. Usually he'd respond to my inquiries about how he was feeling by saying that the cancer didn't cause him all that much trouble. But he had an unrelated knee problem--and he absolutely hated being dependent on a walker.

He didn't want sympathy. What he wanted was to keep up with what was happening, just like always. The Cap always checked online for news of Hawaii. He was also interested in the news behind the news. What was the internal fall-out of a particular development? And he asked with concern about experienced journalists who were quietly being laid off at Honolulu newspapers.

He was a newsman to the end.

His widow Rosalie has advanced Alzheimer's Disease and Bob long ago made plans for her to be well taken care of.  Bob is also survived by his sons Michael and David, two grandchidren, and sister Sandy, who was a great companion during his illness.

In his personal life, Bob  loved gadgets of many kinds. But in his newsroom, he was unimpressed with gimmicks, bells and whistles--the technology that distracted rather than illuminated. He disliked consultants' formulas for newscasts, including high story counts that kept each news item short and...uninformative. He knew the power of words and insisted on careful word choices. And  he was adamant that news footage be reviewed for taste. No close-ups of gore, no salaciousness.

Thank you, Cap, for insisting on straightforward, high-quality news.

Cheap Seats on the Beach

     Believe it or not, when I was a Honolulu teenager, one of the least expensive places to go for a fun date was Waikiki.

     Back then, free parking was plentiful next to the Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon, next to the old Kaiser Hospital heli-pad. We teens would pack beverages and treats and walk (in our "going out" rubber slippers!) on Waikiki Beach.

     All along the beach, hotels were providing live entertainment of different kinds. We'd find the music we liked, spread out a mat, and enjoyed the sounds under the stars.

      You might think entertainers were irked that we were freeloading on their talents.  But some of the top performers would mention the small young tribe sitting out there on the beach and they'd consider the gathering a compliment. They knew we were kids and perpetually broke. In those days, there wasn't a proliferation of fast-food restaurants always looking for employees. The best jobs were summers at the (now defunct)  pineapple cannery in Iwilei.

      Today there are hotel barriers along the beach and there are far fewer live music venues. Locals generally stay out of Waikiki because of the high prices.

       But when many locals have visitors to show around, one of the  things on the to-do list is the outdoor entertainment at Halekulani's House Without A Key.

      I thought of all of this when PBS Hawaii's producer extraordinaire, Robert Pennybacker, took our Na Mele program out of the studio and on-location for the first time.  He  chose House Without a Key,  with its beautiful oceanside setting under a huge kiawe tree.

      Adults pay for $10 drinks to watch  hula dancers Kanoe Miller and Debbie Nakanelua-Richards perform to the nahenahe (soft) musical stylings of the wonderful trio Pa'ahana.  The sunset and ocean backdrop is glorious.

       Coming up at 7:30pm on Monday (Feb, 23), you can enjoy the "cheap seats" in the comfort of your home and take in an evening at the House Without A Key, by tuning into Na Mele on PBS Hawaii. The program, underwritten by Hawaiian Airlines, was shot, edited and will be broadcast in high-definition.

        In person or by broadcast, you feel the magic of old Hawaii.

      

Business as Usual is a Scary Place

     "Business as usual is a scary place." Great line by the CEO of Atlanta Public Broadcasting Milton Clipper.

      The definition of public media is rapidly expanding. Used to be, you needed radio or television transmitters. Now, with digital media, public media is far broader than broadcasting.

      Of course, those radio and TV transmitters are still extremely valuable, providing free over-the-air signals over wide regions. And public broadcasting--television's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and radio's National Public Radio (NPR)--has strong, trusted brands known for high quality.

      But public broadcasting must jump into digital media with both feet while continuing to broadcast.

      Milton Clipper's broadcast organization is solid at this time.  But he knows that won't last in this full-blown media disruption unless he adds extensive web and other digital features.

      Not just video on demand. Not only podcasts. Interactivity.

       His media organization is launching Lens on Atlanta, an innovative web component that helps Atlantans form online communities around issues they care about, to effect change.

       www.lensonatlanta.org