Happy (Fiscal) New Year! WNED Celebrates Multiple Milestones

By Suzanne Kashuba

Break out the champagne and the noisemakers. July 1 marks the start of a brand new (fiscal) year—that’s right, FY 2013 is about to begin! Since I happen to be a fiscal new year baby, I’ve always felt this day should be given more significance (why wait three more days for parades and fireworks!?).

Landing smack dab in the middle of the year, it’s a good time to look back and reflect. Although my own fiscal year was fairly uneventful, fiscal year 2012 will go down in history as a significant era for WNED public broadcasting. As I’ve been gathering information for our upcoming annual report, I wanted to share some impressive highlights. So here’s my Top 10 WNED Triumphs for Fiscal Year 2012.
Drumroll, please …

In PBS We Trust

By Suzanne Kashuba 

So you’re flipping through the channels trying to figure out what to watch on TV. Or your little ones are tuned in, as you catch bits of laughter and snatches of conversation from the next room.

It may seem like harmless entertainment. Yet, the choices we make about mass media affect our family’s purchase decisions, how we view the world, and how we talk, think and act.

That’s power!

“I Just Shot Amy:” Powerful Documentary Recounts Victim’s Story

By Suzanne Kashuba

It was a routine request. I e-mailed Maryanne Schuessler from NETA (the National Educational Telecommunications Association) to ask for a photo illustrating a documentary WNED would be airing soon.

Her response piqued my curiosity and made me want to tune in:

“Happy to help, especially for this show.  (A year later and I still get shivers.  It’s POWERFUL!)”

The Best of Both “WORLDS”

By Suzanne Kashuba

What else is on? Plopped on the sofa on any given evening, that’s what I want to ask my trusty, old TV. There’s not much on the air that appeals to me these days. I like “The Office” and admit to being an “Idol” fan, but, more often than not, I surf the channels wanting something different, something relevant -- programming that’s worth my “eyeballs” and my time.

170 Million Americans…and counting.

By Megan Wagner

Imagine a world without Big Bird, Clifford or Antiques Roadshow.  Hard to comprehend, right?  These programs, and many more, have become so deeply ingrained into our culture and seem priceless – and all it costs you is less than a cup of coffee or a bus pass.

It’s Elementary: Viewer Support is Key to Quality Television

By Suzanne Kashuba

On a Thursday night in late July, more television viewers in Western New York were tuned into WNED-TV than any other station. What were they watching? The Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Sign of Four.”

A marriage made in NPR heaven

By Megan Wagner

Ah marriage. The courtship, the engagement and then the joining of two people is always such a happy and momentous occasion. After months (or even years) of courtship, a couple makes the decision to take the next step.  Friday at WNED, we celebrated an exciting betrothing of our own – the engagement of WNED AM 970 to WBFO 88.7 FM.

Social media mayhem’s silver lining

By Megan Wagner

My seventh grade geography teacher told us on our first day of class that “the world is getting smaller.”  This single statement was referring to the speed of information we received, at the time, through TV and telephone (“You can see a live newscast all the way from China on the 6 o’clock news!”)  Of course, we totally naïve 13-year-olds didn’t have a clue what that meant – until we grew up years later and were thrown into the social media revolution.