June 30, 2012
This week, Perspectives explores politics in the wake of the New York State primary with Jeffrey Koch, Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Geneseo. The show breaks down politics into the national, state, and local level. Who is ahead in the Presidential contest: President Obama or Mitt Romney? Can incumbent U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand be threatened by New York's new Republican Senatorial nominee, attorney Wendy Long? What intriguing Upstate New York Congressional and other regional races loom on the horizon? This week, politics of every stripe, hue, and view, on Perspectives.
June 23, 2012
This week Perspectives explores an extended bur relatively recent member of the American family: the personal computer. John Crowley is the founder and president of the popular Rochester, New York-based company, Biznetix, specializing in the web site. He explores that and other aspects of the personal computer: the Internet, Googling, Facebook, and Twitter. Steve Dawe joined WXXI Radio and Television in 2009 as Director of Multimedia Engagement for its Center for Public Affairs. He discusses today's increasingly toxic blogosphere and how WXXI programming has tried to counter that trend with literate and nuanced programming. This week, how the personal computer has changed us all, on Perspectives.
June 18, 2012
This week Perspectives details the life of a Rochester, New York, original, Johnny Antonelli, as told by a fine Rochester writer, Scott Pitoniak, in a new book Johnny Antonelli: A Baseball Memoir. Antonelli will discuss his storied life from Rochester's Jefferson High School to a sterling 1948-50 and 1953-61 major-league pitching career with the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, New York and San Francisco Giants, and Cleveland Indians to a second, equally successful career with Johnny Antonelli Firestone Tires. Scott Pitoniak has written 15 books, won more than 100 journalism awards, and will discuss collaborating with Antonelli on this book. This week, among Rochester's most legendary citizens tells his story in print and on the air, on Perspectives.
June 11, 2012
This week Perspectives details an event that has never occurred before: a single baseball park hosting two Triple-A franchise home schedules in the same year. The park: Rochester, New York's Frontier Field. The two Triple-A teams: the Rochester Red Wings, playing 72 home games, and the Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, renamed "Empire State," Yankees, playing 38. The challenge: to keep the field, front office, grounds help, and players at peak condition to house 110 games. Dan Mason has been the Red Wings highly regarded general manager since 1995. He describes how the dual-team park evolved; the challenges in fielding two home teams; and how the Rochester community has reacted to the nonpareil situation. This week: baseball history in the making. Rochester Red Wings G.M. Dan Mason, on Perspectives."
June 4, 2012
This week Perspectives continues its series on local political candidates whose campaigns may affect the listener: in this show, Bill Nojay, the possible Republican nominee for the 133rd District New York State Assembly seat. Nojay has been a lawyer, former Commissioner of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority, then candidate for U.S. Congress, and now radio talk show host. Recently he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the Assembly seat. Nojay will discuss his background, how he views the Assembly, and the challenge facing New York State -- creating and retaining jobs. He will also detail the Republican Primary he must win to advance to the general election. This week, Bill Nojay, on Perspectives.
May 26, 2012
This week, with political season already much in season, Perspectives begins a series of one-hour perspectives on local major-party candidates. The series begins with the former chairman of the Monroe County Democratic Party, current Minority Leader of the Monroe County Legislature, and recently announced Democratic Party candidate for the fifty-fifth District New York State Senate seat. Ted O'Brien will describe the district's closely competitive nature, which issues matter most to its public, his likely Republican opponent, and what role incumbent Senator James Alesi is likely to play. This week, a special series on 2012 Western New York major-party political candidates begins on Perspectives.
May 18, 2012
This week Perspectives explores an extended but relatively recent member of the American family: the personal computer. John Crowley is the founder and president of the popular Rochester, New York-based company, Biznetix, specializing in the web site. He explores that and other aspects of the personal computer: the Internet, Googling, Facebook, and Twitter. Steve Dawe joined WXXI Radio and Television in 2009 as Director of Multimedia Engagement for its Center for Public Affairs. He discusses today's increasingly toxic blogosphere and how WXXI programming has tried to counter that trend with literate and nuanced programming, This week, how the personal computer has changed us all, on Perspectives.
May 12, 2012
This week Perspectives spends its entire hour with a man whose career has involved writing, teaching, and informing -- enriching the written and spoken word. Jim Memmott grew up in Upstate New York, taught American Literature at St. Lawrence University, joined the Rochester Times-Union and then Democrat & Chronicle newspapers, and also teaches Journalism today at the University of Rochester. At the D&C, Memmott is reporter, senior editor, and columnist, many of its columns set in Geneseo, New York, where Memmott lives. He discusses editing, the rise of the Internet, how journalism has changed, today's 20-something generation, and what tomorrow likely conjures. This week, Jim Memmott, on Perspectives.
May 5, 2012
This week Perspectives explores early innings. Kara Streeter is the Rochester, New York, Hearing and Speech Center's school psychologist. She discusses the early stages of a child's life: the need for parents to talk and read to young children; the importance of culture, family, and scholarship; and the ability of boys and girls under five to six years of age to more readily assimilate information than older children and adults. Then Joe Castiglione, radio Voice of one of sport's most beloved teams since 1983, examines why in baseball the later, not early, innings often count most. His new book, Can You Believe It? Thirty Years of Insider Stories with the Boston Red Sox, recalls the Olde Towne Team's 86-year sans world title wilderness, its 2004 and 2007 championships, and what the 2012 season holds. This week, early innings, on Perspectives.
April 28, 2012
This week Perspectives hails pioneers. Kenneth Adelman is among America's most celebrated diplomats: former Untied States Ambassador to the United Nations, Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and key advisor to President Reagan in three superpower summits with Soviet General Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, 1986, and 1987. On Wednesday, May 2, Adelman will discuss "Tales and Times of Ronald Reagan" at the State University of New York at Geneseo (8 p.m., Wadsworth Auditorium, general public invited) in the college's annual Wadsworth Lecture Series. The series is named after James Jeremiah Wadsworth, himself a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 1960-61. On Perspectives, Adelman previews his address and recalls Reagan's summitry, popularity, and legacy. Also on this show, famed baseball author Paul Dickson discussses his latest book, Bill Veeck -- Baseball's Greatest Maverick, and how Veeck, a nonpareil pioneer, hired a 3-foot-6 midget to hit, installed an exploding scoreboard, put players' names on their uniforms, and integrated the game by signing the American League's first African-American player, Larry Doby. This week, pioneers, on Perspectives.
April 21, 2012
This week Perspectives examines golf, in one of the great golf regions of the country. Fred Beltz, official historian of Oak Hill Country Club in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford, describes the course's great past and the PGA tournament, one of golf's four yearly majors, to be played there next year. Sal Mairona, author of 19 books and golf writer of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle newspaper, details the health of the game, golfers including Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus, and why golf matters to so many in Western New York. This week, golf, on Perspectives.
April 14, 2012
This week Perspectives spends its entire hour with a man whose career has involved writing, teaching, and informing -- enriching the written and spoken word. Jim Memmott grew up in Upstate New York, taught American Literature at St. Lawrence University, joined the Rochester Times-Union and then Democrat & Chronicle newspapers, and also teaches Journalism today at the University of Rochester. At the D&C, Memmott is reporter, senior editor, and columnist, many of its columns set in Geneseo, New York, where Memmott lives. He discusses editing, the rise of the Internet, how journalism has changed, today's 20-something generation, and what tomorrow likely conjures. This week, Jim Memmott, on Perspectives.
April 7, 2012
This week, Perspectives devotes its entire hour to food. Mark Scott is the Executive Director of Campus Auxiliary Services at the State University of New York at Geneseo. He details the changing food tastes of undergraduate college students -- in that sense, outlining the new Fusion Market on the SUNY at Geneseo campus. Karen Miltner is the food staff writer for the Rochester, New York, Democrat & Chronicle newspaper. She describes budget dining, local and regional Upstate trends, and a growing way by which farmers and consumers can help one another -- the Community-Supported Agricultural program. This week, food on Perspectives.
March 31, 2012
In the musical The Music Man, actor Robert Preston as Professor Harold Hill says, "But you gotta' know the territory!" This week Perspectives explores the listening territory of Western New York. The show's guest for the entire hour is a man who has broadcast in both Buffalo and Rochester since the 1970s. Bob Smith was born in Rochester, educated at Cornell, and joined Buffalo radio on WKBW and then WBEN. In 1988, he became the weekday host of WXXI Rochester's 1370 Connection, a position Smith still holds. The show will discuss past guests like Hillary Clinton, Allen Ginsberg, and Mario Cuomo, issues that particularly interest listeners, and similarities and differences between the Buffalo v. Rochester audience. This week, a look at the territory -- ours -- of Western New York, on Perspectives.
March 24, 2012
This week Perspectives examines different sides of the American Presidency. Usually, students of a long-ago Presidency analyze it by using observations of people who were not alive at the time. Daniel Gorman, age twenty, is a sophomore at a Western New York university. He wrote a term paper, which led to a major role at a national conference, by collecting observations of people who had been alive when Franklin Roosevelt was President in 1933-45. Gorman discusses what they thought of FDR at the time, not after the fact. Martin Medhurst is among America's leading experts on Presidential oratory as Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric and Communication and Professor of Political Science at Baylor University. The author of thirteen books examines Roosevelt's place in the pantheon of great American speakers -- also other Presidents including John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama and those in the 2012 campaign who would succeed Obama, including Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. This week, diferent sides of the American Presidency, on Perspectives.
March 17, 2012
This week Perspectives devotes its entire hour to a man who to many is an extended member of the Western New York family: Don Stevens, since 1986 the play-by-play Voice of the American Hockey League Rochester Americans. Born in the Canadian province of Alberta, Stevens will discuss how he entered broadcasting, memories of the Americans including thousands awaiting their early-morning arrival in Rochester to celebrate a 1987 Calder Cup title, and the team's once and again current affiliation with the parent club, the National Hockey League Buffalo Sabres. Stevens will also discuss airing soccer's Rochester Rhinos, the current AHL thirty-team structure, and what he likes best about hockey, a game that entrances so many in the United States and Canada. This week: Don Stevens shoots -- and scores -- on Perspectives.
March 10, 2012
This week Perspectives explores higher education. Jim Milroy is Vice President for Administration and Finance, the State University of New York at Geneseo, responsible for the college's financial operations. Dr. Milroy details the SUNY system's assets and challenges. Robin Mamlet is co-author of a new book published by Random House, College Admission From Application to Acceptance: Step by Step. Dr. Mamlet describes how a high school student can determine which college's "fit" is best for him or her. This week, higher education on Perspectives.
March 3, 2012
In the musical The Music Man, actor Robert Preston as Professor Harold Hill says, "But you gotta' know the territory!" This week Perspectives explores the listening territory of Western New York. The show's guest for the entire hour is a man who has broadcast in both Buffalo and Rochester since the 1970s. Bob Smith was born in Rochester, educated at Cornell, and joined Buffalo radio on WKBW and then WBEN. In 1988, he became the weekday host of WXXI Rochester's 1370 Connection, a position Smith still holds. The show will discuss past guests like Hillary Clinton, Allen Ginsberg, and Mario Cuomo, issues that particularly interest listeners, and similarities and differences between the Buffalo v. Rochester audience. This week, a look at the territory -- ours -- of Western New York, on Perspectives.
February 25, 2012
This week Perspectives presents an astounding story of the triumph of hope over indescribable poverty. As age four, Douglas MacKinnon almost froze to death in a car from a blizzard while his parents got drunk in a nearby bar. At nine, he was trying to sleep on a filthy floor mattress when his mother shot a full clip of bullets into the bedroom. By 15, he was rolling pennies to buy food and medicine for his ailing sister. By 17, Doug's Boston family had been evicted at least 34 times. Amazingly, as he relates in his new book, Rolling Pennies in the Dark: A Memoir With a Message, MacKinnon ultimately became a Pentagon official, Speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan, and today a syndicated columnist. This week's show devotes the entire hour to an incredible life, including an emotional Oval Office meeting between Reagan and MacKinnon where each recalling being raised by an alcoholic father. On this week's Perspectives, the triumph of hope over despair.
February 18, 2012
This week Perspectives examines noise. One guest, Thomas Gibbons, President of the Rochester, New York, Hearing and Speech Center, discusses noise's volume -- its effect, ubiquity, and damage. He compares workplace and recreational noise, noting how each can lessen hearing, and details the Center's new initiative, "Too Loud?" The program's other guest details the noise of money talking. In a stunning decision, perhaps baseball's greatest slugger, Albert Pujols, recently left the world champion St. Louis Cardinals for another club because of -- money. Noted writer Rob Rains, author of the new book Wild Cards: The St. Louis Cardinals Stunning 2011 Championship Season, explores what Pujols' decision says about our culture. This week, noise, on Perspectives.
February 11, 2012
This week Perspectives answers the question, "Are you ready for some football?" -- reviewing the most recent Super Bowl, and the National Football League's appeal across the land. Pete Fierle, born in Bufffalo, heads digital media and communications at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, birthplace of the NFL. He explores what the Hall of Fame is, does, and means to visitors. Scott Pitoniak is the author of 15 books and an award-winning columnist who has covered eight Super Bowls, including the Buffalo Bills' four in 1991-94. He examines pro football's popularity, how television has enlarged it, and where this month's Giants-Patriots' Super Bowl ranks among the event's all-time games. This week, a sport that has become an obsession -- pro football, on Perspectives.
February 4, 2012
This week Perspectives examines competition. John Harris, born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Pittsford, is Editor-in-Chief of Politico and Political.com, the nationally-known Arlington, Virginia, based political news organization. He will explore the 2012 Republican Presidential contest, the battle between candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, the candidacy of Barack Obama, and what will determine the next President. Richard A. Johnson is long-time curator of The Sports Museum in Boston and author of twenty books, including his new critically-acclaimed Field of Our Fathers: An Illustrated History of Fenway Park, 1912-2012. He will discuss Fenway Park's centennial, the ballpark's and its Boston Red Sox's national popularity, and whether Fenway has now become American sport's most iconic site. This week, competition on Perspectives
January 28, 2012
This week Perspectives examines the professional well-balanced life, using two authors as example. Paul Dickson is the author of 57 nonfiction books, most on American English language and popular culture, including Sputnik, Dwight Eisenhower, and Cold War history. His newest book is the third edition of the Dickson Baseball Dictionary: The Definitive Work on the Language of Baseball, termed by the Wall Street Journal "a staggering piece of scholarship." Dickson examines how language links America. Michael Bohn is the author of numerous books on subjects from golf to terrorism, a career Naval intelligence officer, aide to Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and former director of the White House Situation Room. Bohn will discuss his book, "Nerve Center: Inside the Situation Room," and to what extent TV, film, and print have accurately portrayed one of the White House's most famous locales. This week: the professional well-balanced life, on Perspectives.
January 21, 2012
This week Perspectives examines something Western New York has surprisingly seen little of in the winter of 2011-12: Ice.
Chris Schultz, head varsity hockey coach at the State University of New York, explores the rise in regional interest of hockey at every level, including high school and college. Scott Hesko is chief meteorologist for Rochester, New York television channels 7 and 8, its Fox and CBS outlets, respectively. He reviews Western New York's recent ice-storm history, including Buffalo's Blizzard of 1977, its "Six-Pack Blizzard" of 1985, and Rochester's 1991 devastating ice storm and a similar if smaller storm in 2003. Vasilli Petrenko is assistant professor of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rochester. He discusses how drilling through ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica can help the past portend the future of climate change and global warming. This week, Ice on Perspectives.
January 14, 2012
This week Perspectives focuses on the theme of family. As the Empire State's three-term Governor, Mario Cuomo often used the term "the family of New York" in his annual State of the State address. Recently, his son, Governor Andrew Cuomo, focused on that family's health in his State of the State address. Buffalo News business columnist and reporter Dave Robinson discusses what the speech said, meant, and may portend. Then financial analyst George Conboy, President of Brighton, New York's, Brighton Securities, examines a once-extended member of virtually every Upstate family: the Eastman Kodak Company, a colossus now perhaps near bankruptcy. Conboy details Kodak's extraordinary rise, fall, and potential future -- from the slogan "You push the button. We'll do the rest" to the world-wide known "Kodak Moment" to the debate of traditional film v. digital to the challenge of preserving an American institution. This week, family, on Perspectives.
January 6, 2012
This week Perspectives discusses major news of the week. First, John Wawrow, Associated Press sports correspondent, explores current issues of interest to upstate New York: football's Buffalo Bills' final 6-10 record; the team's revamped radio network, featuring new stations in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, among other cities; and hockey's Buffalo Sabres, blacked out on cable television due to a dispute between the Madison Square Garden network and Time-Warner Cable TV. Then, Ted O'Brien, former Monroe County Democratic Party Chairman, now County Legislature minority leader, examines this week's Republican Party Iowa caucus and GOP front-runner Mitt Romney. O'Brien also analyzes the case of former Monroe County District Attorney Mike Green, his name recently not resubmitted by President Obama to fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court
of the Western District of New York. This week, contemporary news on Perspectives.
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