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Spectrum
By WOUB Public MediaNews
Spectrum episodes
- #003 Ira Glass
Ira Glass, the award-winning creator and host of This American Life, will be in Athens at 7:30 p.m. March 12th at Templeton Blackburn Memorial Auditorium to present “An Evening with Ira Glass: Reinventing Radio.”
Recently, he chatted with WOUB’s Tom Hodson about creating radio content, audio storytelling and the mechanics of putting together a weekly national radio program.
He talked about the early days of This American Life, being highly selective about stories they choose to air, and the explosive popularity of podcasting.
This American Life is celebrating its 20th year on public radio. It is a mixture of entertainment and news, according to Glass. It is designed to present riveting stories based upon weekly themes.
Selecting great stories to broadcast is a key factor to success, Glass says. He notes that they kill up to 50 percent of the stories they begin and instead concentrate on those that have the most potential to highly engage the audience.
Glass says that he is thrilled about the popularity of podcasting and added that Serial, a podcast series created and produced by This American Life staffers, has the record of being the most listened to podcast in history.
Currently, This American Life is heard by 2.2 million radio listeners per week on more than 500 radio stations. When podcasts are added to the total, more than 5 million people listen to each show. Glass points out that these are higher numbers than most television programs or cable networks.
This American Life, distributed through PRX (Public Radio Exchange) has won the highest awards in broadcasting – including five Peabody Awards.
In 2009, Glass received the coveted Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Contributions. He earned a George Polk Award in Radio Reporting in 2011 and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in November 2014.
Glass began his radio career in 1978 at age 19 as an intern at National Public Radio. He then got a full-time job at NPR where he worked as a reporter, producer, and guest host for Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.
Glass was reared in Baltimore Co. Maryland. He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University where he studied semiotics – what causes stories to create certain emotions in readers and listeners.31 min - #002 Man Behind the Music: Ken Ehrlich, Producer of the Grammy Awards
Ken Ehrlich is a master of music media and his brilliant 50 year career was honored recently by the Scripps College of Communication with this year’s Hall of Fame Award.
He graduated in 1964 with a degree in Journalism. He met his wife while a student at Ohio University while he was playing cocktail piano at a local tavern on Court Street called the Lantern.
After working in Chicago during his early career, he started producing the national Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) music series SOUNDSTAGE.
Ehrlich then moved to Los Angeles and for 38 years he has produced over 1,000 hours of award winning television events including 36 straight Grammy Awards shows and 7 Emmy Broadcasts.
During the Emmy’s, Ehrlich is known for combining musical stars and acts who have never performed together before. He prides himself in creating these unique musical combinations and he tells WOUB’s Tom Hodson about how he goes about doing that.
In addition to awards programs, he spent two years as the Supervising Producer of the television dramatic series FAME. Ehrlich also has produced single artist television specials for Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brook, The Eagles, Michael Jackson, Shania Twain, Stevie Wonder, the Rolling Stones and Celine Dion.
In 2011, he directed Celine Dion’s long running Las Vegas Show.
He created the Blockbuster Video Awards and the MTV Movie Awards and the VH1 Divas shows. He also produced several Alma and Latin Grammy Awards Shows.
His company, AEG Ehrlich Ventures LLC has produced the popular PBS In Performance At the White House.
In 2014, he produced the Grammys on one day and then 24 hours later did a 2.5 hour special for CBS celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beetles’ first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
This past December, he produced a 2 hour special celebrating the 100th birthday of Frank Sinatra.
Throughout his career he also has had a social conscience. He created an HBO special in 1988 paying tribute to Vietnam Vets; he created an epic celebration when Nelson Mandela was released from prison and he helped raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims.
He also has donated his time and his immense skills to charitable and political causes that are “dear to his heart.”26 min - #001 Susan Reimer: Journalistic Pioneer Recounts Her Career
Susan Reimer, a 1973 alumna of the Ohio University School of Journalism, had a career full of variety and a career that paved new paths until her retirement in June 2015 after 36 years with the Baltimore Sun.
She spent her career writing local news, sports, a twice-a-week column about being a mother and family life, a nationally syndicated column about politics and national affairs, a book, and feature articles about food and gardening.
Reimer is back on the Ohio University campus to receive the L. J. Hortin Distinguished Alumni Award issued by the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism.
Her notorious career started in Pittsburgh after her graduation from Ohio University. She worked for the Associated Press, the Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Then, after spending a few months touring the country “in the back of a van,” she convinced the Baltimore Sun that she could write sports. That launched a 14 year career covering the Baltimore Orioles and the Baltimore Colts, among other major sporting events.
Reimer was one of the first female sports reporters in the nation to cover professional sports. She tells WOUB’s Tom Hodson about some of her run-ins with the crusty manager of the Orioles Earl Weaver and the satisfaction she received from her profession.
After writing and editing sports, Reimer turned to column writing – reporting about motherhood and family matters. She published a collection of her work in 1998 called Motherhood is a Contact Sport.
Reimer claims that her column was so popular because she had the ability to write about situations and emotions that other women endured and felt but never had the words to talk about.
When her column switched to one about politics and national affairs, she said she never ran out of ideas and was comfortable “writing with the big-boys.”
She attributes her writing skill and her confidence to lessons she learned while at Ohio University and working at The Post while on campus.27 min
About Spectrum
From the publisher's feed
Spectrum features conversations with an eclectic group of fascinating people, some are famous and some are not, but they all have captivating stories.
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