WPT Be more Tuned In Podcasts

We spoke with David Newell, better known as Mr. McFeely, the friendly "Speedy Delivery" man on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. You can also subscribe to our monthly podcasts via iTunes by clicking here. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood has been a hallmark of educational public television for 40 years. The program still airs on WPT at 12:30 p.m. weekdays. Throughout the show's ongoing run, Newell has been along for the ride. In addition to playing Mr. McFeely -- a role he continues to occupy during numerous public appearances each year -- he is also the public relations director for the show's production company, Family Communications Inc. The company has kept working toward the program's child development mission since Rogers' death in 2003. In our interview, Newell talks about his experiences on the long-running show, the legacy of Fred Rogers and some special outreach work that is planned in celebration of what would have been Rogers' 80th birthday on March 20. On that day, Newell is inviting everyone to wear a sweater in memory of Rogers and the good work that he accomplished. To find out more about "Good Neighbor Days," visit the Family Communications Web site.

We spoke with Rick Sebak, a producer of favorite public television documentaries, via telephone from the Pittsburgh studios of WQED-TV. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. You can also subscribe to our monthly podcasts via iTunes by clicking here. Sebak has produced and narrated a series of documentaries including A Hot Dog Program, Sandwiches We Like To Eat, An Ice Cream Special and Unusual Buildings and Other Roadside Attractions. Using a wry wit and finding normal everyday folks to tell the story of their local favorites -- from diners to cemeteries -- Sebak has created a successful style that is all his own. This month, Sebak offers his newest special, To Market To Market To Buy a Fat Pig. In the film, viewers are transported to various public marketplaces across the United States to see the local flavor. The program airs on WPT Wednesday Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. In our interview, Sebak talks about his history in public television, what he tries to accomplish with his documentaries and what his favorite market finds were.

In anticipation of the new WPT documentary, Fill 'Er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations, we spoke with Jim Draeger, an architectural historian with WPT's producing partner -- the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS). The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. You can also subscribe to our regular podcasts via iTunes by clicking here. Draeger is an important part of the program, which premieres on WPT at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, July 12. He also is authoring a companion book that will be released next year. In our interview, Draeger spoke about the development of his interest in classic roadside architecture, the evolution of the shapes and styles of the businesses and the work that is being done to preserve the few remaining historic gas stations. You can find the program video and more enhanced program information on the official Web site. More information about the history of gas stations can be found at the WHS Web Site.

We spoke with Pete Best, one of only three people alive that can claim to be former members of The Beatles, via telephone from the Casbah Coffee House in Liverpool, U.K. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. You can also subscribe to our monthly podcasts via iTunes by clicking here. For more than 1,000 shows until 1962, Best was the drummer for The Beatles. Along with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Best performed to packed houses in Germany and throughout England as the early stages of Beatlemania grew. He was there when the group signed its first recording deal, but was quietly dismissed just weeks before the release of the "Love Me Do," the band's first in a long line of hit singles. Now, 40 years later, Best is spreading his inside knowledge of those early days of what would become the most influential rock group ever. He has a band that performs many of the Mersey Beat songs from his Beatles tenure and has created a documentary, Best of the Beatles, which will air on WPT at 10 p.m. on Monday, June 11. In our interview, Best discusses how he became a Beatle, why his mother had a hand in the band's inception and the possible reasons that he was replaced in the band by Ringo Starr.

We spoke with Michael Leckrone, the University of Wisconsin Director of Bands, via telephone from his office at UW-Madison. Since 1969, Leckrone's energy and enthusiasm has been synonymous with the UW Marching and Varsity Bands. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. You can also subscribe to our monthly podcasts via iTunes by clicking here. For nearly 40 years, Leckrone has led the UW Band through football halftime marching presentations, rousing basketball and hockey games and the annual Spring Concert. The yearly show started its run in 1975 in Mills Hall in front of a crowd of 400 family members and friends. Now, it's held at the Kohl Center for three consecutive nights each April for near-capacity crowds. With professional production, pyrotechnic displays, Leckrone's daring aerial entrances and, of course, all of the favorite UW songs, the show is a perennial fan favorite. In our conversation, Leckrone talks about his experiences with the band, the evolution of the spring show and why he knows that UW's fans are the best in the nation. The 2007 Spring UW Varsity Band Show: Masters of the House airs on WPT at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 5.

We spoke with Ken Burns via telephone at the offices of his New Hampshire-based Florentine Films production company. Since the public television debut of his film, Brooklyn Bridge, in 1981, Ken Burns has been PBS' most revered documentary film maker. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. With a passion for history, Burns has used archival photographs, rare footage and readings of historic documents to create more than a dozen stirring films about America's past. Of those films, three have been epic masterpieces, immersing viewers into the stories of The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz. This September, Burns' next multi-part film, The War, will premiere on WPT. Through the eyes of the citizens of four American cities, the film will delve into World War II in a way that no previous film has. In addition to his own film, Burns is pushing other public television stations around the country to tell their own local stories of the war, using WPT's award-winning Wisconsin World War II Stories as a model. In our conversation, Burns talked about how he became interested in documentary films, why public broadcasting is so important and how he is answering some early criticisms that are already being raised about The War. Burns will be visiting Stevens Point on the evening of April 19 to present a special lecture about his films and The War. For more information about the event, visit wpt.org. Tickets are available at the UW-Stevens Point box office by calling 1-800-838-3378.

We spoke with Kevin Clash via telephone at his New York City office for the February edition of the monthly Be more Tuned In podcast. While you might not instantly recognize Clash's name, or even his deep voice, you probably know his work. To most of the world, Clash is the Emmy-award winning Muppeteer of Elmo, the lovable furry red monster from Sesame Street. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. With a lifelong love of puppetry, Clash has turned his childhood passion into a successful, high-profile career. And while Elmo is probably (and justifiably) his best-known work, Clash also has been involved in a number of other big-time puppet projects in the past 30 years. He's worked and voiced a number of Muppets on various Jim Henson productions. He brought the energetic Baby Sinclair to life in the television series Dinosaurs. He was the giant mutant rat Splinter in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. He also worked on various creatures in the fantasy film Labyrinth. As Elmo, Clash has been able to travel with the three-and-a-half-year-old monster around the world. He's visited the White House. And he's voiced two of the biggest-selling toys of all time -- Tickle Me Elmo in 1996 and the Tickle Me Elmo TMX this past year. Most importantly, Clash and Elmo have been instrumental in the positive development of millions of children that watch the long-revered Sesame Street, which can be found on WPT at 8 a.m. weekdays.

We caught up with award-winning chef and public television personality Rick Bayless via telephone at his restaurants in Chicago for our inaugural Be more Tuned In podcast. The mp3 podcast can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. Bayless is an interesting guy. An Oklahoma native, he has gone on to become one of the country's premiere Mexican chefs. Through his years of culinary exploration, Bayless has brought public television viewers along for many of his journeys. Stretching all the way back to the late 1970s, Bayless hosted a series simply called Cooking Mexican. After that program, he and his wife, Deann Groen Bayless, truly devoted their lives to Mexican flavors as they worked in that country in preparation of their 1987 book, Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, a tome that has been lauded as one of the best collections of Mexican cuisine ever written. Around that same time, they settled into a new home in Chicago and opened the Frontera Grill. The fine dining Topolobampo would follow, along with a line of specialty foods. Bayless also created a new television program, Mexico: One Plate at a Time With Rick Bayless. In the show, Bayless takes viewers into Mexico's wide ranging regions to look for traditional foods and then returns to his own kitchen to teach viewers how to bring the flavors of Mexico into their own homes. His most recent cookbook, Mexico Everyday, teaches readers that home cooking is an important part of healthy living and doesn't have to be a chore. His fifth season of Mexico: One Plate at a Time With Rick Bayless comes to WPT at 12:30 p.m. Saturdays.