TOM RIELAND

Celtic Woman appeared in Columbus at the great Ohio Theatre last night and brought down the house. They have a better show (called Isle of Hope) compared to when I saw them two years ago and performed some new songs from an upcoming CD. We were seated among WOSU contributors who had the time of their life. My only criticism is their selection of some knockoffs from Enya and Elton John, which seem dated. They all have that lovely Irish accent and it would’ve been nice for them to talk to the audience a bit.

Save that, Máiréad Nesbitt is an exquisite fiddler and prances around while playing so much you wonder about her safety. It would be worth the ticket price to just see her.

Still, the best performance of the night was the four vocalists singing Danny Boy. The women had three standing ovations from the full house at the Ohio. If you ever have a chance, go see Celtic Woman — but contribute through a future WOSU TV pledge drive for the best tickets in the house. I’m sure they will be back next year. Here’s a video clip from a previous performance of THE VOICE with Lisa Kelly and Máiréad.

This is a note sent today by my colleague Cleve Callison, Station Manager at WMUB. The station is a victim of Miami University budget cuts:

Tomorrow, Friday 2/27/09 will be WMUB Public Radio’s last day of live local origination after 59 years on the air. Saturday will be all-automated with local breaks, and at midnight Saturday WMUB will flip the switch to become a repeater station for Cincinnati Public Radio’s WVXU.

We are planning a special day Friday with the umbrella title of “Memories of WMUB”. Our 9 am ET talk show will be devoted to the topic, and from 10 am to 4 pm we’ll follow our normal fund-drive clock to do inserts with employees, Miami University students and listeners from the past. Some will be pre-recorded, and some will be live during an all day Open House for the public.

If you’d like to listen to any of this live on Friday, just go to wmub.org. Hours are 9am-4pm ET.

I’ve been privileged to work with a terrific group of WMUB employees. Despite the shock of all of us losing our jobs on June 30th, they have all pulled together like the professionals they are. Our determination since the day we found out about this five weeks ago has been that we would go out with our heads held high. I’m enormously touched, and proud, to work with them. I hope that many of us will be able to stay in the public radio system — these people are too good to lose.

I spoke at a public meeting Miami held about this change. I can’t summarize my feelings any better than to repeat a Robert Frost poem I read that night:

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

WOSU is extremely pleased to have a funding agreement with the Ohio State Athletic department that allows us the resources to produce a regular stream of campus related programming for the Big Ten Network, seen across the country on all major cable systems. This is entertaining and informative programming produced by Kevin Theessen and his team at WOSU in collaboration with University Communications at Ohio State. There is this phrase in public media called “the long tail,” which means you create programming in such a way that it is accessible and relevant for a long time. That’s just what Kevin and his team is doing. Checkout many of these segments from our efforts on our WOSU YouTube site (including a new alumni piece with Archie Griffin and Stefanie Spielman) or just watch one of my favorite segments (7 minutes) of OSU researcher Lonnie Thompson capturing ice cores for research: Polar Research at Ohio State
No wonder this work already won a regional Emmy Award!

The WOSU DTV transition phone bank lit up from 5:30-6:30 yesterday, precisely when a forum discussion sponsored by the Columbus Metropolitan Club took to the air. The forum was focused on the analog shutdown of broadcasting and what it meant for stations and viewers. I moderated it with guests including Ohio Assn of Broadcasters head Christine Merritt, WBNS President and GM Tom Griesdorn and Dr. Don Flournoy of Ohio University. Both the Columbus Fox and CW stations shutdown their over the air analog last night. Inside this blog are some photos from yesterday. We had many staff and board volunteers helping answer calls about antennas, coupons, converter box scanning and more. The HelpLine number is 800-723-4626.

Just to step away from the DTV transition theme for a moment. A shout out and thank you to State Auto Insurance for taking the lead and become the primary sponsor of our COLUMBUS NEIGHBORHOODS project which you will hear much about later this year. It includes six documentaries about the core neighborhoods of Columbus, an incredible web site that will help Columbus citizens tell their own neighborhood stories, radio specials, premieres, community days, and the list goes on.

It is the most ambitious local programming, web and outreach project in WOSU history and State Auto will be one of the lead sponsors. We have a tradition of State Auto support starting with former CEO Bob Moone, who was a long-time member on the WOSU Friends Board. With Bob moving off the board, we welcomed VP Joel Brown a few months ago. He’s certainly off to a great start!

Thanks for your trust and commitment, State Auto!

So, the confusion continues about the semi-transition or shutdown of analog broadcasting locally. The Columbus Dispatch did a fine and accurate article yesterday on the issues still facing many elderly in Columbus who receive their primary TV signals over-the-air. To be as clear as possible, only the Fox and CW network affiliates will go off the air this coming Tuesday. All the other broadcast stations including WOSU will stay on, most likely until June. Still, we expect the loss of FOX programming to get some folks attention and we have our DTV Helpline at the ready: 1-866-723-4626.
Nielson figures from February 1st have the Columbus market at about 3.7 percent unready, which translates into about 30,000 households. Not a small figure. We’ll see what the week brings. Stay tuned!

Commercial stations in Columbus have begun to position themselves for the potential of turning off their analog television signals on February 17th. Remember that the Columbus area originally had about 120,000 households receiving over-the-air analog television as their primary source of television. The latest information is that about 39,000 households are still not ready to make the switch.

WOSU has decided to stay the course and help these folks with their transition issues. We’ll be on the air at least through March with an analog signal. What stations are going off the air locally? The FCC has required all stations planning to shutdown analog on the 17th to notify the FCC by this Monday, so we should know soon. However, the FCC reserves the right to deny those requests if they believe it would not serve the public interest.

We believe it’s critical to have a few broadcast stations still providing emergency and weather broadcast services, along with regular programming to thousands in this community who will lose some of their local broadcast stations in 11 days. WOSU is ramping up its DTV transition helpline and will be assisting with information about the changes. I’ll be joined by others on Fred Andrle’s Open Line program on WOSU AM Monday morning February 16th at 11 am to discuss the changes and take calls.

We also plan to provide special programming for those receiving WOSU on their analog televisions over-the-air in February. We can isolate that signal and will see first hand who needs assistance.

It’s FCC Chairman Michael Copps who put it right as far as we’re concerned: Those broadcasters who have decided to stay on the air with analog signals “are truly serving the public interest by giving real-world meaning to what Congress did” and “putting consumers first.”

The FCC released today the new rules for the transition to digital television resulting from congressional action yesterday. While the DTV Delay bill has yet to be signed by President Obama. That is expected to be a formality.  Checkout the FCC Public Notice if you are real interested in the options provided to broadcast stations.

We’ll know for sure if a station plans to take their analog transmissions off by next Monday, when the FCC mandates all stations to file information required to turn off analog on February 17th. Other stations, such as WOSU, will file later to take their stations off before the new June 12th deadline. And some stations in the country plan to stay on until the June 12th mandated shutdown. Some are predicting that only a small percentage of stations will wait that long. The issue for many stations is the cost of running an analog transmitter, but the other issue is that many stations including WOSU cannot maximize their DTV power until their analog is shutdown.

FCC Chairman Copps today put it this way in a statement today: We have a balance to strike. On the one hand, the fundamental premise of the new law is that many consumers are not ready, that coupons are unavailable to them, and that they haven’t been adequately informed about how to prepare, why they are having difficulty getting reception, and where they can turn for help. On the other hand, we must proceed cognizant of the requirement to retain sufficient flexibility to recognize the unique circumstances of individual stations in markets across the country.

I’ll post this weekend more about WOSU plans and the reasoning behind them, but first we’re taking part in a gathering of general managers from the Columbus market to discuss and compare our plans.

Congress passed a bill yesterday adding nearly four months to the time all television stations are mandated to turn off their analog transmissions, but it doesn’t mean stations have to wait that long.

The original mandated shutoff date of February 17 was moved to June 12 to allow the government to add funding to the $40 federal coupon program designed to ease the pain for consumers to buy the necessary converter box. There are over 3 million coupons on backlog right now and the funding has been depleted. Another key part of the bill is that those who received coupons and they expired can apply again.

The law that set the Feb. 17 deadline allowed stations to petition the Federal Communications Commission to make the switch early. Some already have — 143 of the nation’s roughly 1,800 stations have gone all digital, and at least 60 more plan to do it before Feb. 17, according to the FCC. Stations in Columbus are considering their options as well. WOSU has decided not to shutdown its analog signal until after March. We’re working on a firm date and will likely need approval from the FCC.

WOSU has established a help center for those who have trouble making the transition. You can call our DTV Help Center at 866-723-4626 if you need assistance in central or southern Ohio. At times the help center will have an answering machine, but we promise to get back to you within a day.

And if you think everyone has converted, give these stats a look — Nielson Media Research estimates that 39,811 households in the Columbus TV Market are still not ready for the switch.  That is a good number of folks who would’ve lost their television service if the February 17th deadline had stuck.