Producing Mark Russell’s America

By Lynne Bader, WNED senior producer

The Mark Russell Comedy Specials began with a pilot in 1974, when public television was really in its infancy – taking risks and offering programs you couldn’t find anywhere else. He is truly one of the original faces of PBS. I have known Mark a long time and had the pleasure of directing the last few seasons of his programs. It was an honor to produce this special.

Producing “Mark Russell’s America” was like taking political science all over again, only this time, I laughed the whole way through.

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!

Shaping America: Frederick Law Olmsted

By Annmarie Dean

Now that the weather is nice, there is one place you can almost always count on finding me: Bidwell Parkway on a blanket, under a tree, reading a book or journaling with an Italian soda or iced Scarlet tea. The Buffalo parkway is part of the country’s first and oldest coordinated system of public parks (it’s also beyond beautiful). The park system was co-designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the new subject of a WNED-TV and Florentine Films/Hott Productions, Inc. documentary entitled “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America.”

McDonald’s is Everywhere — How Did That Happen?

By Suzanne Kashuba

I admit, I popped into a McDonald’s in Rome (yes, Italy). With authentic cuisine steps away, it seemed silly. But the familiarity of this American standby was like a magnet attracting my attention (and my liras). Later, I learned that McDonald’s serves up its assembly-line fare in more than 119 countries.

Faust at the Met

By Stratton Rawson – Senior Producer, Classical 94.5 WNED 

Faust —the opera not the long metaphysical poem by Goethe that inspired it— has always been the opera that defines what opera going means in America. Faust’s iconic presence on our soil was enshrined in the opening paragraphs of Edith Wharton’s classic novel about the travails of life in upper class New York, The Age of Innocence:

Classical Guitar Rocks

By Misty L. Harris

I always considered the guitar a rock instrument. The eternal companion of Hendrix, Prince, B.B.King, George Benson, Johnny Guitar Watson and the heavy metal bands of the 80s and 90s. For me it was a thing of wonder. Like countless others,  I play a mean air guitar (I’ve won several Grammys in my head). It’s the rebel’s instrument! (along with leather pants, big hair and the Blues).  This grandiose stereotype ended when I heard and saw JoAnn Falletta play her guitar in Allen Hall at a private event hosted by the station I worked at, WBFO-FM 88.7. At the time, I knew her only as the conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. I was unaware of the other talents she held. That evening, Ms. Falletta performed with a trio of guitarist in a delightful concert that exhumed a pleasantry that I had never experienced with this instrument. Classical guitar! What a tranquil experience.

Appreciation for the Blues

By Jim Santella, WBFO/AM 970 Blues Host 

It was a collision of cultures, between WBFO’s favored Blues fans at The Sportsmen’s Tavern and the plates of caviar, shrimp and Nickel City finger food served up hot and tasty.

My signature “Are you ready for the blues” resonated from the stage followed by Anita West’s warm welcome to the 100 invited Blues loyalists. Some came from as far as Cincinnati and Toronto to shower Anita with tokens of love and esteem.