Highlights:
This Week: August 28, 2010
This week Perspectives examines people who grew up within the series' listening area, then left, and may or may not return. Hank Greenwald was raised in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Brighton, attended Syracuse University, and became a nationally known sportscaster for, among others, baseball's Yankees, Giants, and A's. He speaks from his home in San Francisco. Doug Gamble was born in Montreal, moved to Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario, and in 1980 relocated to Southern California, becoming a writer for Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, and Phyllis Diller. From Carmel, Gamble discusses how today's Canada more resembles 1980 America than does today's USA. Meghan Wier grew up in the Rochester suburb of Fairport, attended Ithaca College, formed an Upstate New York web design development company, then became a professional business blogger in South Carolina. Why did they leave? What would it take for them to return home? This week, on Perspectives.
Host: Curt Smith
Curt Smith brings many years of broadcast experience to WXXI. Raised in Caledonia, New York, Smith graduated from SUNY Geneseo. He was a Gannett reporter and Saturday Evening Post Senior Editor before becoming a speechwriter to President Bush in 1989. Since 1994, he has hosted radio talk shows for WHAM in Rochester and WISN in Milwaukee and the weekly TV series Perfectly Clear on Rochester’s WROC and Strike Zone on the Fox Empire Sports Network. In 1998, his WXXI Radio commentary was named "Best In New York State" by Associated Press and the New York State Broadcasters Association.
Currently Smith hosts Talking Point, a twice-weekly point-counterpoint discussion on WROC-TV, is a columnist for Upstate New York’s Messenger-Post Newspapers, and is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Rochester. Smith is the author of ten books, most recently What Baseball Means to Me (Warner Books 2002). He has written for and appeared in ESPN documentaries, including a series based on his book Voices of the Game. Smith has written for such publications as Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, appeared on network/radio programs including NPR, PBS, ABC's Nightline, CBS This Morning, Fox News Channel, CNN, and CNBC and hosted series at the Smithsonian Institution. Bob Costas says, "Curt Smith stands up for the beauty of words."
About Perspectives
Perspectives will examine all aspects of life that matter to Rochester and Upstate New York, ranging from politics, education and health care to sports, religion and the arts. Each week listeners will hear compelling conversations with interesting and important people. Curt Smith will talk with national and regional newsmakers, to help listeners understand how issues and events affect them personally. With in-depth discussion, tough questions, and open dialogue, the series will be distributed to National Public Radio affiliates throughout New York State.
The one-hour Perspectives will offer a diversity of ideas and viewpoints. Smith’s guests will be similar to those he has interviewed on local radio and television. They include former President Bush, sportscaster Bob Costas, pollster John Zogby, commentator George Will, columnist Michelle Malkin, choreographer Garth Fagan, and former Rochester Mayor William Johnson. Each week, Perspectives will solicit audience questions for upcoming guests. Listeners will be invited to send their questions to perspectives@wxxi.org.
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