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NPT_AnnualReportToCommunity_2013_Layout 1 11/6/13 1:14 PM Page 1 Report 2013 to theCommunity Nashville Public Television wnpt.org NPT_AnnualReportToCommunity_2013_Layout 1 11/6/13 1:14 PM Page 2 NPT Officers & Directors Richard F. Warren, Jr., Chair Beth Curley, President and CEO Robert V. Dale, Treasurer Frank E. Gordon, Secretary Scott E. Becker Jeffrey W. Buntin, Sr. Gloria Churchwell Thomas G. Cigarran Anne Davis Howard Gentry William W. Hastings Jack D. Lowery, Jr. Cheryl W. Mason Debby Dale Mason From left, Julie Dunfey, producer, The Dust Bowl, Dayton Duncan, writer and producer, The Dust Charlie McCarter Bowl, Beth Curley, NPT president and CEO, and Kevin Crane, NPT VP of content and technology. Susannah Scott-Barnes Timothy J. Walsh Peggy Warner A Letter from the President Cristina Welhoelter Emeritus Each year, our Report to the Community marks the end of another fiscal Charles W. Cook, Jr. year, surveying a dozen months of achievements in programming, Ben R. Rechter community engagement, digital strategies and service to the Middle NPT Community Advisory Board Tennessee community. It’s also an opportunity to hint at what’s coming next. Bob Loflin, Chair This time, we not only celebrate one year of NPT, but 50 years, and look NPT Senior Management Beth Curley, President and CEO ahead with an even deeper understanding of who we are -- inward at Kevin Crane, our role as a non-profit community licensed public television station, VP of Content and Technology and outward at the needs of the city we represent. That’s why in the pages Kathy McElroy, ahead you find us reminiscing about how far we’ve come, from VP & Chief Financial Officer our beginnings as a school-board licensed station named WDCN. But Daniel Tidwell, not too much. There’s work to do in the Nashville that we live in now. VP of Development and Marketing So you’ll read about our continued work on the Children’s Health Crisis and Next Door Neighbors projects. You’ll discover our new documentary uncov- ering disturbing domestic violence statistics, and be introduced to a new Nashville Public Television initiative designed to engage the public in discussions about aging. 161 Rains Avenue Nashville, TN 37203 615-259-9325 Contemporary public media means telling stories like these, but also wnpt.org engaging historians to help us understand now, the ramifications of what On the front cover, top left, clockwise: Minnie happened then, as our Tennessee Civil War 150 series does so well. Pearl and Roy Acuff on Live from the Grand Ole It also means documenting the vibrant travel, art and cultural scene in Opry, March 1978, 1979 & 1980. Tennessee Crossroads production shoot, circa 1990. Nashville, as our signature shows like Tennessee Crossroads and A Word on Words with John Siegenthaler Arts Break do better than anyone else. premiered in January 1972. Volunteer Gardener started in 1991 with Malcolm and Mary Rust. Fran Powell in Jellybean Junction, 1974 and We’re proud of where we’ve been. And excited about where we’re going. 1975. “Teleteacher” Ms. Henderson on set. And honored you’re joining us. Thank you for making the journey possible. Back cover, top row: Medical Town Meeting, a live call-in show, circa 1992. Starting in 1972, WDCN covered the Metro Council meetings live for over two decades. Middle row: Pat Sajak on Action Auction in 1975. Robin Roberts and Demetria Kalodimos on Action Auction in 1987. Beth Curley Al Gore on Action Auction. Bottom row: Oprah Winfrey on the public affairs show Symposia: President and CEO Episodes in Black hosted by Gale Choice. A Nashville Public Television musical taping prior to 1973. NPT_AnnualReportToCommunity_2013_Layout 1 11/6/13 1:14 PM Page 3 Celebrating 50 Years This fiscal year marked a milestone -- Nashville Public Television’s 50th anniversary. It was in September 1962 that we, then WDCN, signed on the air. Plenty has happened since, including a shift from channel 2 to 8 in 1973 – with a little help from Morgan Freeman and Big Bird – and a rebranding of the station as NPT at the beginning of the new millenni- um. And who can forget the digital transition in 2009? We certainly can’t. Middle Tennesseans who grew up watching WDCN will remember national kids’ productions like Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Electric Company and Reading Rainbow. But they will also remember locally produced shows like Mrs.Cabboble’s Caboose and Music FunFactory, hosted by the inestimable Fran Powell. Kids and adults alike will remember Tennessee Outdoorsman, which premiered in 1971. And then there was Action Auction, an on-air auction to raise funds for WDCN that became a yearly event until 2001, and included such notable guests as Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and Nashville’s own Demetria Kalodimos. Tennessee native Oprah Winfrey, then Miss Black Tennessee, hosted a local health call-in show. In the late 70s, WDCN and WSM worked together to bring Installation of satellite dish, 1978. Live broadcast of Metro Council meeting. Live from the Grand Ole Opry to households across the WDCN signs on from its Rains Avenue building, 1976. country. The program still ranks as one of PBS’ most- watched programs. In 1980, WDCN was the first Nashville station to bring closed-captioning for the then that Nashville would have one the nation’s largest hearing impaired. Kurdish populations, and a diverse, thriving community made up of new arrivals from Somalia, Bhutan, Egypt, NPT has always been dedicated to broadcasting quali- Mexico, South America and Sudan? NPT profiled them ty arts programming, bringing the art world into the all on its Emmy Award-winning Next Door Neighbors lives of Nashvillians, and bringing Nashville to the series, with the same respect it’s reserved for celebrat- world. Over the years, through programs such as Great ing the region’s more-established cultural connections Performances, American Masters, Live from the Lincoln to country music, bluegrass, and the Center, Simon Schama’s Power of Art, Masterpiece natural beauty of the state. Theatre, the Newport Jazz Festival, Art 21: Art in the 21st Century, Renoir to Rothko: The Eye of Duncan We marked our 50th in a number of ways. We Phillips, How Art Made the World, Frida Kahlo, Sylvia produced a highlight show, NPT: The First 50 Years, Hyman: Eternal Wonder, John Baeder: Pleasant complete with rare program clips and interviews with Journeys and The Gift, NPT has served more arts favorite NPT personali- patrons on a yearly basis than any other arts organiza- ties. We made a wish for tion in the area. Local productions of Christmas at longtime viewers come Belmont and the Nashville Symphony’s Opening Gala true with the release of a at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center showed the DVD of some of Powell’s nation what Nashville is capable of. favorite episodes from Mrs. Cabobble’s Our local series have become renowned throughout the Caboose. And we used nation for consistently drawing some of the strongest Facebook’s timeline viewership in public television. Tennessee Crossroads feature to publish celebrated its 25th Anniversary this year. A Word on dozens of photos and Words wrapped its 41st year, making it the longest-run- tidbits from our history. ning book discussion show on television, by far. Be sure to browse Volunteer Gardener celebrated its 21st season in 2013. through. It’s a wonderful trip NPT has come a long way in 50 years, and so has the made possible community it serves. Who would have thought back by you, and for you. 2 NPT_AnnualReportToCommunity_2013_Layout 1 11/6/13 1:14 PM Page 4 Programming American Graduate produced by the Renaissance Center, premiered in May. This past year, NPT continued its role as a part of It explores how transportation by water and steel brought American Graduate: Let’s Make it Happen, a national great prosperity to the state just before the Civil War, only public media initiative funded by the Corporation for to give the invading Union Army a highway directly into Public Broadcasting (CPB) to help Nashville and other the Deep South, eventually helping force the communities across America Confederacy to its knees. address high school dropout rates. We broadcast our first original documentary as part of the project in October 2012. Produced by LaTonya Turner, NPT Reports: Translating the Dream takes an in-depth look at the graduation rate among ELL and immigrant students in Tennessee, the chal- lenges they face that can prevent them from graduat- ing on time, how schools and teachers are trying to address this increasingly demanding need, and how all of us are impacted when students drop out of school. In January, our second documentary aired. NPT Reports: Graduation by the Numbers examines the Tennessee Explorers efforts in Nashville to keep students in school until they Tennessee’s history began with exploration, and that graduate. The initiative was enhanced with numerous same adventurous spirit lives on today. In July, we screenings, both in the community and online. premiered Tennessee Explorers, a partnership between Vanderbilt University and NPT funded by The National In September 2012, NPT was one of dozens of public Science Foundation, that focuses on world class explor- stations across the country participating in American ers across our state who are doing amazing research in Graduate Day – an unprecedented, simultaneous many different types of science — creating new tech- seven-hours of special programming focusing on nologies and mentoring the next generation education. of explorers. The first episode, produced by Ed Jones (Tennessee Civil War 150, Visions of the American West), looks inside some of the brilliant Tennessee minds lead- ing us into the future: bio-anthropologist Tiffiny Tung, astrophysicist Keivan Stassun, and physician Rhea Seddon, one of NASA’s first female astronauts.