Globally Connected, Locally Focused

WPSU and Science-U visited Bellefonte Middle School Science Night to give information about Science-U to parents and show students how to do a lemon battery experiment. WPSU Penn State’s mission is to spark discovery, enrich learning, and strengthen community through vibrant public media.

2018 was special for WPSU in so many ways. We completed our strategic plan with more focus on community building and digital content.

WPSU Penn State won the 2018 NATAS Mid-Atlantic WPSU-FM News Director Emily Reddy (left) and We received funding for two Emmy® for Overall Station Excellence. Reporter Anne Danahy accepted the station’s PRNDI major projects: Battling Opioids awards. a -wide station collaborative, as well as a national first-ever Emmy Award for Overall fundraise all year long, donors project debuting in 2020 that will Station Excellence. who contributed to support WPSU help people talk about grief. and public media programming, WPSU-FM won four national sponsors who helped us bring With the support of Penn State awards, including three first- so many wonderful events to the interns, WPSU-FM was able to place finishes, for outstanding community, and our community broaden regional news coverage. public radio news reporting from board of representatives who were the Public Radio News Directors strong advocates for WPSU. WPSU Community and Educational Inc.(PRNDI)—the only national Services delivered 32 family recognition for outstanding public Together, we continue to bring learning events in six counties. radio news reporting at local meaningful, thoughtful, entertaining, stations. and educational programs to our 13 Pennsylvania counties on radio and We were thrilled in October when 24 counties on television. WPSU won two Emmy® Awards for 2018 was a celebration of support Finding Your Roots:The Seedlings from WPSU’s volunteers who in the education category and our helped us answer phones and —Thank You!

page 2 About WPSU

WPSU Television and Radio Impact Highlights

Television broadcast hours WPSU-produced 206 programs Lock Haven FOUR Reynoldsville “Our Town” Coudersport PROGRAMS Boalsburg

Radio KEYSTONE 22 CROSSROADS WPSU’s broadcast licenses are held WPSU World features factual radio wpsu.org/ by the Board of Trustees of The programming covering topics stories keystonecrossroads Pennsylvania State University. Our such as science, nature, news, primary broadcast tower is located in and public affairs. Clearfield, Pennsylvania. WPSU-FM reaches 13 counties over TAKE NOTE The WPSU community board of the air with additional access from 42 wpsu.org/takenote representatives acts as advisers three digital streams: episodes on station activities, advocacy, and community outreach. WPSU 1 News and Classical WPSU 2 Public Radio Mix WPSU-TV reaches a population of Community Engagement 1.9 million across 24 counties in WPSU 3 Jazz central Pennsylvania. The majority 49 Community Partners (94%) of households receive WPSU- TV through cable or satellite, while 32 Family Learning Events 6% (approximately 25,000) of Services households still receive our signal Kids and Parents over the air. Many viewers live in Local/national TV and radio programs 5,979 small rural towns, and in some cases Digital content WPSU is the only television channel 5,670 Books and Handouts they receive. PBS and NPR programming Community call-in programs WPSU-TV serves the community Social Media through three digital channels. The Social media engagement Followers Growth WPSU main channel offers a diverse Facebook 8,179 1,700 Town halls and forums array of science, nature, history, arts, Twitter 4,935 214 public affairs, news and children’s Educational family events programming. YouTube 16,355 3,500 Music performances Instagram 1,239 424 WPSU Create is a viewer-favorite Penn State production services do-it-yourself channel for cooking, travel, arts and crafts, gardening, Student internships home improvement, and other Graduate assistantships lifestyle interests.

page 3 Local Programming and Projects 2018 Mid-Atlantic Emmy® WPSU strives to fulfill our mission every day through television Award Winner for and radio programming, interactive digital content, social Overall media, apps, and engaging in-person and virtual events Excellence WPSU across the 24 counties we serve. 2018 projects included:

BOOKMARK wpsu.org/digital/shorts wpsu.org/bookmark

fyrclassroom.org

radio.wpsu.org wpsu.org/battlingopioids wpsu.org/theinvestment /programs/wpsus-i-believe

wpsu.org/conversationslive wpsu.org/greatamericanread wpsu.org/fmposter

wpsu.org/ourtown wpsu.org/democracyworks wpsu.org/writerscontest

wpsu.org/metronome wpsu.org/takenote scienceu.org wpsu.org/diggingdeeper page 4 Local Programming

All Pennsylvania public media organizations aired the 30-minute Battling Opioids special and a call-in show. Battling Opioids: A Project of Pennsylvania Public Media is a 2018 collaboration between all seven Pennsylvania public media organizations, the Commonwealth, and community organizations.

The project aims to increase awareness and empathy, reduce the stigma around opioid use, aid WPSU reported on a special meeting about a policy that President Barron talks with Shoba Sivaprasad, would ask some staff at the Tamaqua Area School District director of Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ prevention, and help people find to carry guns. treatment. Rights Clinic about immigration policies. Keystone Crossroads is an alliance Digging Deeper is a monthly talk All stations contributed three to of public radio journalists.The project show hosted by Penn State President five-minute videos that were shared explores the urgent challenges faced Eric Barron exploring how research online, and then woven together by Pennsylvania. at the University impacts the broader to a half-hour program for community. Pennsylvania’s public television Four public media newsrooms, stations. Airings were followed by including WPSU, are collaborating to Penn State senior Robert Johnson a live call-in show with a panel of report in-depth on the root causes of served as the 2018 co-host and addiction and recovery experts. pervasive challenges and on possible rounded out each episode by asking solutions. Reports are distributed on President Barron questions that were The initiative is continuing into 2019 radio, web, social media, television on the minds of students, faculty, with a new broadcast show, call-in, and newspapers, and through public staff, and community members. and a social media campaign to be events. released in April 2019. The 2018 Digging Deeper topics were In 2018, WPSU contributed 22 big data, Greek life reform,1855 Fund, stories to the Keystone teaching and learning with Crossroads initiative. technology, convergence research, remembering 1968, and FaceAge.

page 5 Local Programming

The Our Town series engages create a one-hour television program. studio during the premiere to help residents as video storytellers to The series shines a positive light raise funds for WPSU. document the people, places, and on these small towns, some with events that make their community populations fewer than 1,500, telling In 2018, WPSU visited Coudersport, special. WPSU edits the stories their story in their own words. The Lock Haven, Reynoldsville, and together with on-camera interviews to volunteer videographers come to the Boalsburg, Pennsylvania.

Producer Lindsey Fenton takes calls from viewers Guest host Jenna Spinelle and Knight Foundation Ted and Molly and Their Friends performed at the about benefits and issues of aging in place. President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen record Take Note. Metronome From the Attic screening event. Conversations LIVE, WPSU’s Take Note is WPSU’s weekly Metronome from The Attic is the monthly call-in program, covers timely community affairs radio program third season of the Metronome topics and issues important to our featuring in-depth interviews with project, which tapes regional music residents.Topics covered in 2018 central Pennsylvania newsmakers. performers in unique settings. The included a gardening show, aging in The show discusses news and issues program is shown on TV and as place, parenting, seasonal affective that matter to Pennsylvanians. The digital shorts online. In November disorder, and diet and nutrition. program is archived on 2018, Metronome from the Attic wpsu.org/radio and as a podcast. hosted an advance screening of the Through telephone calls, emails, TV broadcast followed by a concert and tweets, the audience shapes the Take Note recorded and aired 42 from Ted and Molly. The event show through their questions. The episodes, with topics ranging from was attended by 206 people. program is simulcast on TV and radio. creating fair political districts, to urban gardening.

page 6 Community Engagement

A Science-U summer camper shows off her successful Mars Landing Egg Drop experiment. We love science, yes we do!

Science-U @Home is an ongoing collaboration between Penn State Eberly College of Science Outreach and WPSU.

Experiments from the camps are recorded and edited into three-minute videos that air on WPSU-TV to drive parents and teachers to scienceu.org where they will find materials lists, instructions, and science questions. Visitors are encouraged to share their experiment’s results with others on the site and Facebook. Seedlings camper Jenna Jordan studies her own DNA.

In 2019, WPSU will be adding Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings encourage students to consider who an “everyday science” page that web series created by WPSU is they are genetically, genealogically, encourages parents to use everyday based on a 2017 genetics and and socioculturally. Footage from the activities, such as cooking and sorting genealogy camp following 13 budding camps can be seen at the end of the laundry, to demonstrate scientific scientists as they discover their tenth epidode of Finding Your Roots principles. roots. A team lead by Penn State Season 5: All in the Family, on PBS. Professor of Anthropology Dr. Nina The new everyday science activities Jablonski and Dr. Henry Louis Gates The next phase of the project is will be disseminated through Jr.,The Seedlings gathered a group to disseminate the curriculum to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and of historians, artists, biologists, educators across the United interstitials on WPSU-TV. geneticists, anthropologists, States to promote STEM career genealogists, and educators to diversity. imagine a curriculum that would

page 7 Community Engagement

Social Media Manager Sarah Khalida shows off a selfie frame at the Great American Read kickoff event at Schlow Centre Region Library on June 1, 2018. The Great American Read was an eight-part PBS series with viewers voting to select “America’s Best Loved Book,” from a list of America’s favorite 100 novels chosen by a panel of academic, literary, and community judges.

The 2018 summer initiative was designed for all ages to get the country reading and passionately talking about books. WPSU participated in the campaign through WPSU-FM reporter Anne Danahy interviews 15th Congressional District Republican incumbent Glenn Thompson. community partner events, a summer reading contest for grades Vote ‘18 was a civic engagement questions and how important K–5, library displays and handouts, project that provided a those issues were to them and daily social media sharing. comprehensive web portal for • watch or listen to candidate visitors to easily learn more about interviews on wpsu.org. Reach the candidates, what the important • follow election night results issues were and why, and where reach through candidates stood on the issues. Impact 529,000 libraries • Six candidate interviews Site visitors could: simultaneously broadcast on Facebook followers 8,900 • type their home address WPSU-TV and FM into a box to see their polling • Election feature stories for 4,700 email subscribers place and their state and U.S. state offices and election Congressional districts coverage 3,650 event attendance • take an issues quiz where • 37,500 visits to wpsu.org/ the results showed which vote18, of which 25,800 candidates matched them were on election night community partners 24 best based on answers to the

page 8 Community Events

Community Engagement Manager Carolyn Donaldson helps during a WPSU visit to the Hollidaysburg Library.

WPSU award winners visited WPSU to receive their Families visiting DelGrosso’s Amusement Park each Katerina Kittycat from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood reading certificates from the Cat in the Hat. chose a painted rock to decorate with kind messages made an appearance at the People’s Choice Festival to take home to their garden. in Boalsburg.

The PBS Statewide Summer Kindness Rocks at DelGrosso’s The People’s Choice Festival in Reading Challenge was a Amusement Park! WPSU and Daniel Boalsburg, Pennsylvania reinforced collaboration among the seven Tiger visited the park in June to the kindness theme, this time with Pennsylvania public television share messages about kindness, special guest Katerina Kittycat! stations to inspire K–5 students to cooperation, sharing, and helping read during the summer. The top others. Library Tours: WPSU and a PBS readers from each grade at each KIDS character visited seven libraries station were invited to Hershey Park The main activity for Tipton and in June and July 2018. Children were for a celebration lunch and family Altoona, Pennsylvania families was waiting in line to see their favorite day at the park. to look for clues throughout the friends. Libraries visited: park and complete a word puzzle • Centre County Library WPSU top readers were invited to receive a jar of DelGrosso’s • East Penns Valley Library to WPSU to receive their reading Tigertastic Tomato Basil Pasta • Hollidaysburg Library certificates and prizes. Sauce and five kindness character • Holt Memorial Library cards. Three hundred twenty-five • Huntingdon County Library In all, 24 children participated families received the book “Daniel • Martinsburg Library through WPSU and received a Chooses to Be Kind,” created a • Schlow Centre PBS KIDS prize pack in the mail. kindness rock, and added kind Region Library

page 9 Community Events

Mr. McFeely made a special delivery to the American Philatelic Society’s Mister Rogers stamp dedication on Saturday, March 24, 2018.

More than 400 fans were waiting for Mr. McFeely’s Fans drove in from as far away as Kentucky, Community Engagement Manager Carolyn Donaldson arrival at the dedication event. Connecticut, and Virginia to attend the dedication. talks with families about Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. It was a beautiful day in the of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and purchase Rogers’ stamps while they neighborhood on March 24, 2018 was available in limited quantities could also stamp and address a in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania as across the . postcard and drop it in the mail as a Mr. McFeely from Mister Rogers’ souvenir of the day. Neighborhood pulled up in the Four hundred and eighty participants Logan fire truck to greet hundreds —representing a mix of Mister Sundman Hall was filled to capacity of fans waiting outside the American Rogers’ fans, stamp collectors, and with families waiting in line to meet Philatelic Society (APS). APS members—came from as far and have their photo taken with Mr. away as Virginia, Connecticut, and McFeely, make their own stamp Mr. McFeely was there to make a very Kentucky to see Mr. McFeely. cachet, and learn about stamp special delivery: The presentation of collecting. a large format, limited edition Mister The day was filled with activities for all Rogers stamp to the APS during the ages. APS offered tours of the stamp WPSU’s table offered Daniel Tiger’s stamp dedication ceremony. rooms and research library. Neighborhood play masks, activity sheets, books, and more. Daniel The Forever stamp was released to Participants stopped by the Headsville Tiger and the Trolley standees also commemorate the 50th anniversary Post Office and General Store to provided fun selfie opporunities!

page 10 Donor Event

PBS Chef Nick Stellino shares stories about his family and training as a chef during WPSU’s 27th Annual Connoisseur’s Dinner and Auction event.

Guests at the Saturday dinner have fun with the A student from the School of Music at Penn State roams Chef Stellino prepares recipes at the cooking demon- Carnevale di Venezia theme and masquerade masks. the ballroom playing Italian music for guests. stration. Guests receive tasting samples of each dish.

The 27th Annual Connoisseur’s Dinner The guests were entertained by the The Friday night cooking class was and Auction hosted 311 guests, on competitive bidding on silent auction a bit unusual in 2018. Chef Stellino Saturday, February 10, 2018 at the items donated by area businesses was caught in a snowstorm in Penn State Inn, State and individuals, butlered hors Chicago! Instead of disappointing College, Pennsylvania. PBS celebrity d’oeuvres with wine pairings at the the 36 guests, well-known local Chef chef Nick Stellino hosted the evening reception, a four-course dinner and and Cooking Instructor Grace Pilato which featured his favorite dishes wine pairing, a spirited live auction, donated her time and talents to teach from his television show Nick Stellino: and two strolling violinists from the the class with only two hours’ notice. Storyteller in the Kitchen and his School of Music at Penn State. cookbooks. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief The fundraising dinner has become when Chef Stellino touched down The event’s Carnivale di Venezia so much more during its 27 years of at the University Park Airport on theme was carried throughout the existence. It now includes a Friday Saturday morning and was rushed to event decor, from the Carnevale night hands-on VIP cooking class the cooking demonstration. decorative hoops hanging from the with the chef and a Saturday morning ceiling, to the stage outfitted with two television production-style cooking masks in a sixteen-foot frame! demonstration at the WPSU Studio.

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WPSU Penn State 238 Outreach Building University Park PA 16802 814-865-3333 [email protected]

WPSU is an Outreach service of Penn State.

This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. lum1 U.Ed. OUT 19-WPSU-0006