Business as Usual: WQED

Transcription: 

Okay, well, we lost another great legend john Nash who actually helped look, not only write that and perform that, but also help lift Bob Marley. So, here we go. I'm really excited about today. I'm Audrey Russo, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, Jonathan kersting. Our team is here as well. He oversees all things marketing, and media. And you're going to have some fun today, as we usually do every day. But today, I have a dear friend that's joining us. And I'm going to introduce her in a moment. So I first of all want to thank Huntington bank for being incredible partners with us over over the many, many months of COVID. But even before that they have been partners with us in all things that we experiment with. And who would have thought we're approaching our hundred and 40th session of business as usual. So we've muted your microphones, just because we don't want to hear the noise in the background. But that doesn't mean we don't want to hear from you. We want to hear, you know, ask questions during the chat. Jonathan's going to keep an eye on that. And we've recorded this as well. So it'll be available for anyone's review afterwards, in our archives. So I want to jump in. First of all, I'm thrilled to introduce Deb bachlin. She's president and CEO of W QED multimedia, and I just want to be in transparent she is someone who I consider a close friend, and an advisor and just someone who gets into really good trouble. And she has just celebrated her 10th year at the helm of W QED. So that's a decade of change and a decade of lots to talk about. And before we jump into this questions, I'm going to bring her on and say not only welcome, Deb, but who is Deb the woman How did she get to where she is right now? And what about w QED? I mean, you've got a lot of great stuff to report on. We do.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Audrey. And thanks for all the nice stuff and right back atcha. You know, Audrey is one of these people who she and I realized really quickly that we had a mutual admiration society. And that has been completely consistent. The first time I met her she was wearing red boots. And I could remember that was that was what I remember from the meeting is that she was wearing red boots and she walked in, I said, Oh, a woman who wears red boots. I like you. And it's been that way ever since. So. So thank you. And thanks for all the great work that the that the Pittsburgh Technology Council does in the community and in the business community in particular, there's so much learning that goes on. And, you know, that's that's a nice sort of segue into into who is Deb bachlin? I

asked that question today. But who's who Debbie Lachlan is.

I think probably the biggest piece of my identity from childhood because you know, these things shape you as you go is that both of my parents were teachers, and all of my aunts and uncles were teachers. So I come from a family of teachers and I think kids who have both parents who are in the teaching profession, you know, I was joke I say it's like having a child whose parents are both psychiatrists, you know, it sort of wires you a particular way. And and I think that was true of me in particular. So I was I was had to tell a little story because it really is the story of how I landed a W QED and and why this this organization He is such an incredible fit for me. But also, I think why it's such a powerful organization in our community and in our world. So when I was a little girl really curious, I, my parents were very careful to never allow us to watch television. Isn't it iron ironic that, that I work in TV, I always said that it was my act of teenage rebellion. You know, I didn't, I didn't do drugs, I watched TV because it was forbidden. But um, we had to, we had to apply for special permission, if we wanted to watch any television programs. And the things that I was passionate about were programs about animals in the natural world, I was I was attracted to that, from from the jump, I grew across, grew up across the street from Highland Park. So there was a lot of, of nature interaction in my life, I grew up very near the Pittsburgh zoo. So that was a place that we visited a lot. And I got really curious about it. And so what my parents did in trying to keep us from watching television as they tried to create all of us as readers. So the question we know that the answer was always we'll go read a book, go find something to read. So I was reading five books, probably at the same time, just to literally have something to do. And I found out that w QED, was going to be broadcasting a National Geographic special, which at the time they produced, and it was on the tiger. And I thought that that was the most fascinating animal, the tiger is still my favorite animal. And so I applied for special permission, which is kind of what you had to do. In order to be given permission to watch that program, I probably had to empty the dishwasher, you know, five nights a week or something like that. And my parents were also very careful to always have the television experience be be a shared experience. So if we were watching TV, most of the time, they were in the room. And so I watched this incredible National Geographic special about tigers. And at the end of it, I can remember pointing to the screen and saying to my mom, I want to do that, I want to do that. And I didn't know what I meant. I didn't know if I wanted to go track tigers and put radio collars on them and live in the bush and, you know, sort of do all that. Or if it was about telling the story of the tiger and and the explorers and so on. And at the end of it, just as she was saying to me, Well, you know, if that's what you want to do, you can do that you absolutely can just at that time, the credits rolled and W acuities credit came up. And she seized on the moment and said, You see, that's w QED that's down the street from school. Those are Pittsburghers who made that show. So if that's something that you want to do, you decide you want to do it, you go ahead and do it. And that was the only thing ever that was the that was the toughest pressure, if you want to call it that to succeed, that my parents ever put on me. If you want to do something, decide you want to do it and go do it. It was just as simple as that. They never gave me grief about grades and all the rest of that stuff. So all the years that I started working in media, you know, including my time at Duquesne University where I went to school. I would always say to people, yeah, okay, I'm producing the six o'clock news a Katie gay now. But someday, I really want to work for National Geographic. And when w QED called me and asked me to join forces, it felt to me like I was getting a little closer to that goal. And then, of course, you know, Audrey, because you've you've, you've heard me tell the story. And you've seen my my bio, is then I was recruited from w acuity to National Geographic. So it was a it's a pretty incredible story to me about what they were trying to accomplish. And the kind of feedback that you give to a child and the kind of direction kind of encouragement you give to a child, I think, in particular, sometimes to a young woman makes a lifetime of difference. And that's really where I come from. I come from the Pittsburgh side of that story. I come from the education side of that story. I come from the curious side of that story I come from, from the being discriminating about media side of that story. And that sense of adventure that all of that created in me. So long way of telling, you

know, that's

it's a great story, I didn't realize the onset of the QED P. So that's that that's so serendipitous, and it is at the same time. So that's, that's amazing. So So talk about QED set the table for us so that we really understand because you that you lead and do a lot.

Yeah, we do. As a matter of fact, it's it's kind of amazing. You know, there are times when I tried to, to stack it up, I tried to to give a report to our Board of Trustees or even to my sister who happens to be in public relations. And she will say to me, I didn't know about that. I didn't know about that. I didn't know about that. Why didn't you tell me about that? And I'll say Well, you know what, there are 100 simultaneous things we're working on. I can't even keep track of every individual one, which is why having a really excellent team as we do is the key. So Another What's that? So another another big story that I have to tell you is the story of W QED. And and as I understand it, and I've kind of, you know, I've kind of put a real story around this in a lot of ways, because you had to, you have to sort of pull it from things that people wrote in from testimony to Congress and other places that the story of W QED was written. Some of this came from Fred Rogers, who told me some of the story, and so on, but as I understand it, you know, 1949, television came to Pittsburgh in a in a real way. It was out there before then. But by the time they connected everything, it was 1949. And at the time, you know, think about the economy of Pittsburgh, it was pretty much an industrial manufacturing center with lots of other things. But that was that was dominant in some ways. And the mayor at the time, Mayor, David Lawrence, and a number of other city fathers, and let's face it, they were also the fathers at the time, found out that the FCC was going to be offering for the first time ever, non commercial Educational Television licenses and CES, they're called, and they decided they wanted to get one for Pittsburgh. Now the model had been and they were just a few of them in in, in action are starting to be starting to be mounted starting to be launched in the country. But the difference was we did not have a school board, or a state network or a university that was going to hold this license. in Pittsburgh, the license was going to be held by the community, which was new radical, we still are the first community licensed public, public television station in the country and probably in the world. So we look at it is at the time, Pittsburgh had a very vibrant public school system.

Mr. Carnegie had left us some riches in terms of educational opportunities and resources. And the third leg was how did we bring education into people's homes using this powerful new medium of television. So in 1954, w Qt went on the air as that non commercial educational entity, lots of things happened after that. But one of the things that they did was a big experiment with the Department of Education, the US Department of Education, and some people will remember this when I when I talked to groups of longtime Pittsburghers, they remember having the big television wheeled into the classroom. And there was a teacher from a television studio, who would teach them social studies or, or civics or whatever it was. So what w QED did was to use the power of television, put a fantastic teacher in front of the camera and have him or her basically to teach 500 I forget what the number was many 10s of thousands of kids simultaneously. And it was this experimental thing that they were doing, we've never lost that spirit. We've never lost the the potential of what educational media could be, we've never lost the being awestruck at the at the, at the media firepower that has been put into our hands, which is you know, you can use for great things, or you can use for not so great things. But to control all of this media as we have now in 2020. And to and to realize that there's a higher purpose to it. The higher purpose is education, and edification of the citizens of our Commonwealth, everyone equally, you have a television in your home, you can get Wi Fi. And of course, if you have a cell phone in your pocket, or if you have an iPad, whatever you whatever streaming technology, whatever cable broadcast, whatever it is, we are there in some way, shape, or form. And we're there for the purpose of education. So we really, that's the lens that we look at the world through. And And that applies to our classical radio station, and particularly applies to the last 10 years of my tenure, which has been about fixing the fundamentals of the organization because the organization has been hampered by debt and a number of different things in years past, luckily, that's passed, and building up that sense of educational strength and innovation again, it was not okay for all of greater Pittsburgh to think of W QED as it's it's a spot on the dial. It's just a television channel. It's just a radio station. You know, like, why do we need that when we have discovery was was often a question. It when, when people started to see and understand that we had a higher purpose, and that our programming sometimes was very entertaining. But most of the time was thought provoking. That was what we needed to get to. So we took some time and built up. Our education team built up our sense of partnerships, who we wanted to work with how we wanted to do this. And I think in many ways, we we transformed ourselves back into what we always Word if that makes sense. We, our we are a school of the air. You know, we're not school in the sense of grades and in the sense of standards and all of that. But we're a school in the way that the Carnegie Library was a school for August Wilson, where that kind of school where the school where you can discover where you can ask questions where we don't tell you how to think we just remind you that you should think. And so that's going back to the roots, but in a very modern way. So just recently, we landed a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, to help to solve the equity gap that arises from kids in rural areas and kids in urban areas and kids in financial circumstances, not having Wi Fi not having the connectivity that they need, but they have a television. And on that television, not only can you get w QED but embedded in the signal is a stream of data. And then that stream of data, we can send educational materials, we can send videos on behalf of school districts, we can send lesson plans, we can send all kinds of ancillary materials and documentation that supplements what the student is learning. And they don't have to have a Wi Fi connection in order to get that. So we're doing a data casting test pilot test in seven different communities around the Commonwealth. And then of course, you know how this works. You test you get your results, you measure, measure, measure, you look at the impact, you look at the efficacy of it, and then you bring it to scale. So our goal is nothing less than having helping the helping the the Commonwealth to provide equity in a very strange, disrupted adrift educational world that parents are trying to navigate that,

that elected officials are trying to navigate. But most importantly, that young learners are trying to navigate. So we've stepped into that space. But in a way, it's kind of Back to the Future

is Back to the Future. That's what I think about I think about the hiccup that the world had over this last decade. And now that you really are Back to the Future. But before we dive into some some of the offerings, what I'd like to do, every year you get you like nominated for a ton of Emmys. And recently, I think you were nominated for 30. And you and you received 12. But tell us about it. Well, God, I do back and I can hear you but tell me, tell me about tell all of us about these Emmys? Oh, I'm happy to see she's she's barking in approval. By the way. She's saying Chris slick. Okay.

So me. So how wonderful to work in an industry where there are great awards. And everybody knows the name of those awards. You know, we don't qualify for Oscars. Well, sometimes we do. But everybody knows what an Emmy is. And so just the very mention of me, and it's and it's impressive, and we have an extremely impressive team here. I'm happy to tell you that a lot of those folks are just the best and brightest of Pittsburgh media, who are attracted to W QED like a magnet, because they still can do the kind of work that they used to be able to do before reality television hit before. Before the 24 hour news cycle hit before the really the media business changed. And a lot of those folks came here to do their best work. And it shows so 30 nominations, a lot of it for new digital content. So not just for half hour an hour long television programs, a lot of it's for digital content, a lot of it's for community service, a big project that we did on on black male incarceration, a lot of information about the opioids crisis, mental health, veterans issues, all sorts of things. So we won, in what we felt were significant categories for us. Community Service used to be kind of the ultimate that was like the, I don't know, I'd be using industry standards to describe it to you. But that used to be the penultimate award was that Community Service Award. And a few years ago, they put forth something that they called overall excellence. We won that this year again, so we won community service, we want overall excellence. And so that's five overall excellence, Emmy Awards for W QED in the last probably seven or eight years. And that looks at the whole the whole body of work everything you put into individual categories. And then they say this is the overall winner. And this is for you know, this is for all Pennsylvania parts of New Jersey, parts of Maryland parts of Delaware. It's a very big regional market. So thanks for thanks for mentioning it, Audrey. It's It's It's a tough thing to kind of like not humble brag, but the beauty of it is that it really is that team. And even though you know I was saying to a group the other day even though my name is on the overall excellence that's only because the me rules call for that. But really, what is it Behind that is a team of really wonderfully talented, passionate, dedicated, mission driven people working here.

Well, you know, since this onset of COVID, and the whole conversations that I know that you've been privy to the digital divide, you're having access to Wi Fi, and what we've just mentioned before, you know, back to the future, where are you seeing yourselves now? Like, if you just even push out like the next six months? Are you seeing some new things? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we definitely are. So So. Um, so a number of things. First is on the education front, I've already kind of given you a sense of that. And there are specific programs, you'll you'll actually be really pleased with some of the programs, one of them is, is called the robot doctor. And that's bringing stem and robotics to rural students in Pennsylvania. So we did an eight part series, which you can see on our website, that's new content, we expect that work to continue. There's also a CMU tied to that. Other things, we have a program called support our schools. And what we've done is we've put together two weeks of curriculum as a buffer for different grade bands. So K through two, ages three, or grades three, and four, all the way up to to 12th grade. And it's two weeks of material that if we have another outbreak, if schools have to close again, if teachers are sick, whatever the situation is, there is the solution, two weeks of content, that is pa standards based, that is absolutely appropriate to what would be happening in the classroom anyway. So that's, that's another thing we're doing. The other is Support for the Arts. And, you know, it doesn't necessarily fall in, in, in most conversations about about educational broadcasting, but because we have a classical station, classical radio station, which also really is deeply embedded in arts and culture. So classical arts and culture, I would say, we've been thinking a lot about how do we help? How do we help? How do we help the symphony, the ballet rattle off your favorite? How do we, how can we assist them. So there are a lot of things in the works right now, where we're developing content with the bees, and with some of the smaller organizations that have always been a part of wt FM's mission. So those two things I think, will dominate the next six months, since you gave me that timeframe. But the other is that we will continue to deepen, you know, we'll continue to to get even more bench strength in some of the content areas that we've been working on for years. example is, after George Floyd was killed, we ran a series that we had done called perception and portrayal, which is really the story of African American men and boys in the media. And we did a deep dive into how African American men and boys are portrayed by the traditional media, both commercial, non commercial, and so on. As you know, it's pretty appalling.

So

we put that series out, again, very timely, sort of sadly, pertinent, sadly relevant, and decided to build on that by now focusing on African American girls and women. So, I mean, you know, you can read studies and see the struggles that African American girls face, in some cases, and we're looking to create awareness around that. So the good content will continue. But in the meantime, it really is, in meeting the community's next need, which is right, which is supposed to be the goal of a good nonprofit. We're, we're doubling down on the education, work, data casting, and we're just then we're doubling down on support for arts and culture, while continuing to create all that other content.

So I mean, there's a question out here, which I think you've answered a bunch of it in terms of meeting tech and research and working locally. So, Deb, in terms of the tech community, and in terms of helping you with with your mission, and in terms of everything that you just articulated, and, you know, as it relates to Black Lives Matter movement in terms of the work that you've done cultural support, etc. What could and should, the tech community at large do to be helpful to this mission?

I think there are a number of things I think,

number one thing I would tell you as partnerships, because we are very clear here, I think the entire team, you know, 60 people, not a huge organization. But we're very clear that we don't know everything. And we're very clear that that we need to listen. And I think that's what what what leadership and service is about is listening. Right? So we're always out wanting to listen, we Yes, we absolutely want To do a video for distribution for our website for digital media, wherever we can put it about your innovation, Yes, we do. But we also want to listen and figure out how working together, we might solve a problem we haven't even encountered yet. So, you know, I'm, I'm always interested in, in tapping into, to intelligence to brilliance to a different point of view. You know, a few years ago, we were kind of drifting around in that education space that I was talking about. And, and I looked around for the sharpest expert, single subject expert, we could find an education, because I knew it wasn't coming from here. I haven't spent my life innovating an education. I've spent my life in media and in community work in a very similar way, the tech community and web can can do that together. And then the other, which is harder, and in so many ways, more obvious, and maybe a little more crass is in financial support in community support. I recognize that startups don't have the money for marketing or the money for supporting other organizations, we should think these things through in a broader way. Because without this platform or the series of platforms, without this sort of megaphone for good that we have here, it's hard to get your story out. And I think using an organization and I mean, using in the best way, using an organization like w QED, which has so many outlets for distribution, to support it, and to realize that without that vessel of W QED, we don't have a place to gather all that good stuff that everybody's doing. So it's kind of a combination of things. And sometimes, you know, sometimes it fits sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But we always learn something in the process.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, to spend any time with Dr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers, do people always ask you that to do spend time with them?

I did. And I'm lucky. I'm lucky

that I did. What do you think he would say about about right now, in terms of that you're doing and the apps that you just had?

What I think that Fred would remind us? And I, first of all, I think he would think that we're doing the right thing right now, which is focusing on kids. Really. That was always his that no matter what it was, he said, that was at the core of it. The other thing that Fred was all about? Sounds a little Oh, I don't know, sounds a little squishy, coming from him in particular. But I think that, that Fred was all about love. And, and, you know, Fred was all about kindness. And so I think Fred would look at a couple of different aspects of what we're all encountering in the world, pandemic, racial divides, all of the things that are going on that are separating us. Plus this crisis in education, if it's fair to call it that, and I think Fred would say, look for the look for the kids first, you know, not just look for the helpers, everybody quotes that quote. But he would also remind us that, that the civility matters, that the helping of neighbors matters, the sensibility of yourself as a neighbor matters. And that, you know, we have a very, very powerful tool here, which is media. And by the way I come I combined I make media singular and plural. So if I go back and forth, don't be surprised. But

But I think that Fred would,

in the conversations that he and I had, he talked

about the incredible responsibility of working in media and the fact that he considered the space between a child in the television watching his program, he considered that to be holy ground. He wasn't

kidding.

So I think about that sometimes. And I think when I'm in the studio, particularly the studio where his program was filmed for so many years where, where I swear, his spirit still lives. I think about that as a sacred ground. And what a what a role model, you know, not just for the world, which is incredible that that the Fred's legacy has continued to be what it has been, but also for the people he who he encountered on on a day in day out basis. And Fred could bring you to Craig could bring you to your core so quickly, it was almost was almost shocking. And you walked away changed and it happened again and again and again. Everyone A w QED, who was here when Fred was here, have a have a Mr. Rogers story. Sometimes it's the the the the funny joke, he told him the elevator. Other times, it's the time he said something to you and looked right in your eye and absolutely took your heart and just manipulated like that, and then gave it back to you. That was Fred

Well, Deb, we have spent a half hour with you. And it has been remarkable. And it is just, first of all the way that you are able to knit the story together and talk about w QED. And the relevance and the humbleness and humility that you provide is inspirational for all of us. And to me, I can't thank you enough for taking time with us. I would like everyone, if you don't know anything about web, go out there. If you're interested in trying to be supportive, you are definitely an accessible woman, and who has a spirit that what has been manifested on the screen is authentic. And I can't thank you enough for just being a part of this community and and being steady, you've been steady. You don't ask for a lot in the limelight. And yet you have been steady in orchestrating some of the magnificence that has happened at WWE.

Oh, you're very kind to say so and right back at you. By the way.

I want to give people one stop to your if you want to learn about w QED or discover some things go to the website wq.org because there you see television, radio, education, digital, you know, the whole, the whole whole ball of wax. So w qd.org would be the place to go.

So Deb, stay safe, we will do to you. Thank you for taking the time with us. You're welcome. Thank you. We will we will be back here tomorrow. So I want to thank everyone and thank you Backlund and congratulations on these recent Emmys and awards. We're proud of you. Thank you stay safe everyone. You will

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