In 2017, WSBE Rhode Island PBS celebrated its 50th anniversary, commemorating a rich tradition of serving our diverse community with educational content and engaging outreach projects to enrich the lives of our viewers of all ages.

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICEREPORT TO THE COMMUNITY

IN 2017, WSBE PROVIDED THESE KEY SERVICES

As both guides and explorers on the journey of lifelong learning, we produce and present content that speaks to issues that affect our community. KEY PRODUCTIONS:• The Future of Arts Education:

What’s at Stake?• Fighting for Healthy Foods:

How RI is Stepping Up to the Plate

KEY COLLABORATIONS:• Blue Cross/Blue Shield RI

screening and discussion of opioid addiction

• CVS partnership to combat tobacco use by teens

LOCALVALUE

LOCALSERVICE

LOCALIMPACT

EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES, CHEERING ACHIEVEMENT

In addition to the new and exciting projects in 2017, WSBE also featured continuing services and content - snapshots of local life that are the bedrock of our value to the community. We shine the Rhode Island Spotlight on small organizations achieving big results, provide professional advice from tax planning and preparation experts from the RI Society of CPAs, and engage community groups of children through adults by hosting informative station tours.

WSBE reflects and services the issues and topics our community says are important.

AN INTEGRAL PART OF RI’S CULTURAL TAPESTRY

Delivering information and viewpoints with a local focus, WSBE amplifies voices that might not otherwise be heard.

In 2017, WSBE celebrated the 30th anniversary of our flagship political affairs program, A Lively Experiment. We launched two public affairs series, Stories in the Public Square and In Another Opinion.

WSBE discovered and shared stories that matter to our community because these stories come from our community. The works of local independent producers continue to be showcased under the series title, Rhode Island Stories.

“Thanks for the tickets to see Coppelia. What a beautiful ballet.” - Ruth C. R. Facebook 12/9/2017

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

IN THE COMMUNITY

Music, visual art, theater and other creative programs help children develop important cognitive, fine motor and social skills. Yet each year, public school districts face deeper cuts in school budgets for arts programs. What can be done to ensure public school students are exposed to these formative experiences?

On Thursday, October 5, Rhode Island Monthly and the Rhode Island Foundation presented another chapter in the Rhode

Island PBS Community Conversations series, The Future of Arts Education: What’s at Stake? Host and local reporter Mario Hilario moderated a discussion with a panel of guests and the live studio audience, to explore the issues, options, and innovative responses by schools, parents, students, and greater arts community.

The discussion was inspired by an article in the September issue of Rhode Island Monthly magazine. The article cites research showing students perform better in core subjects when they are involved in the arts, particularly if they are from low-income neighborhoods. According to a longitudinal study published in 2012 by the National Endowment for the Arts, low-income students who have a history of in-depth arts instruction earned better grades in science, math, and writing — and were three times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree — than their peers with less arts exposure.

Rhode Island Education Commissioner Ken Wagner says in the article, “There’s no question in my mind that administrators and educators want to invest in arts programming and want to offer more opportunities to their kids, but are faced with very difficult financial and programmatic decisions.”

Joining Dr. Wagner on the panel were Daniel Lee White, theater artist in residence at Providence’s Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts; Kerry Murphy, fine arts teacher at Johnston High School; and Casey Nilsson, associate editor at Rhode Island Monthly and the article’s author. Following the taping before a studio audience of teachers, parents, and arts advocates, the discussion continued during a reception. After broadcast, the program was uploaded to YouTube.

THE FUTURE OF ARTS EDUCATION: WHAT’S AT STAKE?

One might think that in a small state with so many active farms, Rhode Islanders would have no problem getting fresh produce and healthy foods. Not so! The reality is many RI families live in ‘food deserts.’ What’s a food desert? It’s a low-income community that does not have easy access to healthy foods.

Financial struggles, geographic location, and lack of transportation

make it almost impossible to get to a large grocery store or farmer’s market with healthy foods and fresh produce. These residents are in what the FDA terms a virtual food desert, where their only choices are fast, convenient foods that are often unhealthy and expensive.

The Rhode Island Foundation and Rhode Island Monthly partnered with Rhode Island PBS to present the latest edition in the Community Conversations series, Fighting for Healthy Foods: How Rhode Island is Stepping Up to the Plate. Host and local television journalist Mario Hilario moderated a discussion with a broad range of guests on two panels, as they and the studio audience explored options and the creative responses from the greater food community. The conversation aired on Thursday, December 7, 2017.

Panelists were Sue AnderBois, Director of Food Strategy for the state of Rhode Island; Jamie Coelho, associate editor at Rhode Island Monthly; Julius Kolawole, president of the African Alliance of Rhode Island; Amy Nunn, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute; Philip Trevvett co-chair of the Urban Green Co-op; Thea Upham, program director for Farm Fresh Rhode Island.

The conversation continued with a post-production Q&A, taped and uploaded to YouTube. The full program was uploaded to YouTube after broadcast.

FIGHTING FOR HEALTHY FOODS: HOW R.I. IS STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

IN THE COMMUNITY

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

IN THE COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS: TEENS AND TOBACCO USE

Despite decades and billions of dollars in medical and statistical research, commercial and grassroots marketing campaigns, government regulation of access and use – and, admittedly, some measure of success in changing consumer behaviors and opinions – tobacco use persists.

Among our youth, cigarette smoking has steadily declined in the U.S., however the use of alternative tobacco products such as hookah and E-cigarettes has increased. Perhaps it is the range of products, including pleasing fruity aromas and flavors. It could be the growing public opinion that vaping

with electronic cigarettes is safer than smoking traditional cigarettes. Whatever the reason, the increased use of these other forms of tobacco has canceled out decreases in cigarette use, resulting in no overall change in tobacco use in our youth. Adolescents and young adults are picking up the addictive nicotine habit. In 2015, 25.3 percent of US high school youth currently used at least one tobacco product, e-cigarettes being the most common, at 16 percent.

These trends raise questions that Teens and Tobacco Use: A Community Conversation explored in a special televised program on November 20.

With no coaching or counseling, no lectures or judgment, Rhode Island PBS filmed eight young people, ages 14 to 19, who shared their stories and experiences with tobacco use. The Rhode Island PBS program was shaped by listening to local teens and young adults describe their experiences with tobacco use, stories told in the youths’ own words.

Today most teenagers and young adults understand the dangers of smoking cigarettes, but the lack of concern regarding hookah, e-cigarettes, and chewing tobacco is alarming. The goal of the program is to influence and educate youth about the emerging dangers of using these alternative tobacco products and help them make positive choices about their health.

Community Conversations is a Rhode Island PBS series about timely issues discussed among informed and affected Rhode Islanders, to raise awareness, connect individuals, and engage audiences. Teens and Tobacco Use: A Community Conversation was made possible in part by CVS Health. To broaden program reach, the show was uploaded to the station’s YouTube channel.

Our Town is a Rhode Island PBS community project started in 2014 based on the successful series pioneered at WPSU a decade ago.

With the slogan, “Your voice, your vision,” Rhode Island PBS launched the project to encourage residents of Rhode Island’s 31 towns to become storytellers and filmmakers, to share the charm and character of their towns and villages. In addition, project goals of Our Town are also to build community among residents and businesses, and to connect Rhode Island PBS to the community in a meaningful way.

After the first documentary, Our Town: Glocester premiered in December 2014, two towns were chosen for 2015, North Kingstown (premiered in September 2015) and Portsmouth (premiered in December 2015), two towns for 2016, West Warwick in September, and Westerly in December, and one premiere in 2017, Smithfield in September. From meetings with town officials, business owners, and residents of Smithfield, a core group of storytellers emerged, and they selected the topics and arranged filming. Rhode Island PBS provided technical and moral support throughout, and edited the story segments together into a one-hour documentary.

The residents and friends involved in the production were invited to the studio to watch the films in private advance screenings, and were invited to be in the studio to talk about their project experiences and volunteer to answer phones during the fund raising premieres. The entire series, including the latest Our Town: Smithfield is available on YouTube.

SMITHFIELD STORIES

Neil Salley, who lived in Smithfield nearly his whole life and is the artist who created the official town seal.

Smithfield Airport came about because local resident, John Emin, needed a place to land his airplane. Just days after erecting a hanger and sign for the Smithfield Airport, a now-famous WWII pilot made an emergency stop there.

The Smith-Appleby House is a museum on seven acres and headquarters to the Historical Society of Smithfield.

The Mary Mowry House is an historical home on 20-plus acres in Smithfield. After more than a decade of sitting vacant, the home is being refurbished through a partnership between the town and several non-profit organizations.

Powder Mill Ledges is a wildlife refuge of 100-plus acres owned and operated by the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

While a Christmas celebration in town is nothing new, the Smithfield Christmas Parade is brand new. Organizers share the sights and sounds.

Esmond Mills manufactured blankets that became famous across the United States and beyond.

Other segments include 130 years of the public library, the old Smithfield bank, Smithfield Fire Department, and the Farnum House.

OUR TOWN: SMITHFIELD

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

IN THE COMMUNITY

Funded by a grant from the Fred Rogers Foundation in partnership with Vroom and the Besos Family Foundation, The Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Be My Neighbor Day” project provided a perfect opportunity for Rhode Island PBS to connect with parents of our youngest viewers, and collaborate with a long-time community partner, the Providence Children’s Museum.

At the heart of the station’s “Be My Neighbor Day” (BMND) event on May 10 at the Providence Children’s Museum was the character meet and greet with the Daniel Tiger costume character. Daniel Tiger proved to be very popular among our young viewers, even for a Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. Registered families received a packet that included one set of 15 laminated Vroom “brain building” activity cards (3 activities for each of the 5 age groups), one Daniel Tiger board book, and one flip-open pocket mirror branded with the Vroom and Rhode Island PBS logos. General giveaways included Daniel Tiger and PBS Kids stickers, pencils, and temporary tattoos for children, and extra mirrors and Vroom activity sheets for parents.

The queue to see Daniel Tiger ran along the outside perimeter of the large room; in the center of the room were the giant blue foam building blocks, spools, wheels, tubes, and other loose parts, that helped to engage and occupy children during their wait. Museum and station staff encouraged imaginative “Build Your Community” parent-child play whenever possible, while managing the line and moving guests through as efficiently as possible. Littlewoods, located just outside the event room and perfectly suited for the Daniel Tiger age group, was a popular alternative for waiting parents and children, as was the popular Water Works room, and the play area with smaller blocks.

We doubled the Museum’s highest visitor tally for a Wednesday, seeing 450 children and parents in the two-hour period.

“BE MY NEIGHBOR DAY” AT THE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

STORIES OF IMPACT IN THE COMMUNITY

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

STORIES OF IMPACT IN THE COMMUNITY

A SPECIAL VISITOR TO THE MUSEUM OF WORK AND CULTURE

On Labor Day 2017, families to the Museum of Work and Culture welcomed a special guest. Julia, the newest character on Sesame Street, is an autistic four-year old girl, and appeared as part of an expanded program of the Museum’s SensAbilities Saturday. An all ability program, SensAbilities Saturday is available once a month for families seeking a low sensory, less crowded environment in which to enjoy the Museum. Trained staff and volunteers are on hand to provide supplementary tools and offer tours to visiting families who have children with special needs.

Walkaround Julia’s participation in this Labor Day event supported the Museum’s focus on servicing members of the community on the autism spectrum. For the Labor Day event, the Museum worked with their own trained volunteers, as well as staff from the Autism Project and the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research & Treatment (RI-CART) to create an inclusive atmosphere for the event participants. These experienced volunteers ensured the comfort of all visitors.

Walkaround Julia’s visit was one of only a few character appearances authorized by Sesame Workshop and was the first for Rhode Island PBS.

A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE EPIDEMIC OF OPIOID ADDICTION

In December 2017, Rhode Island PBS wrapped up a year of community outreach and conversations about serious issues in health and education by welcoming the annual Blue Cross | Blue Shield Community Meeting to our studios. Blue Cross | Blue Shield invited its board of directors and interested public to screen the Second Opinion special, Opioid Addiction: Inside the Epidemic. The screening was followed by a discussion and Q&A.

The partnership between Rhode Island PBS and Blue Cross | Blue Shield extended to a television broadcast of the Second Opinion special program the following week, and includes production in the spring of 2018 of a local documentary about the toll of opioid abuse and addiction on Rhode Island.

Since 1987, A Lively Experiment has provided incisive review of local politics in a fast-paced analysis of the week’s political events by news makers and opinion leaders. On Friday, November 24, Rhode Island PBS celebrated its flagship program’s 30th anniversary with a special edition that brought together the show’s former hosts to reminisce about their favorite moments.

Award-winning broadcast journalist Jim Hummel, host since 2016, was joined by Steve Kass, James Hagan, and Dyana Koelsch. Radio broadcaster Steve Kass moderated A Lively Experiment from its first show in 1987 until 2005, when he accepted a position in then-Governor Donald Carcieri’s administration. Jim Hagan, former president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, sat in the moderator’s chair from 2006 until Dyana Koelsch, award-winning TV political reporter, was named in 2011. There have been only four permanent hosts in the show’s 30-year history.

Representing both objective and partisan viewpoints, A Lively Experiment features a revolving panel of television, radio, newspaper, and online journalists, political scientists, pundits, economists, opinion leaders, and elected and appointed officials. In the weekly half-hour show, panelists examine local and state issues emanating from Town Halls to Smith Hill, and even to the halls of Congress and the White House.

A Lively Experiment’s popular segment, “Outrage of the Week,” typifies the essence of the show’s political commentary. This segment features an eclectic collection of each guest’s single most significant issue, often under-reported failings and foibles of Rhode Island officials.

With three decades of political analysis to its credit, and an abundance of hot topics forecast for the dawning 2018 election season, there is no doubt A Lively Experiment will continue to ignite spirited debate, opinion, and commentary about Rhode Islanders’ favorite local pastime: politics and government.

A LIVELY EXPERIMENT CELEBRATES 30 YEARS WITH REUNION OF FORMER HOSTS

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

STORIES OF IMPACT

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

STORIES OF IMPACT

IN ANOTHER OPINION

In Another Opinion is a public affairs program that examines today’s key local and national issues and events that impact communities of color in Rhode Island. Hosted by Peter Wells, publisher and editor of The Providence American, the show premiered on Sunday, January 29, and airs the last Sunday of each month at 10:30 a.m.

In its first year, the show’s guests have included former and current members of the state legislature, a sitting United States congressman and senator, as well as minority business leaders, immigrant advocates, and community organizers. Episodes are available on the station’s YouTube channel.

STORY IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE

The Pell Center at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI, in collaboration with The Providence Journal, launched a regular weekly series, Story in the Public Square.

Co-hosted by Pell Center Executive Director Jim Ludes, and visiting fellow and director of the Story in the Public Square initiative, G. Wayne Miller, the episodes feature interviews with today’s best print, screen, music, and other storytellers describing their creative processes and how their stories impact public understanding and policy.

The show airs Sunday mornings at 11 a.m., with rebroadcast on the following Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m.

2017 LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORT

STORIES OF IMPACT AND VALUE

LETTERS, E-MAIL, AND PHONE MESSAGES FROM OUR VIEWERS

July 27, 2017I want to say as a relatively new Rhode Islander of 10 years’ time, how highly I have come to value your programs about our state... I have also benefited from the programs on the archaeological and anthropological considerations of Rhode Island’s Native American community and their lands... For these programs, and much more, I thank you. With much appreciation, Mary Jane P.

5/18/2017I cannot begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed watching the plethora of deeply inspiring and beautifully written/directed documentaries on your station. The series that covers the various towns has taught me so much... A heartfelt thank you to everyone there for the lovely gift you’ve given to the community. Sincerely, Katherine L. Natick, MA

9-9-2017

Thank you so much for the Artworks and local programmes.

My husband and I enjoy them so much as they show greater

originality than there is on [other channels].

Massi P. in Fairhaven, MA

...After viewing [Carved from Stone: Legacy of a Granite Town], I visited

the Westerly Cemetery a couple of times and saw some of the great works of

art created by the “granite artists.” The visit was so much more meaningful

and educational after seeing the program. I’d love to have a couple of my

grandchildren watch the full program and then take them to visit some of

these great sculptures in person. It would be a great lesson in RI History and

Art as well.

I love your programming,

Charles P.

Cranston, RI