Iowa Press makes news again

Each Friday, some of Iowa's most important people come to my workplace.

Not to see me, but face the gauntlet called "Iowa Press."

The show is big horse in the stable of Iowa Public Television's local productions.

Any given week, a governor, a United States senator or legislative leader comes in and sits down for 27 minutes.

I don't actively participate in the production of the show, but I do follow closely what is done on the program and who is coming and going. I sit on the other side of the wall to Mike Newell, the producer of the program. I hear Mike make many calls a week looking for the big hitters each and every week for the show.

This week, Sioux City republican Rep. Chris Rants was in the building for his turn.

As expected, the first question was about Rep. Rants' plans to run for governor.

Rants said, he's forming an exploratory committee.

So, once again, news was made at 6450 Corporate Drive.

During most tapings, reporters from around the state will gather in our Maytag lobby to listen to the show. Then, most guests will emerge from the studio for a post-game wrap up or further follow up of their appearance. They can also get a soundbite or comment on another subject with our guest for their stories.

Today was no different as Radio Iowa, Iowa Public Radio, WHO Radio, the Des Moines Register all had representatives to hear Rep. Rants.

Many Friday's I can watch the program being taped while sitting at my desk. Its a great chance to see the show and then if need be, tweet the live action. Its fun to be a part of the news and hear extended interviews and comments from newsmakers.

You can see Iowa Press Friday's at 7:30p and Sunday at 11:30a.

Cape meets war and presidential candidate veteran

Just a follow up on Dan Wardell hitting the road and coming to your city.

Monday Dan was in Denison and Glidden. Tuesday you can see the cape in Guthrie Center and Bayard. Then he continues to northwest Iowa for Orange City, LeMars, Sioux City and points beyond. His Dantastic Blog is here.

Here's also a follow up on the meeting between Dan Wardell and Sen. John McCain during their photo op during the Iowa State Fair in 2006.

Check out the fun meeting right here.

Dan Wardell is a machine

I don't think I fully appreciated Dan Wardell until I started to work with him. 

Sure, I heard he still had a radio show. But, he's been a doing a radio show with his friends for years. That goes back to their time traveling to Waverly to do a radio show on KWAR. They were there every Saturday morning doing their wackiness. 

Dan started working at IPTV years ago and found a way to the on-air side of things. He was doing some kids club events, some pledging fun and other tidbits like health minutes.

When I got to IPTV in 2007, he was the man here. He hits the road the entire summer on a grueling schedule reading to kids in nearly every library in the state. He puts in long days, but loves what he does.

My son loves Dan. He doesn't really know that Dan and I go all the way back to Wartburg, but he knows his dad and Dan are friends. Dan and I are members of the Wartburg College class of 1998 and both communication arts majors.

Last summer Dan came to the Kirkendall Library in Ankeny and Noah was there as well. Noah not only got called out of this massive crowd, but got to go on stage with Dan and answer some questions in front of the entire group. Good times for Noah. I've got the picture still on my desk top from the Des Moines Register. 

Dan makes memories like that all summer wherever he goes. Today its Fort Dodge and Algona. 

You can follow his travels and see all the pictures he uploads right here. 

He'll be in Clear Lake and Hampton on Thursday. There's a great story about the people of Hampton wanting Dan to come to their library. Dan opens applications or requests for his visit on January 1. Dan got emails from Hampton at 12:01 A.M. on January 1st, 2009 requesting that Dan come visit them in Hampton. He'll be there Thursday.

Happy reading and road tripping with Dan Wardell. 

If you miss him in your town, try seeing him at the State Fair in the Varied Industries Building. Just look for the crowd that's stopping up the aisles and hallways and look for a guy in a yellow cape.

Have you got pictures with Dan and your kids? Post them, I'd love to see them.

Radio is the theater of the mind, what's that make internet radio?

Radio has always been fun to me. Its been a start to many things in my career.

Officially, I did start my media career as a picture printer at the Jesup Citizen Herald, but one of my first jobs at Wartburg College was working at KWAR radio. I did several radio shows on several topics and had fun at every turn of the record.

That was over the air, you could get the signal for 5 miles around campus and that was about it. There was no internet streaming to supplement your signal. KWAR was truly 10 watts of pure power.

What if you only had the internet signal? It wouldn't really be a signal, but rather a stream.

That's what is fun about the internet, everything is new and you can experiment and see what works.

Just like radio was when it started. It was new, people experimented and tried new things.

A Des Moines area business owner, J. Michael McCoy has done just about everything in media in this town. He's been on country, rock, talk and even christian radio stations. Now he's started up a web-only radio station. Its called Mac's World Live, a play on his old talk radio show.

The line up covers all sorts of topics and age groups. It really is community radio the way it once was. Even my friend Dave Price has a show.

The station is run out of his bar, Miss Kitty's in Clive. The studio is carved out of an old service area of the bar. The signal is only online but its also a webcast as well. There's 3 cams and the host of the radio show also is the director, switching shots as people talk on the radio in a room no bigger than my closet at home.

But that's what is so fun about radio and broadcasting. You hear it, you think big, grand thoughts. You think expansive studios with stuff happening all around it.

Radio has always been theater of the mind. Its a challenge to make it happen and be good. That's what is fun about it.

You can tell, I was excited to get a chance to do radio again.

Michael Libbie was one of our guests on our social media Iowa Journal. Libbie owns an ad agency called Insight Advertising, Marketing and Communications. Michael is also an old radio guy who loves the theater of it as well. He hosts Insight on Business Monday - Friday from 1230 to 2p. He talks business, but wanted to talk more about IPTV and The Iowa Journal.

We did talk about social media, Sandi Lincoln, Twitter, Pat Dix, WHO-TV, gay marriage, Iowa, Wartburg, and eventually we did get to IPTV and the Iowa Journal.

Give us a listen if you like, the archived version is here.

Thanks again to Michael for the opportunity. Who knows, this may be the future of broadcasting.

What to do on The Iowa Journal

Earlier this week the group of producers for The Iowa Journal got together to talk about The Iowa Journal. 

It doesn't sound newsworthy, but it is if you watch the show. 

We spent the majority of the two hours talking about ideas for the show. We are in a bit of a transition. Sid Sprecher has been at the reigns of the show since the beginning in October of 2007. He's retiring at the end of the month and we are now in hiatus after Thursday's flood show. We are done as a cost saving measure until the fall, maybe September, maybe October. 

So, we've got a little time to do some tweaking if we want. This may happen. 

What do you want to see? 

Here's some of the ideas being tossed around. 

We need to make sure the I in IPTV stands for Iowa. Its a lot to ask someone to travel from Decorah to Johnston for an interview that may last 14 minutes. Its another to travel there and do the interview by satellite. The cost is too great for one interview.

Have you used Skype? Oprah uses Skype for her show. Why can't we? We talked about how we could use it for guests in our news analysis section or a guest if we like. 

Its not HD quality, but from what I've seen Oprah do, the audio sounds good, but the pic is a little pixelated.  

What do you think of our interviews? Do they add to the information we provide on our topics. How about one guest or 4 guests each week? Do we do a show with just guests one week on a topic. We talked about spending a show with one topic in a taped piece. Then the next week we would look at the topic in a discussion. It seems like a lot of work, but would it be worth it?

Just thought I would clue you in what we're up to and talking about here on The Iowa Journal.

Yes, the economy is still bad for people

Are there any signs things are improving for Iowans?

What hope can we give to people about the economy?

Who or what industries are looking like they will be hiring?

What can be done in the meantime while we wait for the economy to turn?

This week we bring the phone operators and volunteers to take your questions about the economy. Its a topic that is continually on the brain of many, if not all of us.

Yes, there's been some good indicators this week, but for some, they are still without a job.

The Iowa Journal is committed to answering your questions about the economy. We've assembled an impressive panel.

Elisabeth Buck is the director of the Iowa Workforce Development. Rob Denson is president of Des Moines Area Community College. Adam Carroll is a personal financial consultant and Jim Adams coordinates the Hope@Work program at one of, if not the, biggest churches in the state, Lutheran Church of Hope.

Jim will be making his Iowa Journal debut and the rest are veterans on the program.  Glad to have Jim on the show.

You can call with your questions or email them ahead of time. Call 866.282.2846 or send an email to iowajournal@iptv.org

We're on live Thursday night from 8-9. 

There will be no cutdown version of the program this week that airs on Friday. So, if you want to catch up if you miss our on-air signal, hop onto www.iptv.org/iowajournal

If you want to see our program on Autism, that's last week's show. Also see fan favorites like auto racing in Iowa, water quality and the Out and About in Red Oak. All available on our website, any time of the day.

We will also be taping a discussion tomorrow about social media. We're talking about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. How do we go beyond email. That will air only on Friday, May 29 at 630p. Another DTV or digital TV call in will air at 8p next week. 

Thanks for the time. 

The monkey is now blogging. Hard to believe. Check it out for longer versions of my Iowa Journal ramblings. 

Thanks for reading this last line. If you send a question to iowajournal@iptv.org and you're on this list, I'll send you an IPTV prize. 

Autism

The Iowa Journal looked at Autism on Thursday, May 14. 

Sally Pederson and Ethel Faust were the guests.

We had a lot of ground to cover and did in our 17 minutes. The show is online at www.iptv.org/iowajournal