The Reinforcement Has Arrived for days 4 and 5- YBHA VI

Levi and Noah sit on Grandma Honey's lap.

It is nice to see a friendly face.

Grandma Honey was a welcome sight for me and my boys. I mean, Grandma Paula and Grandpa Wil can only be asked to do so much. They need a break.

Seriously, we rely heavily on Wil and Paula for help. They assisted me a few times this week while the boss was gone.

When Amy’s trip to Holland came up, I already had a strong commitment for Saturday. The Iowa Broadcast News Association’s annual convention and awards was set long ago. As a board member of the IBNA, I had  a couple of roles in this weekend festivities.

That’s when you call in help. Grandma’s like this type of thing, or at least, I hope they do.

My mother raised 4 children, 3 girls and me. I was nothing short of a challenge.

Now I have 2 boys who look, act and carry my DNA. Family is the only option. As my father says, I can’t help but laugh watching you with those two boys. Translation, you get what you pay for.

Grandma Honey was named by my sister Julie’s girls years ago. She and Farmer Papa or Grandpa Fish don’t get to use their real names.

Grandma Honey has watched the boys before, so this wasn’t new, but it was not in her house, but ours.

She got a little time with them Friday night so when I was already gone to #IBNA2011 Saturday morning, it wasn’t as big of a shock.

I think the boys didn’t even know I was gone. That’s such a relief. They were great for Grandma, for that, I’m thankful.

A big thanks to a couple of Aunt/Cousin visits to give all a break in the afternoon.

All were in their Sunday best.

Grandma also stayed around Sunday morning to go to church with me and the boys. She had not heard our newly called pastor, Tim Olson preach yet, so this was a good chance to hear him. (I must say, if you are looking for a church in Ankeny, come give Holy Trinity Lutheran Church a listen)

When we got to HTLC we found out it was a baptism of Kristopher and Kristi Emick’s son. Kristopher and I went to Jesup HS together. His dad, Kraig, used to be my band and choir teacher. I’ll run into Kraig and Karen often in Ankeny now as they come to see the grandkids.

*Forgive me if this a little scatterbrained, I was trying to watch history on television tonight with the announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Watching this unfold on TV and the internet through Twitter has been incredible. The real-time information distribution is like nothing else we’ve ever seen.

If Noah was just a bit older, I would have gotten him out of bed to watch this, but that would just lead to more questions. Regardless, history was made Sunday night when President Obama walked in and out of the East Room.

**Also, new travel advisories are now being issued for flights… just in time for the boss’ return.

The IBNA wants you

Dear Iowa Broadcasters, the IBNA wants you.

And you want the Iowa Broadcast News Association to be a group working for you, right?

We know that budgets at every shop are tight. Money for tapes, OT and HD equipment has sucked away funds used to enter news contests.

News directors are being forced to cut anywhere they can to keep from eliminating positions. We know you work hard and your efforts should be rewarded. We can’t help you financially, but the glitz and glamour of an IBNA award is first-rate.

You work hard. You should be recognized for your efforts of informing your viewers and listeners and now readers as we all turn out dispatches into on-line stories.

Your 2010 Iowa Broadcast News Association Board. Front L-R, Trent Rice, Brian Allen, Dave Vickers. Back, Lauren Squires, Eric Hanson, Jeff Stein, Paul Yeager, Carla Kreegar.

We thank you for those of you who have paid your own way to conventions, entering news contests and paying membership dues. Your commitment to this organization cannot not be taken for granted. You have your own skin in, so we, as the IBNA board need to honor that.

Individual membership provides access to informational reports from the board, the organization and other vital information and source of information.

What does being a member of IBNA mean?

Look around. There’s fewer and fewer of us left in newsrooms. We have to stick together. We have to be able to give ourselves training and connections that can help us tell better stories and do our jobs better. The IBNA tries to put as much value into our annual spring convention to help us be better story-tellers, hunters and gatherers of information.

Our industry is under constant attack for being biased or having preconceived perceptions. We all need to continue our diligence in keeping honor to our craft.

We continue to adjust and adapt categories to fit the changing landscape of our newsrooms. We all are all being asked to do more with less.

I love this profession and I know many, if not all, feel the same way. As distributors or information, this is a huge responsibility we have. When we speak, we need to fair, accurate and clear. It is the fundamentals, that on occasion, get lost in the part of our hair, tie combo or hats we wear in the storm.

We thank you for your membership and want to make sure you sign up for another year. Just $15 keeps you active in IBNA. Tell your friends, co-workers and competitors. We want to see you all in Johnston in May and beyond.

Be on the lookout for notes from friends in your market. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll find you and hunt you down.

Thank you for your continued support.

Remembering Jack Shelley

Jack Shelley during his WHO Radio days.

Iowans of today have to dig deep in their memories to remember a man who changed journalism.

Those of us who trained and practice the industry today know what the name Jack Shelley means and need no reminder of his impact on our craft.

Jack Shelley was a longtime reporter for WHO Radio, WHO-TV and eventually professor at Iowa State University, until his retirement at the age of 70.

Jack Shelley died late Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 in Ames. He was 98.

To call Shelley a legend, is short-changing him.

If there’s a mountain of important Iowans, he would be on it.

Shelley covered World War II for Iowans and reported live at the signing of the armistice to end WW2. He was on the tower looking down below as the general signed the documents that ended the war when Japan surrendered to the United States.

I had never heard this story as a kid growing up in northeast Iowa. But that’s why we go to college, to study, to learn and interview legends in their living room.

During the summer of 1995 I was working in Waverly between school years at Wartburg. I was managing KWAR, board operating at KWAY and running camera for Grant Price, another legend we’ve lost, for his History of Iowa Broadcasting project which would later become Archives of Iowa Broadcasting.

Our summer adventure was a car ride to Ames with a camera, tripod, tapes, lights and tapes. But to operate the camera you need power, like say, batteries or a power source to plug into the wall.

Grant and I arrived at Mr. Shelley’s Ames home for the interview and I sheepishly said to Grant, “I forgot the batteries and power cord.”

Grant kindly asked Mr. Shelley for the use of his phone to WOI’s newsroom to beg off a battery or power source for our interview.

I’m so glad we were able to get a power source and record these two Iowa broadcasting giants swapping stories. I remember Grant wanted to interview Jack early in project because Jack was already 83, so one never knew how long he’d be around.

That’s just one story of thousands that many of his former co-workers, employees and students have to say about him. KCCI’s Kevin Cooney was a former student, as was

There’s a few pages with links to his old newscasts and stories. This link will load up your iTunes and is worth the listen.
Here’s Iowa State’s story on his passing.
The Des Moines Register’s Perry Beeman has this story as well. This is a great write through on Shelley.

You can hear Jack’s distinctive and fantastic voice on this report Peace Through Corn, done for Market To Market.

Here is O Kay Henderson’s blog on Jack’s death. She won the Shelley back in 2002.

Trent Rice, president of IBNA, Jack Shelley and Brian Allen, president-elect of IBNA. Photo taken May, 2009 at IBNA convention..

Each year at our spring convention, the Iowa Broadcast News Association hands out our highest award, at the end of the night, to a journalist who best embodies what Jack Shelley worked so hard to build, the foundation of truth and fairness in story telling. Two conventions ago in May of 2009, the IBNA met in Ames. We were able to get Jack to the dinner and present the award. But you could tell Jack was starting to his age catch up with him. He was there to see a former student, Jeff Stein receive the award. I know it was a personal highlight for Jeff, and for us in that room that night, to see Jack one more time.

Jack Shelley award winners past and presents in 2006. From L, Dave Busiek, KCCI, Ron Steele, KWWL, Cliff Brockman (then-KCAU), Cary J. Hahn, KGAN, John Bachman, WHO, Jack Shelley, Jim Boyd, WHO, Grant Price, KWWL, J.K. Martin, KBUR, Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa, Dale Woolery, KRNT.

This picture was taken in 2006 at the IBNA convention and features the winners in attendance that night to see Carey J. Hahn be inducted into the club.

Click on that picture to see the greats of Iowa broadcasting of today to see what influence Mr. Shelley had on the rest of us.

Back to Jeff Stein, he’s also the executive director of the IBNA and penned this note to the membership this morning.

The Iowa Broadcast News Association joins thousands of journalists, former students, and those who remember his broadcasts in mourning the death today of legendary Iowa broadcaster Jack Shelley.

Shelley died last night in Ames at the age of 98.

“Jack Shelley was respected nationally for his clear and concise reporting, his dedication to the craft of journalism, and a deep caring for his audience,” said IBNA executive director Jeff Stein. “He truly shaped what broadcast news would become in Iowa and the nation.”

Shelley joined the staff of WHO radio in Des Moines in 1935 after a short time as a reporter for the Clinton Herald. He became radio news director in 1940 and was one of the few local station reporters to do broadcasts from World War II.

His reporting from both the European and Pacific Theaters during the war was not only treasured by listeners throughout the midwest for news of their sons fighting overseas, but was also carried by the NBC network and the BBC. He reported on the Battle of the Bulge and the Japanese surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri, and secured the first radio interviews with the crew of the Enola Gay after the first atomic bomb was dropped.

In 1954, when WHO added television, Shelley assumed duties as news director of both radio and television. He was most known for his daily 12:30 p.m. radio newscasts, and anchoring the 10 p.m. television news.

Shelley left daily broadcasting in 1965 to join the faculty of Iowa State University. He taught broadcast journalism to hundreds of students there until his retirement in 1982.

He was a co-founder of what is now the Radio-Television Digital News Association, the leading international association of broadcast journalists, and was one of its first presidents. He co-founded what is now the Northwest Broadcast News Association, and also served a stint as executive director of the Iowa Broadcasters Association.

“Jack Shelley not only wrote the book on broadcast journalism in Iowa and the nation, but his legacy challenged us to read the book, to understand the book and then follow the book to the letter,” said Brian Allen, current IBNA president.

The IBNA’s lifetime achievement award was created and named for Shelley in 1972. He personally presented the honor all but four times, the most recent being in 2009 in Ames.

“This is truly the end of an era,” Stein noted. “But the standards Jack Shelley set and taught us all will live on in newsrooms forever.”

Services details are not yet available.

The Iowa Broadcast News Association offers its sincere sympathy to the Shelley family, and expresses its gratitude for the life of this most unique newsman.

Childhood Obesity in Iowa – Links

Source: National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality

Iowa ranks 8 in overall prevalence with 26.5% of children considered either overweight or obese. That’s according to the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality.

Iowa kids are overweight and obese. So are kids from every other state in the United States. But that’s not the news about it. We know we have a problem, so how do we reverse the trend before we all end up with diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure?

That’s where Iowa Public Television’s Iowa Journal program comes in for your viewing and informing pleasure.

A little more background can be found here on a previous pre-show blog post.
Our panel included Tom Newton, the director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. Newton talked off-camera about efforts by IDPH employees. Some are now using standing desks and some sitting on exercise balls to help burn more calories and build core muscles while working.

Jim Hallihan of Live Healthy Iowa, The Iowa Sports Foundation and the Iowa Games was also on our panel. Hallihan was an assistant basketball coach at Iowa State University under Johnny Orr from 1982 to 1994. He coached new head Cyclone Fred Hoiberg during that time as well. Hallihan also wanted to mention Live Healthy Iowa Kids and how that impacts kids in this state.

Also on the panel was Brian Tate. He’s the Dean of Students at Des Moines North High School. Tate is a Hoover High alum and also coached football there after his before going to play at Simpson College. Tate was at Simpson from 1987-1989 which means he played under legendary coach Jim Williams at Simpson. That was after playing for some guy named Chet Culver, who was an assistant coach while Tate was a student and player at Hoover High.

Yes, the same Chet Culver that 3 republicans from Iowa want to unseat in the fall election. Terry Branstad, Rod Roberts and Bob Vander Plaats were at IPTV on Thursday for the final debate before the June 8th primary. You can watch that televised debate here sponsored by the Des Moines Register. If you want to compare to the last debate held by the Iowa Broadcast News Association, click here. The IBNA debate was held in Cedar Rapids on May 1.

Now back to Iowa kids. Tate and Hallihan are both members of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Nutrition.

Our discussion talked about serious this problem is now for our state and how it is everyone’s problem. It did take us 40 years to get here, but we need to continue to get kids in better shape, moderate their eating, changing eating habits and help families and communities better understand a healthy life.

Tate talked about how it takes a village to raise a child and the same approach needs to be used in fighting childhood obesity in Iowa and the nation.

You can view the entire program here. The show airs Friday at 630p on IPTV and Saturday morning at 830p on IPTV World.

Grundy Center, Iowa

Our discussion was set up by a visit to Grundy Center. We looked at the PE4Life program as it was shown to international visitors as part of the Global Forum For Physical Education. Rick Schupback was kind enough to spend some time with us to explain his, the administrators and the community’s role in teaching fitness for life and not just for the time during school. We also interviewed Shellie Pfohl, the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Pfohl had been to Grundy Center for a visit before. She’s a Dubuque native and also graduated from the University of Northern Iowa. UNI also has graduate students come to Grundy Center as part of the PE4Life. Those students use the PE4Life program to further their learning  of teaching physical education.

You can view the feature on Grundy Center here.

Newton said after the broadcast that another success story is in George, Iowa. They have a new recreation trail that was built to surround the town. It is paved and open for all. Newton said the peer pressure for everyone to take part in physical activity has been a huge positive for the community. This includes an 82-year-old man who recently got a bike and now rides around town quite often.

Hallihan added that there are good things going on in northeast Iowa as the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative.

And a last discussion point off camera was the need for more community gardens to help grown fresh food to make them accessible to more people.

We closed the show with a clip from His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and his visit to Cedar Falls and UNI. You can see the clip here.

Again, the entire Iowa Journal program is here.
Enjoy and please share with your friends.

IBNA Sponsors Debate

The Iowa Broadcast News Association was the center of the Iowa political world on Saturday as the group hosted a debate between the three Republican candidates for Iowa governor The even was at the Cedar Rapids Marriott and was part of the IBNA’s annual convention for members.

The debate lasted 90 minutes and featured Rod Roberts, Bob Vander Plaats and Terry Branstad. Bob Fisher was the moderator. Paul Yeager of IPTV, Jeneane Beck of Iowa Public Radio and Todd Dorman of the Cedar Rapids Gazette were asking questions of the candidates.

You can view the 90-minute debate here.

There were some fireworks between Branstad and Vander Plaats that did continue after the debate was off the air. You’ve seen the reports about the two and it is still not clear which candidate gained or lost from the outbursts between the two.

Again, you can view the entire debate here.

Beer, Obama, Republicans and Neil Harl this weekend on IPTV

A big few days ahead for Iowa Public Television. It starts with a replay of our Beer Industry show on Friday night at 630p. But also includes the republican candidates for governor debating at the Iowa Broadcast News Association’s annual convention in Cedar Rapids.

Iowa Journal host Paul Yeager, left, talks with, from left, Iowa Brewers Guild president Dave Coy, Sioux City Journal beer writer Tim Hynds and John

First off, here’s the background on our TIJ beer show. The feature is already posted which includes a visit to Olde Main in Ames and Beer Crazy in Urbandale. The discussion will post later is posted now and lives here.

Thanks to our guests of Dave Coy, Doug Alberhasky and Tim Hynds. Tim made the farthest trip from Sioux City, but he also turned out a blog post about the show you can find here. That is where we stole the picture from as well. Thanks Sioux City Journal!

The IBNA debate will air live at 330p on IPTV World or our .3 channel. Then it will air again in primetime on our main service at 8p. The event will also stream on our website of http://www.iptv.org. I will be a panelist for the debate with Todd Dorman of the Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Jeneane Beck of Iowa Public Radio. Bob Fisher of KGLO/KRIB Mason City is the moderator.

Here’s the official rundown of programs on IPTV this weekend as written by the IPTV press shop.

Tonight at 6:30 The Iowa Journal looks at how consumer demand for more varieties of beer in Iowa has affected local breweries and even state laws. You can also watch The Iowa Journal at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV WORLD, and online at http://www.iptv.org/iowajournal.

At 7:30 tonight, watch Iowa Press as the statehouse reporters discuss the rural economy with economist Neil Harl. The program can also be seen Saturday at 9 a.m. on IPTV WORLD, Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on IPTV, and online at http://www.iptv.org/iowapress.

Market to Market focuses on the rural economy tonight with coverage of President Obama’s “White House to Main Street” tour of the Midwest at 8 p.m. This episode covers President Obama’s town-hall meeting in Ottumwa, the President’s visit to Fort Madison, and his stop in Macon, Missouri. You can also watch Market to Market Saturday at 8 a.m. on IPTV WORLD, Sunday at noon on IPTV, and online at http://www.iptv.org/mtom.

Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on IPTV WORLD, watch live coverage of a debate among candidates for the GOP nomination for governor. The debate, sponsored by the Iowa Broadcast News Association, will also be streamed online live at http://www.iptv.org/live. You can also see the debate in its entirety at 8 p.m. on IPTV.

A crime wave has swept across England after V-E day and Foyle stumbles upon an international cover-up in Masterpiece Mystery! Foyle’s War, Series VI: The Russian House Sunday at 8 p.m.

Monday – Thursday of next week at 6:30 p.m., tune in for the 2010 Iowa Jazz Championships.

Also on Monday, Roads to Memphis: American Experience (8 p.m.) tells the disparate yet entwined stories of James Earl Ray and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., against the backdrop of the turbulent forces that led these two men to their violent and tragic collision.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m., NOVA: Mt. St. Helens Back from the Dead documents the dramatic return of plant and animal life to the disaster zone’s barren landscape. (Rebroadcast Thursday at 7 p.m. on IPTV WORLD)

Wednesday at 8 p.m., Live from Lincoln Center: Perlman, Ax, and Ma @ The Penthouse features masters of the concert stage – Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Emanuel Ax – playing Mendelssohn and more.

Thursday at 8 p.m. on IPTV WORLD, award-winning scientist and author (and ISU professor) Sean Carroll talks about his latest book, Remarkable Creatures, which was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award, on Intelligent Talk Television: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species. You can see this and other Intelligent Talk Television episodes at http://www.iptv.org/intelligenttalktv.