By Robert Rivard
Andrew Weissman, Laura Saldivar, and Bruce Bugg. Three change agents leaving their mark on San Antonio. Does anyone doubt their commitment? Not me.
These three subjects of the inaugural RIVARD program on KLRN-TV on Thursday night (available for viewing at the link below), reflect the amazing diversity of talent in our community. The program, we hope, shows how important and energizing it is to tell their stories.
If viewers and underwriters agree, RIVARD will become a weekly program starting in the fall. San Antonio is ready for more local programming. Public television and public radio in our city have only recently started to increase the quantity and quality of local news and information programming. It’s one more dimension of an evolving city reaching higher. KLRN has been part of people’s lives in this city since 1962 when John F. Kennedy was still in the White House and the West was locked in a cold war with the Soviet Union. Texas was still rural. It’s an honor to be part of that 50-year public television continuum, but it’s a very different world and we are a very different city and people now. There’s room, I think, for a 30-minute weekly program that captures and celebrates all that change.
It’s expensive to produce a program on location rather than in the studio. The benefits, I think, are obvious. Seeing Weissman Inside Il Sogno, Saldivar in the ornate Jefferson library, or Bugg in the classic Tobin library, is to see these people in their milieu, a more revealing experience for them and the viewer. Working on location also gives me the opportunity to take people to places in San Antonio they might not otherwise go. Perhaps the program will lead some viewers to venture out and go see for themselves.
I am new to television and have a lot to learn, but I’ve already benefitted from a lot of help and expertise from the pros. I’d like to thank Bill Moll, KLRN’s president, Bruce Kates, my producer, and the entire team for being so patient with a rookie. For Rivard Report readers who were unable to see the program when it aired last night, we invite you to watch it now and, if you like, share it with friends.
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great program! i think most of the rivard report readers will agree that the content of the show compliments the pieces we read here everyday. it will also allow another channel of distribution (pun intended-ha!)to get more san antonians to explore parts of our city that they may not have ventured. well done!
Great idea to feature individuals who came back to give back to San Antonio. Interviews could have gone deeper and raised questions rather than slide to feel good items like fighting obesity and encouraging bright people to teach. Creating a high standard for taste is good, too, but worthy of exploration — not everyone would agree that San Antonio should move on from TexMex — while TFA is deeply debated — not everyone would agree that rookie teachers are the key to improving public education.