CATEGORY: Personalities

Two Sept. MPT TV Specials by Susanne Stahley

If you have your own website, I guess you’re allowed to once in awhile shamelessly disregard nepotism and promo your wife’s upcoming TV programs, yes?

But after you see these two specials, I think you’ll agree with me that it’s certainly warranted in this case.

You may have read some of Susanne Stahley’s posts on this site as one of our contributors.  She writes about topics related to producing and writing.  (Check out http://tinyurl.com/d6wtrg)

As you may also know, she has produced award-winning documentaries and magazine-format stories for public television for years.

Premiering this month are Susanne’s two latest specials for Maryland Public Television. www.mpt.org

First is “Covered Bridges: Spanning Time“  Sat, Sept 12, 5:30 – 6:30p and again on Tues, Sept 15, 5 – 6p

The program explores over two dozen charming and historic covered bridges of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia.

In the program we meet “Bridgers” — those quirky characters obsessed with covered bridges who are the champions of their preservation.  Discover covered bridges’ lore and lure on this Mid-Atlantic road trip through the by-ways of time.

And then also mark your calendar for “Outdoors Maryland: Love Our Parks” Mon,  Sept 21, 9 -10p and again on Sun, Sept 27,  7 – 8p.

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Betty Caldwell and Stressless Tests™

If you have ever “choked” on a test – or taught or parented someone who has – you know why Betty Caldwell’s Stressless Tests™ program www.stresslesstests.org is in demand. The extracurricular program helps students, from sixth graders to adults, experience less stress, more confidence, and higher performance in the classroom.

Like most successful entrepreneurs, Betty knew from the start the importance of astute marketing. She began by following her instincts.

Soon after developing the program, she produced an animation-based supplementary aid on DVD to give to her students. Check out a clip here.

Betty explains, “Many of my students are creative, visual learners. The DVD is a natural teaching tool for them, as it incorporates animation, sound, color, humor, and strong visuals. Research has shown that with this type of animated presentation, the level of learning is measurably enhanced. And, it supports my own highly interactive teaching style.”

The video is all computer-animation based. “I found that by using a series of animated characters, I could create something a lot more interesting than the usual PowerPoint presentation. I built in some visual humor, and just had fun with it. It works well with all ages, from 6th graders to medical students. ”

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Kaye Lavine, Multi-Camera Directing & the “6 P’s”

March 22, 2008:  Two years ago today one of my mentors, Kaye Lavine, passed away.  I wrote about her at the end of an earlier blog, http://davidryanmediasolutions.com/2007/10/19/the-rocky-mountain-way-an-extra-5-or-10/, and I want expound further on something she espoused.

Kaye was an Executive Producer at Denver’s PBS station, KRMA-TV.  She hired me back early in my career to be Cultural Affairs Producer for the station.  Soon after arriving,  she enlightened me with one her work slogans, otherwise known as the “6 P’s:”  “Proper Planning Prevents Pi**-Poor Production.”  I laughed.  I knew I had found a kindred spirit.

(photo of Kaye Lavine from a feature article ca. 1984)

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Crisis Management Training with I.J. Hudson

I.J. Hudson is the Communications Director with the law firm Garson Claxton LLC in Bethesda, Maryland.  He specializes in providing crisis management and media training services that draw upon his 32 years in broadcast journalism, most recently, 22 years at NBC4 in Washington, DC.

For this featured guest posting, we asked I.J. to touch on some of the points he stresses in his crisis management seminars and one-on-one training.

Why is crisis management so important?  “As a news reporter, I have interviewed a lot of people in crisis situations.  Many of them were just like you and me, private citizens.  Tragedy or controversy had pushed them into the limelight.  There were company officials from railroads, utilities, construction companies, airlines and others who should have been prepared to get out their message.  But some were like ‘deer-in-the-headlights.’ They simply tried to answer questions without managing the situation.  That’s very dangerous.”

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