Transcripts For CSPAN2 Walter Podrazik Discusses Watching TV

Walterpodrazik is a coauthor of this book, watching tv eight decades of american television. Mr. Walter podrazik, who went invented the t. V. To select if you want to look at the technical side was either mr. Baird in europe and or it could be or basically whomever took it to its next technical step. The important thing about when youre talking about t. V. Is. Is it the mechanical means of conveying information or is it the thing that is used, the content on the t. V. Itself . I look at that question very often. I have come to define television as that which we see on the instrument which traditionally we have called television. Or, whatever concept is created that we view on any means whatsoever but it is still thought of as primarily video, primarily television communication. So we are still in the midst of inventing Television Even as we speak. Who began the discovery of the instrument on which we watch television . There are two forms of television. The original experiment where comics governmental television was the mechanical system. And so the mechanical system goes back to baird. He had a wonderful moment which he was showing in a public demonstration. They were images across the screen and you could see moving images where youre not in the same room. And it was just, the point about television is that it is miraculous. And that was what pushed people to constantly search for what is the best way that we can present this medium because it is doing what generations, thousands of years ago that only the gods could do. To be in one place and see what is going on in another place. As it happens. So the first chemical experiment, there are some videos floating around of the 24 frames a second but that was television and the most important part was, it was different from what . When did it start to take in the United States . It also had some starts because of financial and world events. Basically ghetto for broadcast in the late 1920s. But then the Great Depression came by and you start to regroup after that. And world war ii comes along. But one of the markers of the 1939 worlds fair in which an executive with the rca announced the beginning of a new era. I mean he is not a modest man. Any talk about this is so important in the history of communication. And of course i dont know if he is right. Nobody knew exactly what it would turn into. They knew what they wanted it to trinity. They wanted it to be as big a moneymaker as radio had been. Sarnoff is one of the opponents of radio patents and such. But it was not until postworld war ii, your time late 1940s in which it finally began to take off. Milton burrell would be the character that introduced television to people throughout the country. When we talk about what we mean by television right now what we mean is anything you can see anywhere in the country. That in the early days, it was whatever stations were connected to the coasttocoast coaxial cable. Except it was just region to region at that point. It was not until early in the 50s that we actually had all of the television stations connected so they could all show the same station at athe same program at the same time. There were technical issues that some markets, the fcc put a freeze on the number of new stations until they sorted out some technical details. So it was not until the mid 50s or so that it truly starts to take off. I knew government 100 stations in the beginning of the 50s to 500 stations by the end of the 50s. He talked about 20 percent of the country being connected, capable of seeing t. V. To 90 percent of the country. So, the early 1950s had taken off. So the fcc in 1934 became the federal communications commission. But significant, had the fcc in the early days, was a promoter of television . It was. One of the funny things about how the government viewed a television is that it was still considered part of the radio bandwidth. When you look at it and radio waves are devoted and so they were a proponent of it because that was an era in which people said lets try this. We can do it. Lets try it. Automobiles, airplanes, washer, we can do voices, pictures, no problem. It took a while for those pictures to get out there. But the fcc had some rules which they have set up to govern radio. The company, most of the companies behind television were companies that were behind radio. And so they look at this is the opportunity for making more money and also having a different kind of communication. I keep talking about money and profit but there was still that sense of look what we can do and that was one of the driving forces through the early days of television into its blasphemy in the 50s and in its full flower with Network Television in the 1960s. It was we can do this, we can do this. For example an area of news, the sense that merle, a famously on his famous see it now program. He had a rich history as a news person in radio. Especially during the second world war. So he is the one who in essence put the stamp of approval shall we say intellectually, culturally on television is that this is an amazing tool. On the first broadcast and they had a camera set up on the west coast, the east coast and had to images sidebyside on monitors which he was then showing on his program. That was the first time you could do that. You could see both ends of the country at the same time live. So they said this is a wonderful tool that we can use. And they particularly went from the wow aspect to weaken to some pretty compelling stories. One of the early news specials was christmas in korea. It was giving people a sense of what the korean war was like. Not on some grand scale what was the greatest progress on a piece talks but it was soldiers. And tell people what is it like to be in that country . Here is the film we are bringing back tea. This gives you a sense of what it is like in another country halfway around the world. This is what we are talking about when we say the korean war. This is what the soldiers are going off to do. That is legendary. In fact the t. V. Series maaasah, they shop is in blackandwhite and did interviews and discussions and just, it was in prague with cast members and that was a nod to morrow. In the way to tell the story in your living room. That is the amazing part of television. And he did not stop with anecdotes like that. But then he took on issues of real substance. Most famously of course senator mccarthy programs. And that gives an illustration of how television had the networks, the people behind the broadcast had a sense of commitment to presenting Public Affairs. Murrow started with see it now. And it was primetime for a couple of years. It was a weekly show. Which meant like 60 minutes, decades later, if there was an issue that he raised and someone said we would like to respond than fine, come on the show next week. We can do that. They were an ongoing dialogue about these issues through television. Which and he was particularly effective with senator mccarthy the technically athe technique used were his own words. He said this, here is the fact. He said this, here is the fact. And it just, he laid it out one item after the other. And murrow waited till the end to do the conclusion to do the analysis. But the fact of the matter is, television could do that. Even more effectively than radio. Because television should be the person. They say well it must be true im seeing the person speak right in front of it. He said that that is not right . And i will give you one more murrow because i think absolutely deserves a spot in terms of demonic television as a news and Public Affairs communication vehicle. This was one of his last productions for cvs before he left the company and retired. And this was thanks giving j. It was all about people who take the bounty of america. He took his time telling a story. It was in our special. And i watched it recently. In the first five minutes i was a what is this . It was very cleverly set up. At the time theres a lot of talk about exploring the nations of africa and you have this image of the poor people. No, this is here. This is here in the United States. And this is what we are doing. And then murrow sat down with government officials, talk them true with again the same technique. And they made this grand generalization. Here is the reality of life for these people. Here is the reality of life for these people. And he watched Something Like that and it is pretty heavyduty. But it is what television allowed itself to be showcased for. They said we have his commitment to serve the Public Interest. What gets us back to the fcc. As news, has always or has it always been required a Network Broadcast . One of the thing that is important to remember, is that we are talking about the fcc setting rules for the broadcast stations. And broadcast stations have obligations that go under the Public Interest and necessity. And it means whatever is appropriate. There are certain benchmarks, and among that, their covering items of community interest, news, Public Affairs. Also education, children, religion, etc. There is a sense of love, you are not paying for this bandwidth. That was sort of the tradeoff. That was the grand bargain between them and the government. They were licensing uses the airwaves to you. We are not selling it. When licensing appeared we will review your performance every couple of years. And how we judge you, how well did you serve the community . How well did you deliver . You can deliver entertainment, you can have great profits, that is fine. But having to perform Public Service to in the most broad sense of what you mean by Public Service. Famously the minnow . May 1961. Actually, he had said many times since that the wrong two words were focused on best wasteland. He said only once. But is that it should have been what service. Knew had a couple of paragraphs from the speech in the book. He really lays out. I mean that was incredibly daring of him. It makes him but the only commissioner in the commission only one everyone would know by name. Look for a couple of reasons. First of all he went right into their own industry meeting. He said first i would say what you are doing right. This is good and this is good. Youre making great profit. In fact part of the speech, he goes through their profits for the last couple of years. He says youre not doing badly. We are in recessionary times, you can do quite well in your return. You are in final financial shape. Now lets talk about the commitment side. Lets talk about the Public Service side. Lets talk about what you can offer the public. And they started bashing them from the type of program. A lot of violence but mostly mindlessness. And in a strange sort of way, that is the formula for television. Which is love, we have all this time to fill. What are you trying to do . Types of commercials. And so we are selling commercials. We need something on the air. The most important thing is that it is on the air. Not that it is the best we can possibly do. If it is, it is coincidental and it is great. We need something that proves popular with the public so we can turn around so this time and pay everything we are doing. Especially in those days, news was regarded as pretty much you know they were making their profits from news. The prophets on Something Like the beverly hillbillies or the profits from any number of action adventure and westerns, thats what they paid for. In the News Coverage and Public Affairs coverage. And so when the fcc says you know these rules of always been here. He said on going to hold you to that. Im going to hundred feet to the fire. I want you to do better in his says they cant wait they were kind of stunned. No one ever talked to him that way. Theyre kind of in a bind to because they reset the schedule for the next season. So they plugged into more Public Affairs and such and said lets whether our way through this. And maybe it was coincidence, maybe with a lot of the gods or what have you. But there was some good shows the next season. Dick van dyke for example this may not seem like a big deal now but they were primetime movies and they can only see movies to go to the theater or seeing of t. V. Spots. This is a special location prime contractor shape some of the best movies that were able to get licensed and present. It was a declaration no that you can do better and even the industry says you know, we can do better. And they did. In the 60s they did. So what was the impact of cable . Cable introduced a new way of regarding television. Now remember i mentioned the fcc had rules for broadcasters over the air. Now cable started simply as a way of bringing over the air stations to regions that usually for geographic calendars could not receive the signal. And so they piped in via cable. But, then they started adding original to cable channels. In those foreign subject to the same rules as in abc, cbs, nbc. Ethically over the air individual stations. And so that a little bit more flexibility, they can be a little bit more explicit, they could be, they could either have no commercials because they were charging a fee or they could have a lot of commercials. Sort of did not matter because the rules that apply to the broadcasters did not apply to the cable channels. Why not . Because of the way they argued successfully. The lobby very successfully. And they said that we are different. This is not anybody can pick us up. Is you have to make the conscious decision to pay for this service so it is different. Youre not using the Public Airways in the same way but, once that was established more and more people embrace cable as a way that it would receive television over the air and the original to cable channels. And once, the 90s is pretty much when you have it truly taking off. It had been building for decades in the 90s it was when it truly takes off. You have people saying we have so many choices now and in this sense, the general public was ahead of the business communicators in that they made no distinction between what originated between from over there versus people origination. Because what they knew, that came through their cable wire. Which included the broadcast stations envies originals. But there are singtel seven is not different from channel 77. There are choices that you can have out there. And so once that was injected into the system, that raised the stakes for everyone in the spectrum. Wes lets, in your book you say everything is in play today. Everything is in play. Starting with the fcc sort of change in the way they treat the broadcast spectrum. Without getting into the complications of being spectrum, option, revise option. Essentially, they are saying you know, the stuff youve been getting for free, lets sort of change the allocation on the spectrum. Lets get some fees from the part of the spectrum that you are no longer using a newsletter for other forms of communication, especially cell phone communication and all. Then, you have internet communication as well. It is channels which either originate online for our carried online even though it originated elsewhere. And so what you have now in the modern communications system, is people who can pick and choose what they want to see but when they want to see it adding video recording to it. And they are treating it less like the mass medium and more like personalized channels that could enter their lives at any time. I was thinking of cspan being part of this recently. Very recently with periscope. Periscope essentially allows anyone to be your on t. V. Channel online. And there was a point where a turn off the cameras. Which we do not control. Which you do not control. And so its it well, guess what . I am on periscope. Do you want . In an effort while cspan picked up that and continued which was a contentious but unofficially came to a close. What was going on in the chambers. And that i think, in a nutshell, is where we are now. That is on a business side everything they thought was going to be the status quo is a little bit different from the consumer side there are so many more decisions that you have. But heres the thing i always looked at which we looked at in watching t. V. Is look at the players, look at the ownership. Once upon a time there were three or four major networks, major corporations, there are more than that. But not that many more if you start looking at who owns all of these cable services, who owns this particular online channels and such, and say you know, there is still a limited number of folks who have who are gatekeepers to what we share and so the obligation almost boastful circle. You would hope on the part of the fcc that they wish say you do have an obligation to do the best to help the communicators to help the audiences understand what is going on in this complex world. There is so much going on and you and theres a new ladies and gentlemen you are the gatekeepers. You have the control over how we see ourselves. How we see the world. They teach at the university of illinois and Walter Podrazik is also a television curator at the museum of broadcast communications in chicago. How did you get interested in all of that . I was looking at notes i took as a kid on a particular series. And that was partially in preparation in writing for t. V. Series. And i am looking at the notes i wrote in us of these are pretty good. And i was already making connections with program flow and script flow involved. And for the watching t. V. Book, it is all about context. It is not just about news. It is not just about entertainment, is not just about the business, it is not just about some trivia. It is all of that woven into a fabric which tells a bigger story. And my partner and i have been fascinated with that style of storytelling. In fact we wondered, we said you know it was such an obvious way to tell a story on television. When anyone ever done it . Can we quickly found out why. Because it is hard. You have to have so Much Research on your cable. To start creating one paragraph to explain something and then what youre doing is boiling it down from this big to this big and understandable and entertaining way. Ive always loved the fact that you can see the world in your living room, in your bedroom for television. And that we can share exciting moments. Everyone has their favorites. The moon landing would be the best example. I mean wow, look at that and im just sitting here, and more recently chicago cubs win the world series. Wow i am not there but i am there. Because im tuned into your telephone. Who is Television Even<\/a> as we speak. Who began the discovery of the instrument on which we watch television . There are two forms of television. The original experiment where comics governmental television was the mechanical system. And so the mechanical system goes back to baird. He had a wonderful moment which he was showing in a public demonstration. They were images across the screen and you could see moving images where youre not in the same room. And it was just, the point about television is that it is miraculous. And that was what pushed people to constantly search for what is the best way that we can present this medium because it is doing what generations, thousands of years ago that only the gods could do. To be in one place and see what is going on in another place. As it happens. So the first chemical experiment, there are some videos floating around of the 24 frames a second but that was television and the most important part was, it was different from what . When did it start to take in the United States<\/a> . It also had some starts because of financial and world events. Basically ghetto for broadcast in the late 1920s. But then the Great Depression<\/a> came by and you start to regroup after that. And world war ii comes along. But one of the markers of the 1939 worlds fair in which an executive with the rca announced the beginning of a new era. I mean he is not a modest man. Any talk about this is so important in the history of communication. And of course i dont know if he is right. Nobody knew exactly what it would turn into. They knew what they wanted it to trinity. They wanted it to be as big a moneymaker as radio had been. Sarnoff is one of the opponents of radio patents and such. But it was not until postworld war ii, your time late 1940s in which it finally began to take off. Milton burrell would be the character that introduced television to people throughout the country. When we talk about what we mean by television right now what we mean is anything you can see anywhere in the country. That in the early days, it was whatever stations were connected to the coasttocoast coaxial cable. Except it was just region to region at that point. It was not until early in the 50s that we actually had all of the television stations connected so they could all show the same station at athe same program at the same time. There were technical issues that some markets, the fcc put a freeze on the number of new stations until they sorted out some technical details. So it was not until the mid 50s or so that it truly starts to take off. I knew government 100 stations in the beginning of the 50s to 500 stations by the end of the 50s. He talked about 20 percent of the country being connected, capable of seeing t. V. To 90 percent of the country. So, the early 1950s had taken off. So the fcc in 1934 became the federal communications commission. But significant, had the fcc in the early days, was a promoter of television . It was. One of the funny things about how the government viewed a television is that it was still considered part of the radio bandwidth. When you look at it and radio waves are devoted and so they were a proponent of it because that was an era in which people said lets try this. We can do it. Lets try it. Automobiles, airplanes, washer, we can do voices, pictures, no problem. It took a while for those pictures to get out there. But the fcc had some rules which they have set up to govern radio. The company, most of the companies behind television were companies that were behind radio. And so they look at this is the opportunity for making more money and also having a different kind of communication. I keep talking about money and profit but there was still that sense of look what we can do and that was one of the driving forces through the early days of television into its blasphemy in the 50s and in its full flower with Network Television<\/a> in the 1960s. It was we can do this, we can do this. For example an area of news, the sense that merle, a famously on his famous see it now program. He had a rich history as a news person in radio. Especially during the second world war. So he is the one who in essence put the stamp of approval shall we say intellectually, culturally on television is that this is an amazing tool. On the first broadcast and they had a camera set up on the west coast, the east coast and had to images sidebyside on monitors which he was then showing on his program. That was the first time you could do that. You could see both ends of the country at the same time live. So they said this is a wonderful tool that we can use. And they particularly went from the wow aspect to weaken to some pretty compelling stories. One of the early news specials was christmas in korea. It was giving people a sense of what the korean war was like. Not on some grand scale what was the greatest progress on a piece talks but it was soldiers. And tell people what is it like to be in that country . Here is the film we are bringing back tea. This gives you a sense of what it is like in another country halfway around the world. This is what we are talking about when we say the korean war. This is what the soldiers are going off to do. That is legendary. In fact the t. V. Series maaasah, they shop is in blackandwhite and did interviews and discussions and just, it was in prague with cast members and that was a nod to morrow. In the way to tell the story in your living room. That is the amazing part of television. And he did not stop with anecdotes like that. But then he took on issues of real substance. Most famously of course senator mccarthy programs. And that gives an illustration of how television had the networks, the people behind the broadcast had a sense of commitment to presenting Public Affairs<\/a>. Murrow started with see it now. And it was primetime for a couple of years. It was a weekly show. Which meant like 60 minutes, decades later, if there was an issue that he raised and someone said we would like to respond than fine, come on the show next week. We can do that. They were an ongoing dialogue about these issues through television. Which and he was particularly effective with senator mccarthy the technically athe technique used were his own words. He said this, here is the fact. He said this, here is the fact. And it just, he laid it out one item after the other. And murrow waited till the end to do the conclusion to do the analysis. But the fact of the matter is, television could do that. Even more effectively than radio. Because television should be the person. They say well it must be true im seeing the person speak right in front of it. He said that that is not right . And i will give you one more murrow because i think absolutely deserves a spot in terms of demonic television as a news and Public Affairs<\/a> communication vehicle. This was one of his last productions for cvs before he left the company and retired. And this was thanks giving j. It was all about people who take the bounty of america. He took his time telling a story. It was in our special. And i watched it recently. In the first five minutes i was a what is this . It was very cleverly set up. At the time theres a lot of talk about exploring the nations of africa and you have this image of the poor people. No, this is here. This is here in the United States<\/a>. And this is what we are doing. And then murrow sat down with government officials, talk them true with again the same technique. And they made this grand generalization. Here is the reality of life for these people. Here is the reality of life for these people. And he watched Something Like<\/a> that and it is pretty heavyduty. But it is what television allowed itself to be showcased for. They said we have his commitment to serve the Public Interest<\/a>. What gets us back to the fcc. As news, has always or has it always been required a Network Broadcast<\/a> . One of the thing that is important to remember, is that we are talking about the fcc setting rules for the broadcast stations. And broadcast stations have obligations that go under the Public Interest<\/a> and necessity. And it means whatever is appropriate. There are certain benchmarks, and among that, their covering items of community interest, news, Public Affairs<\/a>. Also education, children, religion, etc. There is a sense of love, you are not paying for this bandwidth. That was sort of the tradeoff. That was the grand bargain between them and the government. They were licensing uses the airwaves to you. We are not selling it. When licensing appeared we will review your performance every couple of years. And how we judge you, how well did you serve the community . How well did you deliver . You can deliver entertainment, you can have great profits, that is fine. But having to perform Public Service<\/a> to in the most broad sense of what you mean by Public Service<\/a>. Famously the minnow . May 1961. Actually, he had said many times since that the wrong two words were focused on best wasteland. He said only once. But is that it should have been what service. Knew had a couple of paragraphs from the speech in the book. He really lays out. I mean that was incredibly daring of him. It makes him but the only commissioner in the commission only one everyone would know by name. Look for a couple of reasons. First of all he went right into their own industry meeting. He said first i would say what you are doing right. This is good and this is good. Youre making great profit. In fact part of the speech, he goes through their profits for the last couple of years. He says youre not doing badly. We are in recessionary times, you can do quite well in your return. You are in final financial shape. Now lets talk about the commitment side. Lets talk about the Public Service<\/a> side. Lets talk about what you can offer the public. And they started bashing them from the type of program. A lot of violence but mostly mindlessness. And in a strange sort of way, that is the formula for television. Which is love, we have all this time to fill. What are you trying to do . Types of commercials. And so we are selling commercials. We need something on the air. The most important thing is that it is on the air. Not that it is the best we can possibly do. If it is, it is coincidental and it is great. We need something that proves popular with the public so we can turn around so this time and pay everything we are doing. Especially in those days, news was regarded as pretty much you know they were making their profits from news. The prophets on Something Like<\/a> the beverly hillbillies or the profits from any number of action adventure and westerns, thats what they paid for. In the News Coverage<\/a> and Public Affairs<\/a> coverage. And so when the fcc says you know these rules of always been here. He said on going to hold you to that. Im going to hundred feet to the fire. I want you to do better in his says they cant wait they were kind of stunned. No one ever talked to him that way. Theyre kind of in a bind to because they reset the schedule for the next season. So they plugged into more Public Affairs<\/a> and such and said lets whether our way through this. And maybe it was coincidence, maybe with a lot of the gods or what have you. But there was some good shows the next season. Dick van dyke for example this may not seem like a big deal now but they were primetime movies and they can only see movies to go to the theater or seeing of t. V. Spots. This is a special location prime contractor shape some of the best movies that were able to get licensed and present. It was a declaration no that you can do better and even the industry says you know, we can do better. And they did. In the 60s they did. So what was the impact of cable . Cable introduced a new way of regarding television. Now remember i mentioned the fcc had rules for broadcasters over the air. Now cable started simply as a way of bringing over the air stations to regions that usually for geographic calendars could not receive the signal. And so they piped in via cable. But, then they started adding original to cable channels. In those foreign subject to the same rules as in abc, cbs, nbc. Ethically over the air individual stations. And so that a little bit more flexibility, they can be a little bit more explicit, they could be, they could either have no commercials because they were charging a fee or they could have a lot of commercials. Sort of did not matter because the rules that apply to the broadcasters did not apply to the cable channels. Why not . Because of the way they argued successfully. The lobby very successfully. And they said that we are different. This is not anybody can pick us up. Is you have to make the conscious decision to pay for this service so it is different. Youre not using the Public Airways<\/a> in the same way but, once that was established more and more people embrace cable as a way that it would receive television over the air and the original to cable channels. And once, the 90s is pretty much when you have it truly taking off. It had been building for decades in the 90s it was when it truly takes off. You have people saying we have so many choices now and in this sense, the general public was ahead of the business communicators in that they made no distinction between what originated between from over there versus people origination. Because what they knew, that came through their cable wire. Which included the broadcast stations envies originals. But there are singtel seven is not different from channel 77. There are choices that you can have out there. And so once that was injected into the system, that raised the stakes for everyone in the spectrum. Wes lets, in your book you say everything is in play today. Everything is in play. Starting with the fcc sort of change in the way they treat the broadcast spectrum. Without getting into the complications of being spectrum, option, revise option. Essentially, they are saying you know, the stuff youve been getting for free, lets sort of change the allocation on the spectrum. Lets get some fees from the part of the spectrum that you are no longer using a newsletter for other forms of communication, especially cell phone communication and all. Then, you have internet communication as well. It is channels which either originate online for our carried online even though it originated elsewhere. And so what you have now in the modern communications system, is people who can pick and choose what they want to see but when they want to see it adding video recording to it. And they are treating it less like the mass medium and more like personalized channels that could enter their lives at any time. I was thinking of cspan being part of this recently. Very recently with periscope. Periscope essentially allows anyone to be your on t. V. Channel online. And there was a point where a turn off the cameras. Which we do not control. Which you do not control. And so its it well, guess what . I am on periscope. Do you want . In an effort while cspan picked up that and continued which was a contentious but unofficially came to a close. What was going on in the chambers. And that i think, in a nutshell, is where we are now. That is on a business side everything they thought was going to be the status quo is a little bit different from the consumer side there are so many more decisions that you have. But heres the thing i always looked at which we looked at in watching t. V. Is look at the players, look at the ownership. Once upon a time there were three or four major networks, major corporations, there are more than that. But not that many more if you start looking at who owns all of these cable services, who owns this particular online channels and such, and say you know, there is still a limited number of folks who have who are gatekeepers to what we share and so the obligation almost boastful circle. You would hope on the part of the fcc that they wish say you do have an obligation to do the best to help the communicators to help the audiences understand what is going on in this complex world. There is so much going on and you and theres a new ladies and gentlemen you are the gatekeepers. You have the control over how we see ourselves. How we see the world. They teach at the university of illinois and Walter Podrazik<\/a> is also a television curator at the museum of broadcast communications in chicago. How did you get interested in all of that . I was looking at notes i took as a kid on a particular series. And that was partially in preparation in writing for t. V. Series. And i am looking at the notes i wrote in us of these are pretty good. And i was already making connections with program flow and script flow involved. And for the watching t. V. Book, it is all about context. It is not just about news. It is not just about entertainment, is not just about the business, it is not just about some trivia. It is all of that woven into a fabric which tells a bigger story. And my partner and i have been fascinated with that style of storytelling. In fact we wondered, we said you know it was such an obvious way to tell a story on television. When anyone ever done it . Can we quickly found out why. Because it is hard. You have to have so Much Research<\/a> on your cable. To start creating one paragraph to explain something and then what youre doing is boiling it down from this big to this big and understandable and entertaining way. Ive always loved the fact that you can see the world in your living room, in your bedroom for television. And that we can share exciting moments. Everyone has their favorites. The moon landing would be the best example. I mean wow, look at that and im just sitting here, and more recently chicago cubs win the world series. Wow i am not there but i am there. Because im tuned into your telephone. Who is Harry Castleman<\/a> . He is my coauthor. We met at northwestern university. And he and i were actually the beatles experts at the College Radio<\/a> station. As one of our sendoffs station we did a 17 hour, 46 minute live radio history of the beatles. And it showed how well we could work together. We just have a nice giveandtake repartee and when we write we had not been in the same city for years. We just do things by carbon paper and then by electronics and it is life, i have this idea. Okay i have this idea. Balance, balance, balance, balance. And we come up with something that is the ultimate. I have to entertain a coauthor. And if it doesnt make his cut, it is not good enough. So i think would benefit from having to one up each other. Unfortunately we barely scratched the surface of this 500 page book. It is a history of television. Watching t. V. Is the name. Our guest has been Walter Podrazik<\/a>. Booktv records hundreds of author programs throughout the country all year long and heres a look at some of the events we will be covering this week. On monday will be at politics and prose bookstore in the Nations Capital<\/a> for joe whitney to report on cia use of literary magazines to promote an anticommunist agenda during the cold war. On tuesday we travel up the east coast to the National Constitution<\/a> center in philadelphia. For New York University<\/a> law Professor Larry<\/a> friedmans talk on how technology has advanced policing to allow Law Enforcement<\/a> agencies to operate in secret. Wednesday we had down south to the jordan club atlanta. To hear William Miller<\/a> and dick carpenter of the institute for justice discuss how bottleneck verse agovernment regulations that they benefit from. Thursday at in new york city former special assistant to president bill clinton and ames beard awardwinning author, Adrian Miller<\/a> will have a history of africanamericans who work in the food service at the white house. Also during that evening at the New York University<\/a> bookstore, carolyn might give her critical thoughts on gun rights movement, and stand your ground laws being adopted across the country. And that is a look at some of the programs booktv will be covering ts","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia804704.us.archive.org\/13\/items\/CSPAN2_20170219_180000_Walter_Podrazik_Discusses_Watching_TV\/CSPAN2_20170219_180000_Walter_Podrazik_Discusses_Watching_TV.thumbs\/CSPAN2_20170219_180000_Walter_Podrazik_Discusses_Watching_TV_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240627T12:35:10+00:00"}