Now Hear This! WICB is rockin'!

So have you had a chance to check out WICB since you got back to campus? It's looking (and sounding) great this semester -- from its awesome Web site to lots of new programming (and now, for the first time (?), the chance to date a DJ!).

For starters, take a minute to tune into the new talk-and-opinion program, "Now Hear This!"produced by Rob Engelsman, Tucker Ives, and David Reynolds. Here's the description:

A news-magazine show chronicling the issues and people of Tompkins County, "Now Hear This!" picks up where "NewsWatch" and "ICB Sunday" leave off, diving deeper into the story than ever before. Featuring weekly segments on business and entertainment, as well as a special guest editorial and a question of the week, "Now Hear This!" is a solid half hour of news TV and an hour of newsy radio.

And the coolest thing about the show -- in addition to Rob, Tucker and Dave, of course -- is that it's "cross-platform." Meaning convergent. Meaning the same content on radio AND television (WICB AND ICTV!).

Meaning programming for a digital age, where it's all about the content instead of the medium. (You can catch the show on WICB on Thursdays at 8 p.m., and on ICTV on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 9 p.m.)


The second, and much-less-cool thing about the show is that they let me do an editorial for the debut....and given that I have always been a woman with an opinion, I of course was delighted to participate.

In keeping with that cross-platform concept, I thought I'd at least share that part of the program with you, right here, online:

So here 'tis....


When I was a kid, my grandmother used to talk in platitudes,

Simple statements of what I believed were profound truths:

You end up where you’re headed, she used to say,
So you better know where you’re going.


There’s a difference between investing and spending, she’d tell me.
You spend for the moment.
You invest for the future.


And – one of my favorites, even to this day:

The glass is half full, instead of half empty.

And with every challenge comes an opportunity.


That’s a lesson,
And a piece of advice
That is more important today
Than it has been …

Well, since my grandmother used to say it.


That’s because we’re facing
A perfect storm
of economic and political challenges

And we are forced to confront

Perhaps for the first time
In MY lifetime

A world in which the United States of America
Is no longer the biggest,
The best,
Or the only game in town.


A high school counselor in Colorado produced a video
Highlighting some of those changes….

Did you know, for example,

That the number one English speaking country in the world is….. CHINA;

That India has more honor students
Than the United States has students?

That the top ten jobs this year
Didn’t exist in 2003?

And that today’s college grads
Will have between 10 and 14 jobs
By the time they are 38?




Did you know
That the first commercial text message was sent in December 1992
And that the total number of text messages that will be sent today
Exceeds the total population of the entire planet?

Did you know that

If MySpace were a country,
It would be the fifth largest in the world,

And that,
by next year,
90 percent of all science and technology grads in the world
will live in Asia?




In short,
We’re living in a world
in which Americans are no longer the smartest,
the richest,
the most powerful
or even the most wired

(Bermuda is, in fact, the #1 ranked country for broadband penetration;
The United States is 19th.)

And all of that said,
Americans are still among the most industrious,
Ambitious, and
Stubborn people on earth –

Not to mention the most optimistic.

And that means that –
Just like my grandmother –

we recognize
That with challenge
Comes opportunity….

And that 2009 may bring us some of the
Greatest opportunities
Of our lifetimes.

But
That means
It’s time for us to stop complaining about what we aren’t doing,
And start doing what we can do.

It’s time for us to decide
Once and for all
That business as usual
Will no longer suffice.

One of my favorite quotations that
DIDN’T come from my grandmother

Came from somebody who
Was almost as smart as she was:
Albert Einstein.


We can’t solve problems
by using the same kind of thinking
we used
when we created them,
he said.

And he was right:
As we rise to the challenges that confront us,
As we figure out how to do more with less,
As we reclaim our position as the greatest and most productive nation in the world,

It’s time for new kinds of thinking.
Not only across the country,
not only across the state,
But right here
On South Hill.

You do end up where you’re headed, as grandma used to say.
And if we’re as smart and effective as I think we are,
We’re headed into a future that is as bright, promising and exciting as our history has always been.

We’ll just need
To work a little harder,
Think a little more creatively,
And stay focused on our core mission,
core values, and core vision
to get us there.