Oregon Public Broadcasting Wins Another Gracie Award

Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon Territory has won a prestigious Gracie Allen Award (also known as a Gracie). The weekly radio show, hosted by Christy George, took top honors in the Public Affairs category. For the winning show, George featured Oregon State University Marine Biologist Jane Lubchenco exploring the tidepools off Yachats, Oregon and discussing recent changes in the ocean that scientists believe are likely a result of climate change.

The Gracie Allen Awards recognize exemplary programming created for women, by women and about women in all facets of electronic media and is presented annually by the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT). Each year, the Gracies attract the best and the brightest in radio, television, cable and Web-based media. The Gracie winners will be presented their awards in June in New York City.

OPB also received a Gracie last year for "Outstanding Documentary – Mid-Length Format – Radio" for its audio-documentary The Undiscovered Explorer: Imagining York.

Hear the award-winning Oregon Territory broadcast

OPB's Oregon Experience Profiles William Steel, the "Father of Crater Lake"

William Gladstone Steel was one of Oregon's most active mountaineers and advocates for national parks and forest conservation in the Pacific Northwest. He is best known as the father of Crater Lake National Park and the founder of the Mazamas, the West Coast's oldest continual mountaineering club. The next episode of Oregon Experience examines the life of this complex and sometimes controversial man. Tune in to the stations of Oregon Public Broadcasting on Monday, February 19 at 9pm.

He was born in 1854 in Ohio, where his parents ran an underground railroad stop. They eventually moved to Kansas and then to Portland. It was in Kansas that Steel claims to have first read about Crater Lake in a newspaper used to wrap his lunch. He vowed then to see it, and 15 years later finally did.

So awestruck by what he saw, he made it his life's mission to preserve the lake as a national park. He was dedicated, passionate and annoying. After 17 years of hard work, Steel's efforts paid off. On May 22, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill making Crater Lake a national park. But once the park was established, Steel felt it had to be developed in order for people to enjoy it. He pushed for better roads, secured financing for a grand lodge and even wanted to build a bridge to Wizard Island in Crater Lake.

Despite his ideas for development, he was also a dedicated conservationist. Steel was one of the original founders of the Mazamas. In 1894 an advertisement was placed in local papers inviting interested, serious mountaineers to join the charter climb. More than 300 people encamped on the flanks of Mt. Hood on July 18. By 8am the next day, the first climbing party reached the summit, followed by the rest of the 193 men and women who were able to summit that day.

William Gladstone Steel was complex and controversial and an important force for preserving the Cascade Range as we know it today.

About Oregon Experience
Oregon Experience is an exciting new history series on OPB TV that brings to life fascinating stories that help us understand who we are and that reinforce our shared identity as Oregonians. The series, co-produced by the Oregon Historical Society and Oregon Public Broadcasting, takes advantage of the extensive film, video and stills from the archives of OHS and OPB, and draws upon the expertise of OHS researchers and historians. Each half-hour show features captivating characters -- both familiar and forgotten -- who have played key roles in building our state into the unique place we call home.

Funding for Oregon Experience is provided in part by Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Robert C. and Nani S. Warren Foundation and Oregon Cultural Trust.

"Oregon Experience" Profiles Bill Bowerman, U of O's Legendary Track Coach and NIKE Co-Founder

"Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won." -- Bill Bowerman

Bill Bowerman is considered one of the greatest track coaches the world has ever known. In his 24 years at the University of Oregon, he won four NCAA team championships and coached 33 Olympians, 16 sub-four-minute milers and 64 All-Americans. Using archival materials and interviews with family and former students, the next episode of Oregon Experience looks at the remarkable life of this legendary coach and co-founder of NIKE and how he taught his students much more than track. Tune in to the stations of Oregon Public Broadcasting on Monday, February 12 at 9pm.

Bowerman was an Oregon original, steeped in pioneer stock. In 1845, his great grandparents traveled the Oregon Trail and later settled and named the town of Fossil for the petrified elephant and camel bones they found in a nearby landslide.

Rebellious as a child, Bowerman was kicked out of Medford High School for fighting. But after a humiliating lecture by the superintendent of schools, the young Bowerman turned his life around, becoming a star athlete and student.

At the University of Oregon, he played football and was on the legendary coach Bill Hayward's track team. He graduated in 1934 and planned to become a doctor, but lacking money for medical school, he found his niche in coaching.

During World War II, Major Bowerman served in the Army's 10th Mountain Division in Italy and returned to Medford a decorated hero. In 1948, his alma mater recruited him back to Eugene to replace the retiring Bill Hayward as head track coach.

Bowerman called himself a teacher. He built his coaching career around his belief that all athletes were individuals and individuals learned differently. A master of tactics and technique, he concentrated on helping each athlete train to peak performance both physically and psychologically by tailoring individual workout schedules and by experimenting with everything from recipes for sports drinks to lighter-weight uniforms.

Obsessed with the amount of weight his athletes carried, Bowerman wanted to build a lighter-weight racing shoe. After taking lessons from the local shoemaker, he began cobbling custom-made shoes for his runners including half-miler Phil Knight, one of the first to wear them in the late 1950s.

In the early 1960s, Knight and Bowerman teamed up again to co-found an athletic shoe distribution company -- Blue Ribbon Sports -- which would eventually become NIKE, Inc., the largest athletic shoe and apparel company in the world.

About Oregon Experience
Oregon Experience is an exciting new history series on OPB TV that brings to life fascinating stories that help us understand who we are and that reinforce our shared identity as Oregonians. The series, co-produced by the Oregon Historical Society and Oregon Public Broadcasting, takes advantage of the extensive film, video and stills from the archives of OHS and OPB, and draws upon the expertise of OHS researchers and historians. Each half-hour show features captivating characters -- both familiar and forgotten -- who have played key roles in building our state into the unique place we call home.

Funding for Oregon Experience is provided in part by Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Robert C. and Nani S. Warren Foundation and Oregon Cultural Trust.

OPB's "Meth: The Oregon Front" Honored at NETA 2007

The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) honored 23 public television licensees with awards last Friday in Norfolk, VA. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Meth: The Oregon Front was named the best outreach campaign based on a national project. The judges praised its well-constructed organization, its clear, forceful presentation, and its creative innovation, calling it a model for other stations to emulate. The program was developed as a local follow-up to FRONTLINE: The Meth Epidemic which was produced in partnership with OPB, The Oregonian and FRONTLINE.

PBS president Paula Kerger emceed the ceremony. Vermont Public Television's president and NETA board chair John King presented trophies to 38 projects in the areas of program production, promotion, outreach and instructional media.

The NETA Awards are annual recognition of member-produced excellence in public broadcasting, a tradition established 40 years ago by the pioneering Southern Educational Communications Association.

NETA is a professional association founded in 1997 to serve public television licensees and affiliated educational organizations. The organization has members in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. NETA is headquartered in Columbia, SC.

See www.netaonline.org/ for additional information on NETA.