Posted: Friday, 23 January 2009 11:07AM
Take Time To Talk
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, January 23, 2009
With bright lights beating down on an audience of the faithful, WILK News Radio took center stage last night in the high-tech public television studio at WVIA.
My colleagues, Nancy Kman, Kevin Lynn and Sue Henry, and I explained what we do on the air Monday through Friday and why.
As we do each weekday, each of us brought our own individual brand to the stage.
We brought our life experiences, our strengths and our weaknesses before the public and laid bare our psyches – or at least as much of our psyches as we chose to reveal.
Did the live studio audience and the viewing audience at home see an inner child emerge? Did our true selves emerge? The self is a strange commodity – both blessing and curse that comes alive each day over the airwaves.
Speaking with all the confidence I could muster, I did what I do each day on “Corbett” when the light goes on in the studio and it’s time to talk. I spoke the truth as I see it, honestly sharing what I believe and why I believe it. I opened myself to criticism and praise.
Last night’s show was a good opportunity for my colleagues and me to get together in shared purpose – in the common cause that unites us despite our differences.
And we do have differences.
Most of our disagreements are philosophical. But some are personal, stemming from the high energy daily performances that sometimes bring us into deep conflict with each other.
Ultimately, though, we’re all part of the same experience. We’re a team that depends on each other to hold up our individual end of the bargain. And the bargain is a fast-paced public opinion platform upon which countless people depend for a variety of reasons.
For some listeners, we’re mere entertainers. For others, we’re friends whom they’ve come to know, trusted companions who come into their homes each day to keep them company as well as informed.
Some listeners tune in to learn. Some listen to disagree and criticize. Some listen so they can feel smug and launch loud verbal personal attacks.
Through it all, the sacred contract I have agreed to between my life and yours remains in tact as long as you listen.
I depend on listeners as much as they depend on me.
That’s why I felt good last night at the number of people who took time from their lives to come to WVIA and participate in the show. Many viewers also called and emailed the show with questions for Nancy, Kevin, Sue and me.
Host Bill Kelly did a commendable job handling our egos, a task that’s not a feat for the timid.
Before the show began, I thought about the many years that have passed and the many events that have taken place in my life that led me to that chair. I thought about my successes and my failures that make up my history in Northeastern Pennsylvania, a place I’ll always call hard coal country.
And I thought about how all roads led here.
When I moved to California in 2002 after living in Wilkes-Barre for 17 years, a friend wrote and asked me a serious question.
“When are you coming home where you belong?” he asked.
I laughed when I received the note. I belong on the West Coast, I thought. But deep inside I knew he was right. So I came home two years ago, back to the cold gray winters of political discontent that drive me further and faster into the madness of a never-ending news cycle.
And there’s no other place I’d rather be. I belong here.
Unlike most places in America, politics and media thrive here, where raw talk about the news has been a staple of community life for generations. WILK News Radio is adding to the voice of that loud, proud tradition of debate.
Without more and more of those voices, we’re not nearly as alive as we must be to change the world.
Speaking of changing the world, have the feds arrested those two judges in Luzerne County yet?
When I made a similar crack last night, the live studio audience erupted in applause. We laughed, but we knew how awful it is to await the arrests of people from whom we expect the best.
We often get the worst around here.
WILK News Radio is committed to getting better.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for being such a big part of my life.
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