This evening, Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio will present Here and Now – Preparing for H1N1. The collaboration will be broadcast on WPT stations and simulcast on the WPR Ideas Network across the state. The special will feature interviews with public health officials and medical experts and answer audience questions on the H1N1 pandemic.
I spoke with Andy Moore, a Senior News Producer at WPT, and asked about the timing of the program. “For this special, we wanted to find the right point in the story to engage our audience. We needed to wait until there was a sufficient level of awareness, but also produce the program early enough in the flu season to contribute prevention and education.” On how the TV and radio teams came to work together Moore says, “Our organizations have collaborated on election coverage in the past, and that set a model for how we came to work together on this issue.”
In addition to the on-air discussion, during the program there will be a separate toll-free number staffed by a panel of health experts to take questions from the audience off-air. The goal is to answer as many questions as possible from concerned citizens – not just the ones that make it on-air during the broadcast. Moore says, “Many people may have questions about H1N1, but some don’t want to ask them on a live call-in show. We wanted to serve that audience while also producing a valuable on-air discussion.”
The hour-long special airs tonight at 7 pm Central Time. Live video will be streamed on the WPT website and audio will be available on the WPR live stream.
