August 12, 2011

My Weather Segment is Back on Public Radio! KPLU

My weekly weather segment on public radio returns on September 2, but on a new public radio station: KPLU.   Specifically, I will be on Fridays at 9 AM for a full five minutes right after the NPR news and KPLU's popular segment Birdnote.   And they will repeat this segment twice in the afternoon during All Things Considered.
Click Icon to go to KPLU's Web Site
But it gets better than that!   I will be talking to Keith Seinfeld, an award-winning science journalist. Keith's been a staff reporter at The Seattle Times and The News Tribune in Tacoma and a freelance writer-producer.   His work has been honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  I am looking forward to an active and interesting conversation with Keith, who plans to prepare carefully before each of our segments.  It makes a real difference talking to someone who is really interested and enthusiastic about a topic.
I will be talking to Keith Seinfeld, KPLU's  well-known science and health reporter
KPLU has good coverage over all of western Washington and, of course, you can hear them live on the web.


What really get me excited is that my segment will be guaranteed a full five minutes, which will always be at the same time.  This is in stark contrast to KUOW, where my weather segment was low priority and positioned at the end of the first hour of Weekday.   Week after week my time would collapse to only a few minutes, pushing me to throw out important material I really cared about.  Many weeks, especially at the end, they ran out of time, moving me to the second hour or cancelling the whole segment.  This was bad for listeners and it won't happen at KPLU.


The KPLU folks are doing even more.  We will be using internet-based calling and our tests have indicated studio quality audio, in contrast to the hard-to-hear telephone audio at KUOW.   And there will be a coordinated web presence, summarizing the special topics we will be discussing.


During major weather events, such as snowstorms and windstorms, I will be providing extra material on KPLU at other times and days.


I have been extraordinarily impressed with KPLU staff and their excitement about presenting not only the weekend forecast, but helping their listeners appreciate the complexity and fascination of our local weather and other weather topics of profound interest (e.g., global warming).  

Change is always hard, but I am convinced that this change is greatly for the better and will be a huge enhancement over what I was able to do at KUOW.   

I hope you will join me at KPLU on Fridays.  You can submit questions through my blog and through a KPLU email address that will be soon announced..  I really value direct interactions with listeners and hope that questions and comments will increase in this new venue.....cliff

PS:  If you are living in Seattle don't forget to vote for the Seattle School Board.   As I noted in a previous blog, we have real chance of turning the district around if we replace the incumbent candidates by some of the excellent individuals that are running:   Peaslee, McLaren, Martin, Buetow, and Whelan will make a difference.  I have talked with each of them and they won't give the administration a pass when things go wrong and will ask questions, compared to the startling incurious current board majority. 

PSS:  A major degradation of the weather on Sunday and first part of Monday as a relatively strong system comes in.  Expect clouds over the west on Sunday and a good chance of showers, particularly later in the day.  But things will greatly improve midweek.

39 comments:

  1. Congratulations Professor. I look forward to listening to you on Friday mornings. I'm pleased you've found a new venue for your public service efforts.

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  2. Congratulations! I've been rooting for you for some time. It's hard to get a job in a small market segment. But you did it!

    I hope that doesn't mean you will be stopping your blog, though. I find it very educational and entertaining while reading here on the east coast.

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  3. Congratulations! That's a great time slot to fit you in - after Bird Note. Kudos to KPLU for bringing you on board!

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  4. Had KPLU given you some latitude on discussion topics, or or could this, again, be a hazard to your segment?

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  5. That's great news!

    I guess I'll have to double up on my KPLU donation by giving my KUOW donation to KPLU now!

    Dave

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  6. Congratulations! I look forward to hearing you again on Friday mornings.

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  7. Cliff,

    Great news indeed!

    I am now off to renew my KPLU membership taking a hint from Dave above, I will add what I used to give to KUOW.

    Paul Middents

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  8. Congrats to you AND KPLU.. That station DOES get it.. Quality, and community service.. Can't wait!!

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  9. So happy you've found a new home for your great weather coverage! I'm looking forward to hearing your segment, which will be easy, since I switched to KPLU after you were let go! I too will be giving my next donation to KPLU!

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  10. Congratulations! A great outcome, and to my mind a better match for your programming. Quality info on a quality station.

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  11. Let KUOW's loss be KPLU's gain. Great to have you back on the air!

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  12. Congratulations Cliff and KPLU! My public radio donation this year is going to KPLU, and it will go today.

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  13. Great news!
    My favorite station!

    For those living in the Mount Vernon, Skagit Valley area, KPLU just changed its frequency from 91.1 to 10.5 FM.

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  14. Congrats! KPLU's definitely a step up in quality.

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  15. Congrats! KPLU's definitely a step up in quality.

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  16. This is awesome! Funny I was just listening to KPLU this morning (interesting how my radio and my bank account refuses to point to KUOW anymore) and thinking that it would be a great landing spot for you. Maybe I heard an announcement out of the corner of my ear at some point...
    Anyway it's awesome and congrats. you are brilliant and you deserve a showcase

    August 12, 2011 2:42 PM

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  17. woohoo! Awesome news, kudos to KPLU for working out this arrangement with you, it's a major benefit to all of us in the Puget Sound region!

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  18. Sandwiched between Bird Note and Stein playing Jeannine, this is a listeners trifecta. Hooray for KPLU.

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  19. Excellent! I promise KPLU will listened to; and entirely because they made this decision.

    By the bye, i received nothing but faux? consternation when i replied to a KUOW pledge call that i'll send them my donation when i hear Prof Mass has been restored to KUOW. they allowed that they knew nothing of this.

    Looking forward to hearing you soon!

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  20. Congrats on the new show. I'll be listening.

    I was at a family reunion last week and was talking with a tree fruit farmer from Tonasket. He was explaining how they are now using a web based weather info site to make all kinds of decisions regarding crop management. Here is the site they use.

    http://weather.wsu.edu/

    If you register I think you get access into more data.

    Thought it was a good example of public communication and utilization of weather data. It is definitely heavy on Eastern Wash data as you would expect.

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  21. As a long time listener and supporter of KPLU, and a long time fan of yours (both your segment on that other station and your blog), this is great news!

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  22. I sent an email to KPLU and cc'd KUOW. Thought you might like to read it.
    -------------I never realized that KUOW and KPLU were so different from each other, but I realize the difference now! We have always supported public radio and listen to it almost exclusively. Now we will be even more selective.

    We love Cliff Mass. He is intelligent and willing to speak his mind - even if it's not popular. His opinions are well-researched and reasoned. He backs up his opinions with facts and encourages others to form their own opinions and take action.

    Cliff Mass is an educational leader. The US is sorely in need of leaders right now, as is Seattle. And, being a teacher myself, I can say that the K-12 educational system doesn't seem to have any leaders at all, locally or nationally. I try to do what I can in my classroom, but my reach is small. I do not have the ear of the public - Cliff Mass does and he isn't afraid to use it. If people don't want to listen, they won't. I say - let the public choose for themselves.

    Any adult who advocates for the betterment of future generations is a hero in our book. Go, Cliff, go!

    Thank you KPLU! We'll be listening!

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  23. Good news! Bird Note, Dick Stein, Nancy Leson, Art Thiel, All That Jazz, segues by Clarence Acox, and now, Cliff Mass with the weather.....

    KPLU features an all-star NW cast of characters...

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  24. BRAVO! Welcome to the Olympic Peninsula airwaves.

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  25. Why favor Buetow over Martin-Morris? Didn't Martin Morris vote against Discovery Math? In your own words, "Three of seven Seattle School Board members were paying attention — Michael DeBell, Harium Martin-Morris and Mary Bass voted against Discovering Math."

    -Seattle Times Editorial, Cliff Mass, May 29, 2009
    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009278185_opinb31mass.html

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  26. Excellent! After your KUOW debacle, I'd planned to stop splitting my NPR contribution between the 2 stations (even though I listen to KPLU 90% of the time.)

    Having you on KPLU makes this a falling-off-a-log decision. Congratulations!

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  27. I knew KPLU was your spot! It's a far better station than KUOW-- much smarter! I'm so glad to hear you'll be back on the radio, and reaching a much wider audience I'm sure. It's a great time slot too. Congratulations!

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  28. Cliff, do you know if this new segment will have its own podcast? KPLU seems to do a good job of splitting out their special segments as separate podcasts (something KUOW hasn't figured out, actually) - it would make perfect sense, especially given your already large following.

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  29. Great! My plege to kplu pays off now!

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  30. Hooray!
    I am a member of KPLU as I find their local news coverage more comprehensive. I've been wishing they would expand (I know it shrinks the jazz, sorry) and your contribution is a wonderful match.
    I do agree with previous posts that a podcast would be a great value-added feature. I'm not always able to listen at the appointed time and would sign up for your podcast in a Northwest minute.

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  31. I've been reading your blog only since this past winter, but I've been a KPLU member for years. I'm thrilled to hear about this. I admire and respect KPLU and its professional staff and I think this is a perfect fit. When I heard about the debacle with KUOW, my first thought was: "Come to KPLU!" I do believe this will be a superb collaboration. Congrats.

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  32. Well deserved, Cliff! I'm looking forward to your weather reports and further engagement in the future of the NW.

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  33. Perfect vindication! Smart station!

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  34. FINALLY! And we can all move forward and SHUT UP about this whole fiasco!

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  35. In today's article in the Seattle Times, Professor Mass says "It'll be strictly weather." I'd be interested having him comment on this. I thought that that was one of his issues with KUOW. He wanted to express his views on other topics. Nearly all of us shared his point of view, I think.

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  36. Kai,
    I don't have any problem sticking to weather on this segment...and their is no issues, like at KUOW, where the host was talking to other regulars about many other topics. I will talk about non-weather topics with other KPLU reporters and on other radio stations/media outlets...several have offered me the opportunity whenever I would like. And there is always my blog!...cliff

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