GPB Macon

GPB Macon is the public radio station serving Macon and all of Middle Georgia. Follow us on Facebook at GPB Macon or on twitter @gpbmacon

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Songs On Site: Louisiana Lou

The Packway Handle Band from Athens, GA perform a cover of The Allman Brother's Band's "Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monty John" inside the former Capricorn ...

The Packway Handle Band went where even stalwart Allman Brothers Band fans seldom go to pick their song for Songs On Site.

The album? Win, Lose or Draw. The tune? A Dickey Betts number called Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monte John. To be honest, the Packway version was my introduction to it. But they rip through it, making it sound like it was written for bluegrass and rather than blues rock.

The session was recorded inside the historic Capricorn Studios in Macon. A dry, dry room. Working there, we really got a sense of just how good the place was in its heyday.

Enjoy.

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Songs On Site: John McCutcheon Covers Rev. Pearly Brown

Davis Scott remembers how he used to walk blind street musician Rev. Pearly Brown from the bus station to radio station WIBB every Sunday and folk singer Joh...

The Reverend Pearly Brown was a fixture on the streets of Macon for decades.

The blind preacher, guitarist and singer would take the bus from his home in Americus to Macon, getting a hotel room down on what was then Broadway. Then he’d hit the streets, performing his blend of Piedmont Blues and Gospel tunes. A white coffee cup perched on the tuners of his guitar was there for payment.

Meanwhile, in the larger world of folk music outside of Georgia, Brown was a luminary. He played the Newport Folk Festival and the Grand Ole Opry and toured college campuses.

In the 1970s, David Scott of Macon would meet Brown at the Trailway bus station on Sunday. Together they would walk to radio station WIBB where Brown would play his weekly show of Gospel tunes.

Like Brown, Scott is disabled, though not blind. Scott says that Brown could sense his limp as the two made their way to the studio with Scott acting as the older man’s eyes.

In this edition of Songs on Site, David Scott talks about his weekly appointment with Rev. Brown and folk singer John McCutcheon, who met Brown at a folk music retreat in the 1960s, covers Brown’s signature song, It’s A Mean Old World.

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Radio/Video and the Power of Clocks and Fences

Grant B. the station AV Nerd here. Last weekend I was invited to help judge the South Carolina News Photographer's Association Contest at the venerable State newspaper in Columbia. Being asked to judge anything was brand new to me. Having video in the mix of entrants was, too.

Watching the video work of newspaper shooters reminded me of an epiphany I had when I was still at the paper and was just starting to figure out video. Every timeline in Final Cut was for all intents and purposes an infinite news hole. I was free to tell stories they way I wanted to. Let's do this!

There's a problem though. With infinite space, hard choices about narrative remain unmade. Some of the pieces we saw in the SCNPA contest were longer than they needed to be even if the subjects were compelling. Most of that was due to interviews where great quotes kept coming, or where emotions were running high and the shooter didn't want to stop the flow. Of course, sometimes there were images that just had to get out there, too.

But you have to control the flow and turn it into rhythm.

Problem is, photo editors, much less video editors, are non-existent at papers these days. It's one thing to work with the idea that something's got to give in the back of your head, quite another to have someone look dispassionately at what you have and lop off a tear streaked quote you were so attached to.

This is where the clock becomes your friend. In filing radio features, the general rule for us at GPB, and for filing with is NPR, is to keep it to about three and a half minutes. Not four minutes and twenty seconds, not five minutes. Three and a half minutes. 'How stifling!' you may be saying. Nope.

The clock puts a fence around what you are trying to do. At three and half minutes, you are forced to cut it down to THE essential moments, quotes, and scenes in the story. Natural sound by default becomes more densely packed and rich. The clock becomes the editor you don't have.

It's like when you were given a whole page (never happened for me) for a photo package. You still had to keep it to five frames. Light and tight. 

So my tip for newspaper shooters who have been told to "do video" by the home office in Sacramento? Embrace the clock. Make your piece either a minute and a half or three and a half if you really have something to say. Stick to it. I think your work will improve.

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A hyrbrid-driving legislator wants to end the EV tax credit

You know that I'm filing a story on the push to end Georgia's very generous $5,000 tax credit for those people who purchase or lease electric-powered cars.

The man behind the proposal is Rep. Chuck Martin, a Republican from Alpharetta. He tried to end the tax credit a year ago and failed. He reintroduce the proposal this year and has tied the savings from ending the tax credit to help pay for the $1 billion transportation bill.

The story, which is slated to air tomorrow morning, will explain that Martin sees the tax credit as obsolete and unfairly supporting electric cars while ignoring hybrid cars.

What I found interesting: Martin actuallydrives a hybrid... a Kia Optima. He's had the car nearly two years and he believes that the greater range that he gets from a car that switches from electric to gas equals what an owner of an all-electric vehicle, like the Nissan Leaf.

I've driven about 23,000 miles since I've had the car, since May 2013. If you take somebody who has Leaf (all-electric) miles and second car miles and look at their carbon footprint, I would venture a guess that in most cases mine is the same or less.

Listen to his reasons behind the purchase of the hybrid.

And also realize that Martin says he would push for ending the elecrtic vehicle credit whether or not he owned the hybrid car.

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You probably remember your first job interview. Maybe you were all nerves? Maybe you were nerves of steel? Whatever the case it can take years for some people to feel confident trying to get a job. At Hutchings College and Career Academy in Macon, a day of mock interviews with local business people was aimed at speeding up the learning process for students. Hear from students Dylan Jordan, Joseph Trigger, Jr. and Meleah Smith as well as interviewers Kellie Black, James Miller and Tiara Howard.

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Fifth graders at LH Williams Elementary School in Macon are making photos. About 30 cameras are in their hands thanks to one of the local Rotary Clubs and photographer Horace Holmes. The idea is to document their school, and their neighborhood, and present it all at the Tubman African American Museum later in the Spring. The project is a backdoor way to promote literacy, but one listen to Horace Holmes about his first experience with a camera hammers home why the camera is the vehicle of choice.

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Macon-Bibb Firefighter Lt. Randy Parker was laid to rest in a public ceremony Monday. Parker died after falling through a home’s floor and into the basement while fighting a housefire last week. Suffolk, Virginia Fire Chief Cedric Scott said Parker was a devoted family man and a devoted church member in addition to being a good firefighter.

"if you ask anybody about Randy Parker, they’ll say ‘Randy was just a good guy'," Scott said.

The other firefighters who were injured in the floor collapse that killed Parker are recovering. The accident is still under investigation. Video of the funeral here...http://youtu.be/u6jtLAOX4os

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VidNote from GPB Macon - Bureau Chief Mike Caputo asks you to weigh in. Will Georgia policies on electric vehicles change the consumer appetite for electric cars?

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[In the field] Chasing coyotes and chewing over comedy

Mike Caputo here.

Today Grant Blankenship is tromping around in the woods chasing coyotes. There's an effort to tag and study coyotes native to the southeast and he's going to get a sense of what it takes to trap and tag these wild animals.

Leah Fleming will assemble her food pantry at college story.

I wanted to share something with you... these are outtakes from my interview with comedian Bill Maher.

Maher talks about comedy and his ultimate aim when on stage.

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[In the field] Working off-air

Mike from GPB Macon again.

We have a slower day today... the GPB network will fundraise today and tomorrow. We'll get back to local hosting on Friday afternoon.

So the storytelling gets our attention today. Grant and Leah are talking with a student at Middle Georgia State about making ends meet (and making sure there's meat on the table) for a story about a food pantry that's started there.

Our interns will dive into a project that GPB Macon will do with Mercer's Center for Collaborative Journalism. It's on pedestrian deaths. The students of Adam Ragusea's class (yes, that Adam) have reached out to the community for help on understanding the high number of pedestrian accidents in Macon.

We've been asking listeners to give their thoughts. Here's a couple of responses to our phone line - 202-2500

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Well... you interview a celebrity and you go viral. Who knew...

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This is one of the quotes that didn't make the final cut for the on-air interview. But it's still a good one. 

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The places that are the most red-statey are the most enthusiastic for people like me because ... there is always a very sizeable, very enthusiastic liberal minority. Even an atheist minority.

Comedian Bill Maher on playing in Macon on Saturday

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[Outtakes] Do Bibb County Parents Understand The School District's Choices?

Mike here.

Bibb County schools have to choose a path for teaching your kids. They want you to weigh in. But do people know just what they are actually weighing and what the consequences would be for failing to meet the standards of each approach?

The Telegraph's Bibb County education reporter David Schick says parents who attend community meetings seem unclear about them. We talked with Schick and are airing portions of that conversation on GPB Macon.

We lay out the choices on-the-air: A charter school system; a so-called "Investing in Educational Excellence" system and a status quo system.

But some of what got left on the cutting room floor were about the public's inability to understand these choices. So I wanted to share that half of the conversation.

Have a listen to Schick's comments on how parents don't understand the school's choice.

All the best,

Mike

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GPB Macon - Morning Note

Morning. This is Mike, the bureau chief here in Macon.

I wanted to let you know what's in the works from our team of four.

Leah Fleming, your intrepid Morning Edition host, has a story of a food pantry at Middle Georgia State College. The surprise is that a pantry to provide food to student is even necessary. But Leah's finding out that it is needed and it's happening in other schools. She's got an interview with a student coming up.

Grant Blankenship, the man who tells stories in many forms (photos, video, words, sounds). He's looking into a program that attacks blight... but does it smartly. This program sort of harvests the valuable things of a blighted house to sell. And it employs people who need work. Stayed tuned for that.

I've got an interview with - get this - comedian, satirist and sharp-stick commentator Bill Maher. He's coming to Macon.

What would you ask Bill Maher?

And, for that matter, what stories would you have us tell? I like to think of that as Alex Trebek might - in a form of a question. What questions would you like our stories to address?

All the best,

Mike

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Fewer voting precincts in Macon-Bibb County would equal a violation of voting rights. That was the overwhelming sentiment of those who spoke during a public hearing at the Bibb County Board of Elections on proposed changes Wednesday. The Board of Elections says the cut from 40 polling places to 26 is needed to help shave $40,000 from their budget. Opponents say the plan doesn't take into account citizens who have to walk or take public transportation to get around town. Willie Finney, Jr. is the pastor of Smith Street Baptist Church on Macon's near south side. He said the changes would strain the services he provides to church members on election day. "We don’t have enough time to pick them up in the area. So I know they don’t have transportation. We can’t afford another van, but we’re going to get another van. Because we want to pick up all the members," Finney said. Bart Tharpe of west Macon was the one proponent of the changes. Tharpe said that despite public transportation in the largely rural and suburban section of Bibb County where he lives, voter turnout there is routinely high. "We vote roughly 50% every time. Because we want to vote. You should want to do everything to vote. I mean crawl on your knees," Tharpe said, "I’ve heard you say you want to crawl on your knees to vote. Do it." The vote on the plan has now been pushed to the Board of Elections next meeting in February.

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From left, Mark Thompson, Deonna Belcher, Keith Belcher and Herman Alexander paint murals across the front of both The Golden Bough Books and the Embellished Wedding bridal store Wednesday. The murals are part of an effort of the Macon League of Creative Interventionists and the Citizens for Public Art of Macon-Bibb to beautify Cotton Avenue, and to let people know businesses are open, during building repairs there. An exploding bus during filming of the sci fi flick The Fifth Wave damaged the shops and other parts of the block. Deonna Belcher said she convinced passers by to paint a bit as the day wore on, all in the pursuit of the larger goal of the art project. "Let's decorate it and let people know that Cotton Avenue is alive and kicking and that we're open for business," Belcher said.