In 2007, while I was interviewing with the WHRO board as a candidate to be the station’s next president and CEO, my wife, Missy, and I traveled back and forth from Harrisonburg several times. During those four-hour drives, we made a habit of listening to the podcast of HearSay with Cathy Lewis during those trips. This was my first experience with the great local programming produced by WHRO. I was so excited about being able to work with such amazing people that could put out such an amazing program every day.
At that point, HearSay had been on the air for 11 years and today has had an amazing 25 years on the air. As you likely know by now, Cathy has decided to step down from the show. We will all miss her voice at noon, but wish her well and thank her for her amazing contributions to WHRO and the entire Hampton Roads community. Thank you, my friend.
As you know, the pandemic affected all of our operations, and our education team quickly adapted to continue offering educational resources for teachers and parents. One of those adaptations resulted in the Facebook series Martha Reads. Our manager of early childhood learning, Martha Razor, started the program as a way to reach kids since she was no longer able to do school visits with the WHRO Literacy Van. She just recently finished one year of the program and has filmed nearly 50 episodes! If you haven’t seen it yet, visit the WHRO Public Media Facebook page on Fridays at 10 a.m. to watch it. This is just one example of how the staff has adjusted during the pandemic and gone above and beyond to continue bringing critical services to the community. I’m so proud of all the work they’ve done!
And while taking on new projects like Martha Reads, brought about by the pandemic, our education team has also completed development of a full-credit, high school elective course that examines the role African Americans have played in American history. In 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam directed the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to collaborate with Virtual Virginia, WHRO, and committees of history teachers, historians and professors to develop the new course. Kudos to the education team for a job well done! We are excited to make this course available across the commonwealth.
Our production team is also working on an exciting new project. WHRO is one of five stations across the country selected to work with NOVA on a series of videos that highlight stories at the intersection of science and society. Producers are currently working on the creation of these videos. Watch for this exciting content later this year!
Speaking of creating exciting content, WHRO recently learned that our projects won four American Advertising Awards— formerly the ADDYs—including one gold award and three silver awards. You can read more about these awards at whro.org/awards Congratulations to everyone who worked on these projects!
As always, I want to thank you for your continued support. It is your faithfulness and generosity that makes our work possible. Thank you for helping keep public media strong in Eastern Virginia!
Bert Schmidt President & Chief Executive Officer