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Prairie Pulse with Bill Thomas, Tom Isern, Sue Balcom, Matt Olien

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Today's show features an excerpt from the Prairie Pulse television show. Host and Prairie Public's General Manager John Harris has an engaging conversation with our esteemed radio director, Bill Thomas, celebrating his retirement after 24 years of dedicated service at Prairie Public. Additionally, Tom Isern presents his insightful Plains Folk essay titled "A Republic of Prairie Dogs." Sue Balcom joins us to delve deeper into the art of recipe techniques, building on last week's Main Street Eats theme. Completing our lineup, Matt Olien reflects on who he came to review movies on Main Street and offers his perspective on Alexander Payne's film "The Holdovers" in an insightful movie review.

PRAIRIE PULSE - Bill Thomas (Transcript)

John Harris
Bill, thanks for joining us today.

Bill Thomas
Sure, it wasn't hard to get here.

John Harris
As you just came downstairs here to join us in the studio, we want to talk about your upcoming retirement. But before we do that, tell the folks a little about your background.

Bill Thomas
Well, I grew up in Southern Illinois on the Mississippi River right near where Lewis and Clark took off from, right by the mouth of the Missouri in a town on the river there. And I got involved in radio fairly early in college and ended up kind of following it around like a lot of media people do. I was in St. Louis, I was in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, I was in Washington, DC, I was in Los Angeles, California, I was in Lincoln, Nebraska, and then I came here and this is where I stuck the most. It's been almost 25 years that I've been here. And I learned a lot around in different places. I did a few different things and I was able to use them here.

John Harris
Well, with that said, and obviously we're sorry to see you retire, but as you're stepping down, what do you think, what do you reflect on, on your tenure here?

Bill Thomas
Well, I reflect on, it's different levels. I mean, there's the whole technical level and all the changes that have happened and how we do things. There's also the impact level, because that's in public broadcasting, that's what we're in it for.

We're in it for, we want to have an effect, have an impact. And sometimes it's a matter of getting people some vital information about things going on in their state or their community that they need to know about. Sometimes it's a matter of providing access to some new cultural things, some music or literature or poetry or something that is a really significant addition to people's lives.

And so those are the things, I really appreciate the times that I've gotten affirmation that we have had an impact on people, which just happens at the oddest times as you go through your life, that somebody will tell you about the effect that something that Prairie Public has done has had for them.

John Harris
Yeah, well, you've worked with a number of organizations and, but can you talk some about what a statewide radio network like this one is and the branding of that and the challenge of serving an entire state with news and music programming?

Bill Thomas
Sure, right, there's a whole kind of a calculus to it of the fact that people tend to relate very strongly to the communities that they live in, so their town or county or whatever city that they live in. And the state level is kind of, can be a little abstract for people, but so much that's important to people happens on a state level. And so I think that the idea, the fact that we are able to provide a network that actually can be heard, so as we're talking here, there's things going on in the state capital that Dave Thompson, our very respected, very experienced news director and reporter on state government is covering.

And the fact that that reporting can get out to every corner of the state, all up and down around North Dakota is important. And it's an important service that has become only more important over the years as various factors have led to the shrinkage of other news media. The reporting core in Bismarck that's reporting on state government issues has really shrunk.

And Dave has been there providing that information and we know that it's something that people tell us they appreciate getting it. But it's not just state government reporting, it's things about how people are working. We just had a great report on about rural school boards.

We're working on one right now about childcare and how communities are struggling to provide childcare options for them. Those are issues that are important. We have, they're national issues, but we have a particular way that they impact us here, that they happen here.

And being able to talk about that, I think that really is something that is that public service mission that public broadcasting is about.

John Harris
Yeah, so you said almost 25 years here as you come up to retirement, what were some of your biggest challenges that you faced over those years?

Bill Thomas
Well, we just talked about being statewide. That is a challenge for the reasons that I was just discussing, that you have all these different communities that you want to do things that will be of good value, good service to them across the state. So figuring out what are those things?

What are the things you don't want to do something that is just for one community, but maybe there's a story in one community that other people will be interested or can learn from. So it's always trying to figure that out. So that's part of it.

There's certainly a technical challenge. You know, there's a practical challenge in covering such a wide area. There's a lot of work to be done to just keep that coverage going, you know, and there's the resource issue.

North Dakota is not a high population state. It's not a state with a bunch of big wealthy foundations like some places have where there's larger cities or something like that. And so for a public service effort like we are, it's constantly a challenge.

There's so much more that we know we could do if we had more resources, and it's always trying to pull those together. And then it takes, well, you know, it takes so much to keep it going, like we were saying, with the big physical infrastructure base that we have. Absolutely.

John Harris
But just talk about public radio. Now, you know, as I said, you've worked at a number of stations and seen different variety, but what have been some of the changes that have occurred over the years? I know technology's some.

Bill Thomas
Yeah, well, I think, for instance, the ability to interview people at a distance has really increased. It's really gotten better. It used to be you wanted to get the people into the studio just because the sound quality issues, that you wanted people to be able to understand them when they talked.

And if you did an interview with somebody who was at a distance, the intelligibility of it would go down. Well, that has really shifted. It's still nice to get people in the studio.

I'm glad to be here now, but that has made such a difference that we're able to talk to people with pretty decent sound quality, even for some of our shows, even people hundreds, thousands of miles away. So that technological change has made a difference in who we can bring in to participate. And then, of course, everybody's aware, well, everybody in the media anyway is aware, and I think most of the world is aware that the growth of the internet and the ability to publish digitally has really changed the equation a lot.

And that's an advantage. It's a way to reach more people. It's a way to provide different kinds of content, maybe, that you couldn't do before.

But it's also a landscape that's just in constant change. And trying to figure out what can we do there within our resources that will do that extra thing that we couldn't do before, it comes up. I mean, there are things happening like that, but it's just a scramble to keep up with it.

John Harris
Yeah, so why is radio, and I guess when I ask this question, sort of that broadcast radio over the air, still such a valuable service, do you think?

Bill Thomas
Well, because it's a relatively simple and straightforward way of reaching people. And it's interesting, when you talk about radio over the air, there's a lot of radio over the air that people are actually not getting over the air anymore, but they still call it radio. They still say, I listen to the radio when I talk to people.

They say, I listen to the radio, and then I dig a little deeper. Well, they're listening on their phone, or they're listening on their laptop, or they're listening on their smart speaker. So radio, the idea of an audio stream, and I think the connection, the personal connection, the storytelling connection, the evocative nature of audio continues to be something that's strong.

And I think there is a thing of what we call the stream now, whether it's over the air or through your phone, but the ongoing service that we provide, there's a curation effect. There can be a staggering number of choices of things to pick on the internet. And one of the things that we do, one of the services we do for people, is we go through and we try to figure out things that we think will be interesting, will be important, will be amusing, and provide those.

So we kind of do some of the selection that people appreciate that.

John Harris
Talk a little bit about, podcasting seems to be a phrase you hear a lot nowadays. Talk about what Prairie Public is doing in podcasting, especially in, I guess, the Main Street Show.

Bill Thomas
Well, we've tried to get into podcasting fairly early on, and did somewhat. But a lot of that was just taking things that are on the air and publishing them as podcasts. And that works with some things.

It works with some things that only works partially well. We are looking at things that are really, and working on a project right now as we do this interview, that originate as a podcast. So within the workings of the Main Street Show, we're working on coming up with things that are what you'd call podcast first.

And there are things that we do like Dakota Datebook, three-minute feature about things happening around North Dakota through history and currently. And that works great as a podcast, just as it is. But we're looking at the way that a podcast can allow us to do a deeper dive than we are able to do, and then be able to provide it in a way that will have more potential to connect with the people who are very interested in it.

There was kind of a huge surge in podcasting, and it kind of ebbed back a little bit. But it is there and continues to be an incredibly strong way to meet people. That's how people are getting information.

That's how people are getting culture, many people. And so we've gotta be there doing it. So we're trying a few different things.

John Harris
So what are the biggest challenges that do you think that your successor will face?

Bill Thomas
Well, certainly surfing the wild waves of the digital transition is something that is gonna be for anybody working in this field. And coming in to an organization that I think a challenge will be that I've been here a long time. It's always tough to come in after somebody's been around for a long time, but I hope we get somebody who will be able to come at that in a logical way and work on it.

I think resources, where we can find support and partnerships, things that we can do. Certainly we're looking to see if there's a way we can build more events and in-person things as well as the digital distribution and the broadcast over the air distribution. So there's a lot to do, actually.

John Harris
Well, you keep saying digital. So what is digital radio?

Bill Thomas
Well, so there's straight ahead digital streaming. It's the same thing if you're an old person that you're used to get on that radio in the kitchen or in the bedroom or the clock radio, which under a certain age, people just don't have those anymore. But so that comes out over the air and it's a continual stream.

And then that's also available digitally. So you can go on the Prairie Public app or you can go through one of many radio apps and pick up our various streams because we have more than one that we offer with different programming. Then there is the on-demand aspect of where somebody goes, oh, I heard somebody told me Dave Thompson did an interview with this one legislator about this bill that came up.

And you can go to our website and listen to that or read it, actually more likely read it on demand. And that's digital radio, because it's all part of this thing that we just, radio is kind of a generic overall term for it. And there's the things that you can subscribe to to get.

I've talked to some people who tell me, oh yeah, I listen to public radio when they hear where I work. And then they proceed to tell me what they do. None of it's on a radio.

It's all through the internet. And it just increases the ways that you can connect with us.

John Harris
Yeah, Bill, over the years, of course, I know you've had a chance to meet with members of the public, whether they're public radio members or just listeners and users of the service. What kind of views do you get? What kind of relationship do you have with those people out there?

Bill Thomas
Well, of course, the nice part is there's a lot of people who really, really appreciate what we do and they wanna tell us about it. Now, it's interesting, though, you often hear more from the people who have something critical to say. And they, I appreciate that they take the trouble to tell us when there's something that they don't like, because they could just forget about them.

But they, I think they understand that we are open to criticism and we try to learn from it. And sometimes we go like, oh yeah, they're right. We need to change that.

And so it really varies. But I mean, the most frequent thing is there are people who just really appreciate having this service. And occasionally we get people who are moving to the area and just tell us how glad they are it's here.

John Harris
Yeah, well, Bill, I said almost 25 years you've been here, you've helped build not a statewide network, but a region wide network. We're more than just North Dakota. What are you most proud of over the years as you retire when you look back?

Bill Thomas
Well, you know, it'd be great if there was some like really cool individual show that I did, that I participated in. I mean, the thing is I'm the director of radio. So it's my job to facilitate everybody else.

And what I'm proudest of is that over the years, we've actually been able to build a better service. And we gauge that by looking at the people who've become members. We gauge that by looking at the figures on the people who use the service that has grown over the years.

But I also think of recently I was flying back from a meeting and I happened to sit next to somebody and you just started talking and she said, oh yeah, I farm South of Jamestown. She said, my kids do most of the farming now, I just missed harvest. And when she heard I worked for public radio, she said, oh, I'm a sustaining member, which was great.

And then the plane took off, we couldn't talk so much when it landed again. She said, I've been thinking while the plane was flying, you made such a difference to me. You were my window to the world.

I don't know if I would have stayed here without Prairie Public. So that's, I can be proud of that.

John Harris
You should be proud of that. And Bill, we're gonna wish you the best in your retirement, but I know you're not going too far. You're gonna stick around the area.

Well, we are out of time, but if people want more information, where would you ask them to go?

Bill Thomas
PrairiePublic.org, that's the place to look. It's all there.

John Harris
Well, Bill, best of luck on your retirement and we look forward to having you back someday.

Bill Thomas
Okay.