According to the Marion Chronicle Tribune, WIBC, Network Indiana, and WISH-TV will be coordinating “Ask the Governor: A Conversation with Mitch Daniels.” The title is goofy — reminiscent of a Barbara Walters special or something, but the idea is good.
It will take place tomorrow night (Wednesday 12/28/05 at 8:00 p.m.) Here is the setup:
Radio station WIBC 1070-AM and television station WISH-TV, both from Indianapolis, are coordinating the program. There will be two studio audiences in Indianapolis and one studio audience each in South Bend, Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Terre Haute. Between 7 and 8 p.m., Daniels will answer questions from those sites. At 8 p.m., Daniels will answer more questions on a radio-only hookup through WIBC and its Network Indiana affiliates. Questions will be submitted ahead of time, but Daniels won’t see them in advance, organizers said. They said they want to make sure Daniels gets a “broad range of topics raised, rather than 14 consecutive inquiries about daylight-saving time.”
(The Governor has had something like 14 different positions on Daylight Saving Time, so 14 consecutive questions might be in order. But, I’m a wee bit biased on the topic.)
I’m not sure why this report took the form of an editorial, but in any event, I’m glad they’re putting the word out.
I was going to be helpful and post a link to a list of state-wide Network Indiana affiliates, but, try as I might, I could not find a list with that particular information. Here is a list of Network Indiana’s sports talk affiliates. I suspect the overlap between that list and the stations that will carry Conversations with Mitch is substantial, but I can’t guarantee it. The broadcast is also available online at WIBC.
The method of participating directly seems unnecessarily obscure. In Lafayette, I found this article from December 21, 2005 telling what to do if you want to participate.
If you’d like to participate in the live studio audience at WLFI-TV, send your contact information including name, address and daytime telephone number to cmorisse@wlfi.com. Be sure to include the question you would like to ask the governor.
If there is any information on participation at the WIBC website, it is buried deep. The programming schedule has the event listed as Today in the News with Steve Simpson. Simpson’s web page is so out of date, it discusses the fact that counties will have to submit petitions to the USDOT for consideration of a time zone change. That dates it at about August.
Also, as of 11:22 EST, the WISH-TV submission page tells you to “enter the information below” for a chance to be selected to ask a question, but there is no form below.
WSBT in South Bend actually has a form for submitting questions.
According to the Terre Haute Trib Star the deadline to submit questions via WTHI-TV in Terre Haute was yesterday, December 26, 2005.
With the amount of pre-screening going on and relative obscurity on the issue of how to participate, permit me to be skeptical of how much of a true “town forum” this will actually be.
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