About FocusWest

About FocusWest

FocusWest is committed to covering significant public affairs issues in the intermountain west, and to bringing together local and regional perspectives on those issues. The project aims to deepen and enhance understanding of the issues it covers by melding the talents and resources of Idaho Public Television, KNPB Channel 5 - Reno, and Wyoming Public Television. Each featured production combines the unique strengths of television, print, and new digital media to encourage greater understanding of, and involvement in, regional civic affairs.

Our first production, WESTERN DIVIDE, aired December 13, 2001. This was followed by programs which addressed other western issues such as the control of water (DRAINING THE WEST?), various perspectives on the impact of Latino population growth in our region (LOS AMERICANOS), and even rural broadband initiatives. what other topics you’d recommend we take on.

The rationale behind our request for Ford Foundation funding for this effort was that new digital media, including Digital Television (DTV), would enable new and more effective ways to address public affairs information needs, particularly in the rural west. Typically there are fewer choices for rural citizens to find public affairs information -- fewer newspapers, less local broadcast news, few regional magazines, and less convenient ties to the Internet. Public television’s DTV services may be the digital media that reaches even the most rural residents, and most of the inter-mountain west. How should we, as local public television public affairs producers use DTV to best serve these viewers?

The FocusWest project is our attempt to experiment with a variety of ways that television, the web, and DVD can work together to offer a richer, more versatile, user-directed public affairs resource. For each topic we cover we hope to try out different capabilities of the emerging digital technologies that triangulate and approximate the future "DTV experience." View an overview of the project. We’d love to from you on what seems to work well for you, or what you wish we would have done instead.

For information on how to view the streaming media clips on FocusWest, visit our streaming media Q & A page.

For Reno Public Television, KNPB-TV:
Vice President for Production: Jack Kelly
Executive Producer: Rosemary McCarthy, Jack Kelly
Producer: Erin Meehan Breen
Segment Producer/Writer: Erin Meehan Breen
Production Assistant: Ally Hernon-Ortega
Continuity Producer/Editor: Bonnie Maclean
Videographers: Dave Santina, Steve Arlitz
Videographer/Editor: Ethan Salter
Web Master/On-line Producer: Chris Orr
Web/DVD Support: Filipe Santos
DVD Producer: Dave Santina
Graphics: Bonnie Maclean, Chris Orr
Program Open: Bonnie Maclean
Studio Camera Operators: Jack Kelly

For Wyoming Public Television:
Executive Producer: Ruby Calvert
Producer/Writer: Katharine Collins
Photographer/Editor: Kyle Nicholoff, David Warrington
Videographer: William Campbell
Segment Videographer: David Warrington
Additional Videography: Kyle Nicholoff, Katharine Collins
Publicity: RoJean Thayer

For Idaho Public Television:
Executive Producer: Bruce Reichert
Producers: John Crancer, Jim Peck, Joan Cartan-Hansen, Marcia Franklin, Bruce Reichert
Coordinating Producer: Marcia Franklin
Associate Producer/Translation: Nita Moore
Segment Producers: Joan Cartan-Hansen, Marcia Franklin
Line Producers: Joan Cartan-Hansen, Bruce Reichert
Production Manager: Jeff Tucker
Floor Director: Jim Peck
Hosts: Jim Peck, Joan Cartan-Hansen, Marcia Franklin
Director/Program Editor: Al Hagenlock
Audio: Dan Ward, Craig Koster
Videographer/Editor: Pat Metzler, Jay Krajic
Videographer: Ricardo Ochoa
Segment Videographers: Jay Krajic
Camera Operators: Pat Metzler, Ricardo Ochoa, Jeff Tucker, Alan Austin, Chuck Cathcart, Tom Hadzor
Web design and development; Water law research: Rick Penticoff
Web/DVD support: Kris Freeland, Oriana Obiri, Jenn Moberly-Westra
Streaming video: Lee Henkel
IT Support: Andy Seal
Education Specialist: Kris Freeland
Publicity: Anne Peterson, Sandy Streiff, Mike Lafferty
Engineers: Michael Studor, Craig Koster, Ted Poe
Teleprompter: Marcia Franklin, Joan Cartan-Hansen
Graphics: Stephanie Dickey, Morgan Dethman
Art Direction: Sandy Streiff
Production Assistants: Ronnie Joiner, Ben Kline, Chris Matlock, Peter Morrill, Ron Pisaneschi, Stephanie Dickey, Steve Silver
Set Design: Sandy Streiff, Morgan Dethman
Makeup: Cori Randolph

Focus West Project Director: Gens Johnson

Special Thanks:

Frank Roberts, GIS Manager, Coeur d’Alene Tribe
GIS Consultant

Greg Lakes, Editor
Daniel Kemmis, Director
Headwaternews.org, a project of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West

Lily Wai, Project Director
Bruce Godfrey, GIS Specialist
Inside Idaho, University of Idaho Library

Dr. Georgia Johnson, University of Idaho
Literature Consultant

Foundation for Water and Energy Education
"Coyote Creates Spokane Falls" video

Enrique Martinez, Producer/host of "Panorama" on KESQ-TV in Palm Desert, CA.
Program co-host for LOS AMERICANOS

Andrade's Mexican Restaurant, Boise

Carpenter's Floral, Boise

Laurie Birleffi-Rosen

Parkridge Elementary, Nampa

The Antler Motel, Jackson

The Red Oak Grille, Jackson

Teton County School District No. 1, Jackson

Idaho State Board of Education, KNPB-TV/Reno Public Television, KCWC-TV/Wyoming Public Television
Copyright 2002