While President George W. Bush ’64 was wrapping up his seventh annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, WPAA’s Political Director and host of The Political Arena Alexander Heffner ’08 was readying the second half of his own special report. The night’s programming, which ran from 7 to 11 p.m., featured an impressive lineup of guests from all political persuasions, including Frank Rich, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times and Karen Tumulty, the National Political Correspondent for Time. The special also featured commentary from Michael Barone, a Senior Writer for US News and World Report, and Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley, who appeared on CBS News’ coverage right before calling into the WPAA show. “You have to gain a certain amount of clout within the industry,” said Heffner, who added that his experience interviewing somewhat anonymous congressional candidates in the spring of 2006 has allowed him to gain access to better-known candidates. The programming was available live worldwide, marking only the second time in WPAA’s history that the station has been allowed to broadcast over the internet. The station’s first worldwide broadcast was Heffner’s “Election Night Special” earlier this year. Several hundred listeners tuned in from locations across the country, which is considerably more than WPAA receives on an average weeknight. “We wanted to cover an equally noteworthy event of wide civic appeal in order to expose our highest quality programming,” said Heffner, who credited the work of his producers, Henry Frankievich ’07, Charles Francis ’07, Steve Farquhar ’07, and Nat Lavin ’07 in putting the program together. “Without their assistance, I would be left in total disarray.” Heffner and the special’s producers also make up the WPAA Task Force for Online Broadcasting. The Senior Administrative Council was initially hesitant about airing the show, but members of the Task Force vowed to air a professional-caliber broadcast. “Our goal is to sound as much like NPR as possible,” said Heffner. “We’re debating within WPAA how to achieve quality over quantity for all future programming.” The show’s broadcast went as planned, as all but two of the special’s scheduled guests appeared for fifteen-minute segments. The interviewees spoke on many topics of inter-est within the national political climate, including the war in Iraq, healthcare, and the up-coming presidential election in 2008. Mr. Bush’s speech outlined points of his domestic policy agenda for the last two years of his presidency, including a desire to reform immigration and the nation’s healthcare system. This was a historic State of the Union address, as a female Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), flanked a president onstage for the first time ever. The address did not end until 10 p.m., which made it difficult for Heffner to gather all the reactions listeners might desire. WPAA was also unable to air Senator Jim Webb’s delivery of the Democratic response to Mr. Bush’s speech, as the covenants granted to the broadcasters from the Dean of Students allowed them only to broadcast until 11 p.m. Nevertheless, he feels that WPAA has a strong foundation for future online broadcasting. “If we want to go ahead with a comprehensive online plan, we have set a precedent for those hosts with a strong track record and programs with a good deal of interest. We’re taking an incremental approach to gaining the trust of the Academy.”
