Still connected over the years

From Steve Rabin — 10/18/2008

I am not really a WGBH alum, although I spent many days during four years at the station working as Director of Programming at EEN with a number of the producer/directors on programming for the EEN member stations.

Beyond that, as Media Program Director for NEH from 1974-1982 I was privileged to help provide funding for such WGBH series as The Scarlet Letter, produced and directed by Rick Hauser (who with Nancy are in Minneapolis), Elsa’s Labor Series, and ran the program that provided the first $1 million for Vietnam: A Television History.

There were other unique series and specials from WGBH that we were proud to help, not the least of which was Mike Ambrosino’s special Death and Dying and his post-NOVA short lived, 2 year anthropology series Odyssey.

So, again while I have no claim to WGBH credentials, I have had so many wonderful memories with so many of the WGBH staff that I feel connected.

I am now retired, after 23 years as President of the Educational Film Center, producers of a number of PBS specials and a number of telecourses (Economics, Chemistry, Music of the World, etc.) long and still in national distribution.

My more recent experiences include working on a ranch during the winter in the Chiricahua Mountains of S.E. Arizona — clearing riding trails and moving pregnant cattle to lower grazing areas.  Nothing of this has to do with Billy Crystal movies but rather with memories of Hoot Gibson, Hopalong Cassidy, Tex Ritter, et. al.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share a little space with one of the very finest broadcast facilities.