“The Young Producers”
My Day by Dr. J. Ester Davis (esterdavis2000@gmail.com)
My new year started off on an extremely negative-to-positive odyssey. In the beginning was darkness but after some faithful serious thought, there was a bright floodlight.
Megatrends are reshaping our world and how we live. Here are some ‘breadcrumbs’ to ponder.
Every minute there are 900,000 logons, 450 million tweets, 159 million emails and 15 million texts. This is all summed up as “data” captured from cell phones, computers, etc., etc., and after another few seconds that high speed stuff is inventoried, indexed and cataloged with your id onto a mainline bi partisan computer sorting out every move, source and resource. In love with this ‘data’ are the young minds we cloth and feed every day. Here is the essence of this story!
With the incoming new year, our airports, planes and weather were in disarray all across the country. I had a special guest scheduled on my tv podcast show because he would be off, earning a well needed vacation. The date had been scheduled for a while and I was excited about it. All of a sudden, everybody in aviation was called back to work. I knew this was bad, but I had to keep thinking of a solution, however bleak it was. I could not miss this opportunity due to its importance and the awaiting audiences in several countries. After about three phone calls for a studio, I landed one. Probably the first three public access producers back in the 80’s was Jane Sanders, Roy Williams and myself. Even at that time, there were several young men behind the cameras in the basement of City Hall, affectionately called Dallas Community Television (DCTV). Recently at an ‘off campus’ city council production, I saw Joseph Thomas, who was one of the early young pioneers of Dallas’ entry into the cable media world, and I wondered where he was now. Another two or three phone calls and. …. found him.
After a brief telephone call coupled with my plea for help, Joseph Thomas came to my rescue. The next few minutes was sheer superb divine intervention. The studio was available, a full crew of high school seniors were identified, notified, collected and in the process of setup. The set was equipped with decorum chairs, appropriate plants, headsets, lighting. A tall handsome young man approached me with an introduction that he would be my ‘director’. An initial verbal rundown was done with him while they positioned a team member at the front of the school to wait for my guest. Now, as unplanned, there were three guests in two separate vehicles. This change did not “rattle’ the production team. They re-situated the chairs, adjusted the mics and the ‘beat-went on’. My guests included two Arch Bishops and Dr. Sam, a chiropractor, welcoming the world into the new year with ‘peace and love’. Listening to the ‘countdown’, I felt as though we had worked with this crew for months.
Data is nothing but ‘breadcrumbs’ covering everything it touches. Our ‘young producers’ live in our neighborhoods, ride their bikes, speed in their cars and are soaking, soaring and unabashedly moving forward. They are the best and all of this comes so very natural to them. I, of course, have a lot more to say. And as usual I am out of time. But for now, my abundance “thanks” to Lancaster High School, this Board, the outstanding leadership for your vision. It truly gives me so much pleasure to chronicle this article of good news about ‘producers’ among us.
Do NOT miss! Interview w/Betty Culbreath, ICON of Significance: `1st Black Woman, Chairman of the Board, DFW Airport, the nation’s highly rated international airport.
