WHYY Specials

Mary Bomar relays the importance of voting in a WHYY-TV feature.
	Watch Mary Bomar in "You Gotta Vote."

When the Mayor of Philadelphia wanted to explain to area residents his second term goals, he chose WHYY-TV for the first full-length interview following the election. A Conversation with Mayor John Street, hosted by Tracey Matisak, is just one of WHYY's recent news and public affairs specials that shed light on local and national issues -- just the type of experience that our audience has come to expect.

The Philadelphia Award showcased the ceremony honoring author Lorene Cary including inspirational comments from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charles Fuller. Taking Charge, a collaboration with The Philadelphia Inquirer, looked at the challenges facing the region and profiled the leaders who will help Greater Philadelphia realize its full potential.

Constitutional scholars debated privacy rights and other key issues in The First Amendment in the New Millennium, recorded at the National Constitution Center. The Next Mayor: Issues Philadelphia previewed the challenges facing the incoming mayor, while Election Night coverage combined the resources of TV, FM and whyy.org for wide-ranging reports. You Gotta Vote spots featured local celebrities encouraging citizen participation.

WHYY's Tracey Matisak interviews Philadelphia Mayor John Street for a TV12 special.

Coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision included a live Delaware Tonight forum at the University of Delaware and 91FM special reports. Additional FM reports, which are archived at whyy.org, covered the local impact of the war in Iraq, the proposed move of the Barnes Foundation and the adventures of racehorse Smarty Jones.

WHYY's Latina Salud project continued its goal of improving health care in the Latino community with 26 new television spots and plans for a community health fair tied to the PBS series American Family.

WHYY-FM produced a one-hour special, SkyTour: Mars Close Up, about the Red Planet as it made its nearest approach to earth in 60,000 years. It looked at Mars in science, popular culture, imagination and the night sky. WHYY-FM created a special weekly series, Olympics on WHYY, about this region's athletes, coaches and scholars, which was broadcast on 91FM's Morning Edition and All Things Considered and distributed nationally through the Public Radio Exchange service.

In addition, WHYY's Independence Foundation Civic Space hosted a dozen forums, bringing together more than 1,400 community members at WHYY and partner sites to explore topics from the war in Iraq to breast cancer from religious issues to bullying in schools. Some forums were taped for WHYY's digital channel 12.1, as well as for TV12, 91FM and public radio stations nationwide.

The impact of globalization was an ongoing theme for Civic Space events, including a multi-part forum on immigration issues raised in the PBS series The New Americans, a Preview Forum session on economic issues and By the People discussions on trade and immigration, as well as the promise and problems of globalization.

Our goal remains to go beyond the headlines to offer the best in-depth news and information anywhere through TV, radio, the Web and community programs.