White House Chronicle Expands to Local Storytelling in the Public Square
White House Chronicle is a public affairs news program told with a sense of humor. "From our town to your town, we explain politics, making it easy to understand."
About once a month, the White House Chronicles features a special edition, Story in the Public Square, "where storytelling meets public affairs." Co-hosted by Jim Ludes of the Pell Center at Salve Regina University in Newport, and G. Wayne Miller of The Providence Journal, the show invites storytellers to discuss and examine their works and the impact they are having on public life.
Story in the Public Square recently featured New York Times writer Dan Barry in a discussion of his upcoming book "Boys in the Bunkhouse."
White House Chronicle airs Sundays at 11:30 a.m. on Rhode Island PBS (digital 36.1) and at 7 p.m. on Learn (digital 36.2).
In 1997, Llewellyn King set out to create a television program that would combine a civilized discussion of news and public affairs with English polymath Noel Coward’s “talent to amuse.”
“With White House Chronicle, I wanted a comfy couch of a television program where viewers could sit back and learn something new, or think about something in a new way,” said King, who is also the program's executive producer and host.
King also wanted viewers to meet new people - particularly the many talented print journalists in Washington who rarely, if ever, appeared on television. Over the years, a few of them talent-scouted by White House Chronicle have gone on to become TV fixtures.
As host of the program, King ventilates the issues of the time. He opens each episode with “a few thoughts of my own.” His un-Telepromptered commentaries range from serious to hilarious - the big challenges for big engineering in the wake of the Gulf oil spill; running a small business (he ran a publishing firm for 36 years); taking his father’s advice not to become a copper miner in Zambia; and making proper tea. “Unlike politics, tea is very forgiving; just add more boiling water to the pot,” he said.
Viewers look forward to King's commentaries in much the same way viewers looked forward to beloved British broadcaster Alistair Cooke’s commentaries preceding PBS's Masterpiece Theater.
At a time when network television has a deficit of original thinking, “White House Chronicle” has a surfeit.
White House Chronicle airs nationwide on some 200 PBS and public, educational and governmental access stations; and worldwide on Voice of America Television.
On WSBE, White House Chronicle airs Sundays at 11:30 a.m. on Rhode Island PBS (digital 36.1) and at 7 p.m. on Learn (digital 36.2).
WSBE Learn transmits over the air on 36.2; Rhode Island cable: Cox 808, Verizon 478, and Full Channel 109; Massachusetts cable: Comcast 294 or 312.
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