Planning for the holidays? Plan for your taxes first!

When the calendar page flips to November, thoughts shift to planning the holiday season – menus and guests for Thanksgiving, followed by plans for festive holiday gatherings with family and friends through December.

Not so fast! Before you baste your turkey or trim your tree, take some time to plan for the inevitable tax filing deadline of April 15th. It will be here before you know it, and there are certain steps you can take now – before year's end – to ease the pain next spring.

The Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants (RISCPA) presents its annual Tax Planning Forum 2011 on Sunday, November 20 at 2 P.M. on WSBE Rhode Island PBS. This informative discussion outlines changes to the tax code and offers tax planning strategies and advice about what to do before December 31 to make filing income taxes easier and less… taxing in April.

Tax Planning Forum 2011 will be re-broadcast in WSBE Learn on Thursday, December 8 at 9 P.M., Friday, December 9 at 4 A.M., and Saturday, December 10 at 1 A.M. and 4 P.M.

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on cable services: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon 08 / 508HD, Full Channel 08, Comcast 819HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36, Dish Network 7776. WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on cable: Cox 808, Verizon 478, Full Channel 109, Comcast 294 or 312.

Lawrence Welk Turns 25: See the Premiere Episode

A major television milestone was marked earlier this fall when The Lawrence Welk Show celebrated the beginning of 25 years of Champagne Music on public television. Viewers of WSBE Rhode Island PBS will have the opportunity to watch the rarely seen 1955 premiere episode of The Lawrence Welk Show in a special presentation on Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 6:30 P.M.

Since 1987, more than 2.5 million fans of the longest-running, weekly-syndicated music/variety series have been tuning in each week to their local PBS station to watch Lawrence Welk and their favorite “Musical Family” members sing and dance.

The Lawrence Welk Show was first broadcast in 1951 on KTLA in Los Angeles. In 1955, the ABC network picked it up for national broadcast. When ABC dropped the series in 1971 after running successfully for 16 years, Welk persevered by forming his own production company and began syndicating it directly to commercial stations individually. It stayed on the air in weekly national syndication until 1982, often reappearing each December with new Christmas specials until 1985.

In 1987, after PBS funded and aired a very successful fund-raising special, “Lawrence Welk: Television’s Music Man,” Robert L. “Bob” Allen, then the executive director of the statewide PBS affiliate OETA-The Oklahoma Network, formed a partnership with Welk Syndication and began offering the weekly series to public television stations.

At first, Allen said, some station executives were unsure. “Some thought Lawrence Welk’s accent was corny,” recalling Welk’s Russian-German-inflected speech. “But, when their station raised record pledges and dollars from the Welk special, they realized there were a wealth of loyal fans and viewers in their audience that were underserved and signed up for the weekly series.”

Welk’s mature audience, Allen said, was suited for non-commercial public television. “Commercial stations weren’t interested in the older demographic because that group is set in their purchasing preferences. They’re not likely to change even their toothpaste. But on the other hand, they’re more likely to donate money to support their interests, he said. “And once they make a pledge to public television, they fulfill it…and they’ve been fiercely loyal to The Lawrence Welk Show for a record 25 years.”

“My father was very successful with his ideas and vision,” his son Larry Welk said. “He had wonderful gut feelings for certain things and he knew what viewers wanted to hear and he made sure they played and sang that kind of music each week. He hired fabulous musicians and wonderful singers and dancers. I think that’s why the show is still on the air and still so popular with the fans.”

Encores of the weekly TV show, garnered from more than 1,000 episodes taped between 1955 and 1982, are now hosted by Welk Stars Mary Lou Metzger and Bobby Burgess and are broadcast on more than 270 public television stations.

The Lawrence Welk Show airs weekly on WSBE Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 7 P.M. and Saturdays at 6 P.M.

Wonder how much that "attic heirloom" of yours is worth?

Have you ever wondered how much that "attic heirloom" of yours might be worth? You know... that curio that's been in your family for generations? Or maybe it's a yard sale bargain that caught your eye and you just had to have.

Many of us have acquired objects that carry with them a long history. Sometimes we know what that history is, and sometimes we can only speculate. Often, an object has high sentimental value, even if we're not sure of its true dollar value.

How would you react if an appraiser told you that item really is a treasure?

Fans of public television's British and American traveling antiques shows agree that some of the best, most exciting moments are when valuable treasures are unexpectedly discovered. Rhode Island PBS invites you to experience one of those moments for yourself at our own upcoming Antiques Discovery and Appraisal Show in February. And if your item really is a treasure, you could see your story told on television.

This first event of its kind for Rhode Island PBS will be introduced and previewed on Sunday, November 27 at 8 P.M. during the station's broadcast of Antiques Roadshow. Appraisers Richard Conti of Conti Estates in Attleboro and Steven Fusco of Estates Unlimited in Cranston, and television producer Brian Scott-Smith, will describe what you can expect to see and experience at the appraisal event. Richard and Steven will also demonstrate on-the-spot appraisals on the air.

The Antiques Discovery and Appraisal Show itself will be held at Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick Airport Hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island, on Saturday, February 18, 2012, from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. It is designed to provide a special opportunity for the public to bring their objects of unknown or uncertain value to accredited appraisers for written appraisal. Those two features – a written appraisal by an accredited appraiser – distinguish the Antiques Discovery and Appraisal Show from any similar events in the region.

During the event, accredited appraiser Richard Conti and the team of accredited appraisers will mingle with the crowd, searching for hidden treasures. Television producer and show host Brian Scott-Smith will be there with the camera crew to film the discoveries as they are made. Those stories will be edited together to create a television special that will air exclusively on WSBE's two channels: Rhode Island PBS and Learn.

So, your "attic heirloom" may not only enrich you - it could make you famous, too!

We have lots of information about the event already online, with more to come as the date approaches. Visit www.ripbs.org/antiques.

In the meantime, tune in on Sunday, November 27 at 8 P.M.- you can buy your ticket early to lock-in the arrival time of your choice: 9 A.M., 11 A.M. or 2 P.M.

The Antiques Discovery and Appraisal Show is made possible in part by Estates Unlimited, Inc.

NetWorks 2011 Debuts 13 New Profiles of Exceptional RI Artists

Four years ago, a unique Rhode Island arts project launched through collaboration between Joseph Chazan, M.D. and Umberto Crenca, Artistic Director of AS220. "NetWorks" was created to document, celebrate, and foster the richly creative and diverse Rhode Island artistic community. Each year since its launch in 2008, the project has created an archive of video and photographic profiles that are enriched by museum and gallery exhibits, catalogs, and panel discussions.

This November, NetWorks 2011 debuts thirteen new video portraits of exceptional Rhode Island artists. Each portrait in the NetWorks project introduces the viewer to an artist’s work, process, and sources of inspiration, in fewer than ten minutes.

WSBE Rhode Island PBS is pleased to present the two-part NetWorks 2011 as part of its ongoing WSBE series, Rhode Island Stories. Part one of NetWorks 2011 airs on Saturday, November 12 at 7 P.M. The one-hour program profiles Andrew Moon Bain, Nilton Cardenas, Barnaby Evans, Nancy Friese, Philip Jameson, and Shawn Kenney.

Part two of NetWorks 2011 airs on Saturday, November 19 at 7 P.M., and profiles Scott Lapham, Janet Prip, Andrew Raftery, Duane Slick, Esther Solondz, Mark Taber, and Laura Travis.

For those who might like to see the NetWorks 2011 artists' work close up after seeing them on television, a complementary mixed media exhibit opens at Candita Clayton Studio, Hope Artiste Village, 999 Main Street, Unit 105, Pawtucket, RI, on Friday, November 11, and continues through Sunday, December 11. Media represented will range from large format photography and oil painting to metal and stone sculpture. Photographic portraits of the artists by Scott Lapham, himself a member of the NetWorks 2011 group, will also be presented.

The NetWorks project is produced by Joseph A. Chazan, M.D.