Showing posts with label JIM HARPER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JIM HARPER. Show all posts

8.22.2014

A CRAFTSMAN'S LEGACY DETROIT PBS SERIES BEGINS OCT 4


Yesterday I saw a post on my friend Jim Harper's Facebook page about a new PBS TV series beginning this Fall nationally. The show is called "A Craftsman's Legacy".  Jim has a custom made motorcycle crafted by Eric Gorges and it is incredible....We love Eric's work and now we get to travel with him across the US looking at the best craftspeople!


Each 30-minute episode will follow Eric Gorges on a quest to discover true craftsmen in today’s world. Traveling across America, Eric will be interviewing men and women that understand the importance of craftsmanship. Every episode will explain the history of an old-world craft and the importance in the building of America.

Did a bit of phone chat with the man himself Eric yesterday...We have a lot of art taste in common....Eric told me a bit about meeting some of the craftsmen and women his has profiled on his show. Eric says their skills are fantastic and now we can't wait until October to see the 13 Episodes....  Watch a clip of the new show below!
 
http://vimeo.com/102895649

To quote JIM HARPER: Please mark it down on your calendars, Friends. Saturday mornings beginning October 4th at 11:30am on WTVS Detroit Public Television. Check this page for air dates and times in your area. This is gonna be so great!.

5.27.2014

JIM HARPER'S BOOK REVIEW: DETROIT: AN AMERICAN AUTOPSY BY CHARLIE LEDUFF

 

If you were born here, and remember when Detroit was alive. If you just moved here and are curious how it got this way.If you're from somewhere else and want to understand..I highly recommend Charlie LeDuff's "Detroit an American autopsy".

The hipsters who think "everything's great! The city's comin' back!", won't like it, but if they read it, I think they'll learn a lot. Best book I've read in a long time.

The ending gave me chills and I wept. It will stay with you for days after you finish. If you can't afford to buy it, borrow it. But I strongly recommend it. Charlie is a very talented writer and this book does NOT exploit Detroit's misery. It explains it and puts a human face on it. And like it or not, it's truth. JIM HARPER


CLICK THE BOOK

Back in his broken hometown, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff searches the ruins of Detroit for clues to his family’s troubled past. Having led us on the way up, Detroit now seems to be leading us on the way down. Once the richest city in America, Detroit is now the nation’s poorest.

Once the vanguard of America’s machine age—mass-production, blue-collar jobs, and automobiles—Detroit is now America’s capital for unemployment, illiteracy, dropouts, and foreclosures. With the steel-eyed reportage that has become his trademark, and the righteous indignation only a native son possesses, LeDuff sets out to uncover what destroyed his city. READ MORE

3.23.2014

JIM HARPER REMEMBERS WKNR KEENER 13 NEWS DIRECTOR PHILIP NYE


Jim Harper Remembers Legendary News Director Philip Nye...

Philip Nye (not the science-guy, the newsman) passed away this week. If you grew up listening to Keener 13 you probably heard him doing the news, back when radio stations actually had a full news dept.

If you grew up in Detroit in the 60's and 70's you probably watched Ch 7 Action News, (Bonds, Kelly, Ackerman, Turner) which he oversaw as News Director. His talent knew no bounds as he went on to even greater things in broadcasting and he positively impacted the way we viewed our TV news in America. He brought a level of class and respect to the industry.



I remember as a young man, taking the bus from Westland to Dearborn with my childhood friend, Jim Kerr to visit Keener 13 and investigate the rumors that Paul McCartney was dead. We were 13 and 14 yrs old...just a couple of teenagers terrified about a Beatle-rumour. We asked the receptionist if we could talk to someone about this terrible news and she asked us to wait. 5 Minutes later and dashing man appeared and said in a velvet voice "Can I help you boys?" It was Phil Nye, Keener's News Director.



He sat down in the lobby and discussed the "Paul is dead-story" with us and all it's mysterious music-clues us for about 15 minutes. At the particular time the story had not been denied or confirmed by anyone, including The Beatles. He asked us to continue investigating and report back to him if we discovered anything new. Nine years later I would sit in that same lobby (on the same couch) as the Program Director and Morning Host of 100.3 WNIC.


I spent 22 years at that station and a week wouldn't go by without me thinking back about how big a gesture Phil Nye afforded us. The news of Mr. Nye's passing has me thinking about how much that gesture made me want to become a part of the great fellowship of radio broadcasters. 


And in my "mature years" I sit in awe of how one life can impact another, and exponentially affect countless others. Rest in Peace, Phil Nye. And thank you for a very long and meaningful life lesson. Deepest sympathies to your family and friends. Jim Kerr went on to become one of the most successful morning radio hosts in America and just celebrated 40 years as New York's most beloved morning guy. So many great talents both on and off-air worked in the building Phil Nye called home.


Philip Nye (HEAR PHILIP NYE HERE) was the news director at the legendary WKNR AM 1310 Contact News in Dearborn/Detroit in the mid-1960′s working with names like Bill Bonds and Eric Smith. Phil made it to several of the Detroit Radio Reunions.


Nye passed away peacefully on March 20, 2014 at the age of 87. Born in Newark, Ohio on March 1, 1927, he was a proud graduate of Ohio State University where he studied theater and journalism. He had a long and distinguished career that included both radio and television. Mr. Nye worked actively as a broadcast journalist until the age of 86.

Visitation for Philip Nye will take place Monday, March 24 from 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at McCabe Funeral Home in Farmington Hills. The memorial service will start at 1:00 p.m. on Monday
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