Each month, Arkansas PBS produces a short feature that airs between programs and is shared online, with staff talking about programming and events that will be coming up. Jamie Walters, a marketing and communications specialist with our education department, joined me to preview what would be happening in April.
As one of the events is the annual “Quiz Bowl” competition among high school teams from around the state, I took that as an opportunity to wear a Quiz Bowl tee shirt rather than my normal work clothes. It will be broadcast live on Saturday, April 26, and is always a blast to help produce. It’s an all-day tournament testing kids’ knowledge of a wide range of categories. It can be hectic having so many young people come through our building, where we must get teams in and out of the main studio quickly between rounds, but is always fun.
The competition is presented by the Arkansas Governor’s Quiz Bowl Association, which operates under the Arkansas Activities Association. This year is special because it’s the 40th anniversary for the event, which started in 1985 while Gov. Bill Clinton was in office. He even sat in the audience one year.
Another anniversary we discussed was 20 years of Arkansas IDEAS. A function of our education department, it provides free, online professional development for educators. More than 4.5 million professional development credit hours have been awarded over the last two decades to teachers, school support staff and administrators.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
