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Mary Thorpe wrote:

> coincidentally (?) our local PBS station last night aired a
> full hour program sponsored by the CSA during a time slot usually
> occupied by the Newsmaker Luncheon.  It was interesting and well
> engineered,

I produced the show that you're talking about (it was on your local NPR
station, by the way, not your local PBS station).  I am pleased that you
found it interesting and well engineered.  Most of the people whose voices
you heard on the show are participants on this list.  That's where I found
them.  I see you live in or near Ithaca (you have a Cornell email address).
That's one of the cities where the show aired yesterday.  I told leaders of
Celiac support groups in the communities where the show was airing that it
would be on, but I guess with Christmas coming, they didn't have time to
pass the word along.

My feeling was that to drive home a message that Celiac causes a kind of
pain that people are reluctant to talk about, I needed to focus on -- as you
put it -- "bathroom issues."  My desire was to humanize the discussion
of Celiac Disease because too often it is spoken about in an abstract manner
in the media.  To my mind, that leaves most people thinking that CD is
something that "other people" have.

There have a been a number of people who have listened to this show before
it aired (people who knew nothing about CD beforehand) and said to me, "I
think I have a friend who has this" or "I think my mother-in-law has this."
That is an experience I want to see replicated all around the country as
people listen to this program.

The reason you found no mention of the my show on the NPR website is because
the show was not produced by NPR.  Public Radio operates differently from
commercial television.  Unlike on TV, where if something's on CBS, all the
CBS stations carry it, on Public Radio individual program directors make
individual decisions about what programs get on the air.  One reason why you
haven't heard about the show on this list is because it isn't airing
everywhere at the same time.  It's airing in some cities and not in others
and only a few stations have told me when it's going to air.

I know for instance that, in addition to the town where you live, the show
currently scheduled to air in New York City, Washington, DC, Sacramento,
Cleveland, Albuquerque, Richmond, VA, Richmond, KY, Maryville, MO,
Gainesville, FL, Asheville, NC, Monterey, CA, Santa Cruz, CA and on the
Mississippi Public Broadcasting Network.  I expect that many more stations
will air it too, but they haven't decided yet.

It will be on in Washington, DC on Dec. 27th at 8:00 PM, in Sacramento on
Monday, Jan. 3rd, 2005 at 2pm, in Gainesville on Tuesday, April 5th 2005 at
noon, in Cleveland some time in January, in Richmond, VA in Feb or March
2005, and in New York City in early '05.  It was on in Santa Cruz and
Monterey last Wednesday night.

Other stations have not yet told me when they will air it.  But many program
directors around the country have decided to and I am very pleased by that
because I believe it has the potential to open the eyes of thousands of
people -- both doctors and people who are suffering because they are
undiagnosed.

Richard Paul
rlpaulproductions, LLC

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