Join Dennis McCuistion in the fourth of a six-part retrospective series – 20 Years of McCuistion: Media and the Internet.

When we joined the ranks of the media in 1990, the worldwide web had just been invented. In fact, very few people even had access to email. Today? Blackberries and iPhones, Facebook, Twitter, and Google are all household names and media itself has changed as a result.

Now, many of us are getting our news online and foregoing paper copies altogether. Former news people are blogging and while many of us question the new style, we read the blogs and blog ourselves. This program explores how the Internet has changed our way of getting news, what news and the press really mean and its impact on democracy and public opinion.

In the last 20 years we have interviewed some of the most prestigious names in journalism including: Bill Moyers, Sam Donaldson, Bob Schieffer, Jim Lehrer, John Solomon, and joining in from a recent program, which featured Manny Mendoza and he and Mark Birnbaum’s doc-film, Stop the Presses, are Ben Bradlee, Anders Gylenhall, and Charles Ealey.

From the business world we’ve interviewed: the Father of the Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf, and Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web. We’ve gotten a perspective on news today from Steve Forbes and Mary Mapes, author of Truth and Duty, a book about President George W.  Bush’ military incident that led to CBS’s firing her and eventually Dan Rather. Jeff Crilley, an award winning Fox News reporter, ends the media segment, commenting on its changing landscape and the dangers and opportunities this presents.

This retrospective episode entertains and informs as it gives us a very interesting snapshot of the new world of media and communication, a world that through its ever changing evolution leaves many of us struggling to keep up.

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer

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1818 – 02.28.10

Motivation is often defined as that which gives purpose; action toward a desired goal. Sharing their stories on motivation on this 20^th anniversary segment are several of the leading motivational speakers in the country.

We hear from motivational speakers:

• The late, Rosita Perez, CPAE
• Ed Foreman, CPAE, Founder of the Successful Life Program
• Vinnie Roazzi, successful businessman and the author of The Spirituality of Success
• Margo Chisholm, mountaineer and author of To The Summit

We also hear from corporate governance and leadership experts:

• Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte and Touche, LLP
• Bill George, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and former Medtronic CEO
• Todd Bluedorn, CEO of Lennox International

… and many, many more.

Motivation

The late, Rosita Perez has the audience chuckling in the segment on The Healing Power of Humor as she describes her cold remedies when she is under the weather.

Ed Foremen joined us in 1994 and again in the studio the evening of the program’s taping. He talks about a motorcycle trip- and driving back to Texas from Louisiana. To test the bike he pushed the speed and flew down the road. All was well until he saw the flashing lights behind him. He had one thought (only briefly) of gunning the motor and crossing the Texas border. Of course he didn’t and when he stopped, the State Trooper asked for his license and said he had been clocked at 113 mph. Looking the license the trooper did a double take- “You’re 75 years old? Maybe you should act your age and you’d be a lot safer driving your age!”

Vinnie Roazzi and Margo Chisholm joined us in 1999, along with the late Art Berg, CPAE. The each spoke about their separate life challenges.  Art Berg shared his story of the car accident that left him a quadriplegic and how life still goes on after the worst happens.

The notables are joined by Bob Buford, author of Halftime and Jim Sirbasku, of Profiles International, who assesses Dennis McCuistion’s  leadership style- on camera, much to Dennis’s and the audience’s amusement. The motivation segment concludes with the late Ray Pellitier, CPAE, talking about coaching champions, as well as this author, Niki McCuistion, a coach and consultant, on the critical role coaching plays in helping individuals reach their goals.

Leadership and Governance

From motivation the program goes on to discuss leadership and governance. Dennis McCuistion talks about Jeff Skilling of Enron and how values and ethics are critical to successful leadership. Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte and Touche, LLP and Todd Bluedorn, CEO of Lennox International, Inc. both comment on governance and ethics in corporate America, and how critical a role values play in the success of a company.

And to end the retrospective on motivation and leadership, Bill George, former Chairman and CEO of Medtronics and  a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard,  joins us from another segment to emphasize values in leadership and their critical role.

This program is one you won’t want to miss as it goes from humor, to inspiration and on to practical “how to’s”.

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1817 – 02.21.10

In part two of the 6-part series, Twenty Years of McCuistion focuses on three key issues critical to our future: energy, the environment and immigration. Several notable guests join us in this retrospective look at the past as they add new information. We promise you a heated program as the participants express their views with passion, conviction and their perspectives.

ENERGY

Discussing global warming and climate change are:

Dr. William Kellogg with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who joined us in 1992. Commenting on global warming as it was then titled, he said,

“The fact is that the global average temperature has been going up in this century. I think scientists have a great responsibility to define or to express whether they’re talking about science, which they have a right to talk about with some authority, or whether they’re talking about social /socio-economic problems, which they are probably not necessarily qualified to talk about anymore than the so-called ‘man in the street.’”

Some heated remarks are made by Cato’s Dr. Pat Michaels, who comments,

“Every measure we have of global temperature shows nothing in the last decade and every climate model we had that was the so-called consensus of scientists said it was to have been warming rapidly. Aside from that there’s no scientific problem with Global Warming. If there are floods, it’s because of global warming. If there’s a drought it’s because of global warming and if there isn’t a flood or a drought, it’s because of global warming.”

Dr. Sterling Burnett, Senior Fellow with The Center for National Policy Analysis, who has been on several programs on this issue joins us in the studio. Dr. Burnett takes us from Kiyoto to Copenhagen and today’s present status as in regards climate change.

ENVIRONMENT

The segment on the environment comes in for its fair share of disagreement as well, as Dennis McCuistion moderates the 1995 “debate” between Dr. Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Ted Eubanks, then Director of the National Audobon Society.  John Leedom, of the Weather Modification Association talks about the criticality of water in a segment taped in 2007 and Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, Secretary General of OPEC, gives us his opinion on the oil issue in 2007. Matt Simmons, author of Twilight In the Desert, joins us in 2006 as does Scott Naumann, Manager of Economics and Energy for Exxon. Scott adds,

“We do a detailed estimate of the world’s global resource base. One number we can all agree on up here on the panel is how much we have produced since the beginning of time. So we produced 1 trillion barrels out of 4 or 5 trillion barrels. Nowhere near half way. Nowhere near peak.”

The oil debate goes on with Amory Lovins, PhD of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Ed Wallace, historian and anchor of a KLIF radio program chime, who joined us in 2005.

IMMIGRATION

The Immigration segment continues the heated discussions with several key experts who joined us at different times with their views on this other controversial issue. Jacob G. Hornburger, who in 2007 said,

“We’re building a Berlin wall on the southern border of the United States. This is inconsistent with a great nation, a nation that prides itself on freedom. We say it’s time to recapture the principles of open immigration and freedom in which this country was founded.”

Dr. James F. Hollifield, Director of The Tower Center of Political Studies at SMU- Dallas lays out a foundation for the immigrant waves of immigration and says,

“Immigration is part of the founding myth of this country, but we have gone through four great waves of immigration in our history. So this is a country that certainly was built on immigration and immigration has
always been controversial.”

They are debated by Republican Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, who states,

“You have to look at whether they want an America as described by Jacob, no borders, just a place on a continent inhabited by residents, not citizens, just people who are gathered together around one set of principles, almost all economic in nature. But you have to make this decision. Do you believe in borders or not? That’s the first question you have to ask yourself. Are they important? Do they matter? Before you can even begin to agree that borders are important, that they do matter, then you have to think about what that means. If you have them, are you willing to actually enforce them.”

The segment concludes with Herb Meyer, author of The Siege of Western Civilization, who joined us in 2008. Meyer talks about demographics and the diminishing birthrates that will affect immigration. He states,

“Last year in the United States 23% of all births in this country were to women who themselves had not been born in the United States. Now there is nothing wrong with this. We just need to understand this. We should be in favor of immigration. That’s how we got here.”

This is one segment that will have you on the edge of your seat. Join us as we once again talk about things that matter with people who care…

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer

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1815 – 02.14.2010

The McCuistion Program premieres in Las Vegas starting February 7th, with the series Twenty Years of McCuistion – Part One: Education and Our Children.

Time and Channel: 4:00 PM PST – Vegas PBS Rewind, Cox Cable, Channel 110

If you’re in Vegas, tune in and let your Vegas friends and colleagues know.  This is one time that “what happens in Vegas  should not stay in Vegas”.

For the last several years we’ve attended Freedom Fest- Las Vegas and interviewed key thought leaders at the PBS studio including: Steve Forbes, Steve Moore, Daniel Mitchell, David Boaz and Richard Rahn, Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve), Michelle  Muccio (Acton Institute), Mark Skousen, and numerous others.  So, it is with great pride and pleasure that we are now available on the Las Vegas PBS station.

Vegas PBS is southern Nevada’s local PBS affiliate.  The company also programs 13 additional television and cable public service media channels and produces over 700 hours a year of local programming. The mission of Vegas PBS is to use telecommunications technology and local outreach activities to support the educational, cultural, health, safety and civic needs of Southern Nevada by creating and acquiring content that informs, entertains, and improves people’s lives.

Vegas PBS also offers multimedia products and educational services directly to classrooms, homes and businesses, along with extensive local outreach efforts targeted at literacy and health.  The company serves 1 million a month with its TV and cable channels, records over 12 million classroom student viewings of downloaded digital media every year, enrolls over 7,000 people a year in “for-credit” classes, and receives over 6 million web page visits a year.

In 2010, Vegas PBS will dedicate a new 108,000 square foot Educational Technology Campus which will allow low cost production and storage of digital media on multiple distribution platforms.  The goal is to meet the public safety, public education, public health, workforce development and cultural access needs and aspirations of southern Nevada. The facility has been designed to incorporate a large number of sustainable building features, furnishings and equipment standards as established by national certification organizations making it the “greenest” television station in North America.

We welcome your questions and comments. I can be reached at (214) 750-5157.

As always thanks for watching as we talk about things that matter… with people who care.

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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer

During this six-part series entitled, 20 Years of McCuistion, Dennis McCuistion revisits past programs on specific issues from the last 20 years.  In part one of this series, Dennis McCuistion discusses Education and Our Children.  This program features:

• Terry Flowers, PhD: Headmaster at St. Philip’s School
• Tom Luce: CEO of National Math and Science Initiative

Terry Flowers is joined by students from St. Philips School who recite the St. Philip’s Creed, a creed that made national news. Tom Luce talks about what is necessary for the US to remain competitive today in education.

The McCuistion TV Program (co- founded 20 years ago by host, Dennis McCuistion, and Executive Producer/Producer, Niki Nicastro  McCuistion)  focuses on issues that impact our daily lives, economically, politically and socially.  Niki believes that “the power of television when combined with an understanding of important issues can make significant, positive differences in the lives of people who watch.” The team brings that mission to every program they have produced.

Dennis and Niki both firmly believe educating our children is a critical issue, stating:

“Educating our youth is the single biggest challenge we face in a knowledge based society with global competition. We believe it’s not about more money; it’s about better parenting, more discipline, innovation or market-based education vs. government run education, and great leadership. It’s vital we put more emphasis on the basics; phonics, and repetition, yet it’s also using the best of the new technology.”

The team believes “children are our future, and while we say that if we don’t provide the tools and the environment where our children can excel, then it won’t be them who have failed us, it will be us who have failed them.”

Guest, Charles Gasparino, is a critically acclaimed investigative journalist and CNBC TV personality and joins Dennis McCuistion for another look at Wall Street.

In part two of this program Charles Gasparino illuminates the crisis of today and what responsibilities Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson and others played that led to the global meltdown in our economy.  He cautions that the present day situation had its roots in irresponsible actions taken 30 years ago. He urges that if we want answers we need to look back at the players then and the key figures today… all built on yesterday’s greed and risk taking.

Wall Street’s romance with risk developed an ever increasing appetite for risk taking; which led to investments that were bizarre, esoteric and complicated. So complicated that former Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, Bob Reuben, a trader deluxe at Citigroup, didn’t even understand collateralized debt obligations.  Yet, here was a man who earned a $15 million salary at Citigroup.  According to Gasparino, “There was no responsibility. He should have stepped up to the plate, but instead advocated Citigroup to take on even more risk!!!”

A mild rupture to the system, that of decreasing housing prices, among others, created massive implosion. The model, did not have a possibility that home prices could go down so they were kept on balance sheets. The correction led to defaults, people could not afford the mortgage they were paying, they had variable rate loans, had bought homes with nothing down and nothing invested, homeowners in increasing numbers walked away from obligations they could not fulfill… and the list goes on.

You’ll walk away from watching this program angry at the irresponsibility of government and Wall Street  and the risks they have taken that have put all of us at risk.

Join us as we talk about things that matter with people who care…

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/ Producer

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1813 – 01.31.10

Critically acclaimed investigative journalist and CNBC TV personality, Charles Gasparino, joins Dennis McCuistion for an intense discussion and look at the last 30 years that led to today’s financial meltdown.

Charles Gasparino talks about Wall Street’s “love affair” with risk. From the 1980’s and the advent of mortgage-backed securities, to the packaging of mortgages to bonds, to the selling of those to Wall Street.  He speaks on the bond market situation in 1986 and Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, who in 1987 lowered interest rates and  bailed out Wall Street.

Charles Gasparino explains the trail of culpability, including the Government’s encouragement of home ownership which prompted mortgage brokers to give loans to people who did not have the means to pay back the money loaned and the underwriters who invested in risky debt.  He states the outcome was an abdication of collective responsibilities on the part of government, homeowners and financial institutions and for Wall Street – greed and risk taking.

Overall, Charles Gasparino says it was about avarice, arrogance, stupidity and greed… and the “selling off of the American Dream.”

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/ Producer

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1812 – 01.24.10

During this episode on Character and Leadership, former Medtronic CEO, Bill George, now Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, joins Dennis McCuistion for a frank discussion on ethics and business practices in corporate America.

Bill George is the author of several business books, which include: True North and 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis.

He tells us,“Leaders of my day, kids of the Kennedy era, were supposed to make a difference.  Yet, we destroyed big companies.” George asks, “What happened?”

Bill George believes many corporate leaders play for the short term, not the long term.  He believes that in business we are “playing up leaders who are playing for that short term… Business is too serious to be  about YOU… You can’t create anything in a quarter.”

In response to Dennis’ question: “Is corporate ethics an oxymoron?” Bill responds, “No- it isn’t. There’s a whole generation of leaders who are coming along.”

View the video for a discussion with Bill George on the qualities of effective leadership and the True North principles that guide them.

And as always, thanks for joining us as we talk about things that matter with people who care.

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer

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01.03.10 – 1811

The virtual loss in 2008 of the large investment bankers on Wall Street was shocking. The forced sale of Bear Stearns, the bankruptcy of Lehman, the controversial sale of Merrill Lynch and the changes at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have rocked the world.

This program addresses several areas that led to our system almost going down:

- Where were mistakes made and by whom? What changes are needed and by whom?
- What is the current mood of investors and how do they feel about corporate performance?
- What about Madoff, Stanford and other frauds?

Panelists Include:

• Max D. Hopper: Founder, Max D. Hopper Associates
• Robert J. Potter: President, R.J. Potter Company
• Shad Rowe: President, Investors for Director, Accountability Foundation

Dennis McCuistion starts by chronicling the above, “our nation’s source of building capital has instead become merely the capitol of greed.” He follows the statement by asking Shad Rowe why he is so angry.

Shad replies,

“I don’t look that angry. But I am angry at what’s happening in corporate America. Our system almost went down the drain. Why? The real cause in my opinion is that corporate boards are not representing owners, not thinking like owners and are allowing chief executives to make ‘heads’ I win; ‘tails’ shareholders lose, bets that have jeopardized our system.

Shareholders are directly represented by their corporate directors. It’s the law, but it’s not conventional wisdom and… it needs to become so, so we can preserve and enhance our system … Ownership is the litmus test. Private companies treated money like it was their own money. Directors are the legal representatives of shareholders!”

Bob Potter adds,

“Directors are absolutely responsive/responsible to stockholders. In the companies I serve as director, we have created incentive plans to management that are tied to stockholder performance. Some companies have allowed management to not act in the best interests of shareholders. We see excessive salaries, for instance. But they were approved by the compensation committee.”

Max Hopper says,

“Most corporate board directors really do represent shareholders. But some companies have gotten so big, that directors can not get their arms around what’s going on within the companies themselves. Too large a growth may be detrimental to their shareholders.”

All agree that more stringent rules need to be applied and that directors must act in the best interests of the shareholders. They also state that most companies are in fact doing their best to do so, yet we hear the bad news, not the good. Tune in for lively, straightforward talk about greed and Wall Street and what needs to happen to preserve capitalism.

As always we’ve been talking about things that matter with people who care. Thanks for joining us.

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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/ producer

And a special thank you to the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance, University of Texas at Dallas, School of Management, (http://som.utdallas.edu/iecg/) for providing the guests for this 4 part series on Corporate Governance.

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12.27.09 – 1810

A celebration of 20 years of McCuistion Television Programming…

Thursday, November 19^th at 7PM- Arlington Hall at Lee Park was the site of a gala event – the very first, celebrating the McCuistion Program’s success and 20 year run on KERA, Channel 13, Dallas PBS. A success from start to finish- from harp music at the welcome reception, to desert, conversations and a standing ovation for the co-founders, Dennis McCuistion: Host of the program and Niki Nicastro McCuistion: Executive Producer/Producer. Guests included program panelists, loyal viewers, funders and board members.

The event was emceed with grace, humor and style by former board member and close friend, Terry Brock, CPAE, an internationally renowned marketing coach and consultant. He illustrated the last 20 years with inside stories that captured audience attention and highlighted the social media work made possible by a Searle Foundation grant. Terry walked us through the new website and blogging Niki has spearheaded with Orangecast, our new social media consulting firm. He showed us how to easily access past and present programs, comment on blogs and stay tuned even when an airing is missed. This work takes the program to another level, yet is still in progress so we hope you join us, comment and Twitter your friends and associates to follow us.

Conversation at each table was hosted by a lead person and included:

Hasan Pirkul on education, Jerry Fullinwider on oil and energy in Russia, Iran and Iraq, Ed Wallace on world history,  John Goodman on healthcare, Terry Brock on technology, Cary Clayborne on capital markets, Steve Pejovich on the  Berlin Wall, Larry Steinberg on the Middle East, Dennis on the credit crisis and Niki on terrorism and the Roots of War documentary.

A video of the best of the last 20 years programming Niki had produced for the evening’s event included comments from program guests and supporters from, Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Gail Cooksey and her team and Jim and Carol Young congratulating the host and producer on their 20 year TV anniversary. Highlights included candid clips of what goes on behind the scenes to make the program production work. A fun and surprise ending featured Dennis in makeup, commenting that he didn’t look one day older than when the program started, and attributing it to good makeup and shots. The video is posted at the top of the page.

Terry Brock interviewed Niki as the filmmaker- co-interviewer on the controversial Roots of War documentary.  Scheduled to air on KERA in January of 2006, the documentary was funded in part by the Hatton W. Sumners Foundation, one of our major TV funders. It aired first at the Angelika to community leaders. Protested by the Freedom and Justice Foundation, the KERA airing date was postponed. Niki spoke to what had occurred and what was done by her and Phil Smith, lead camera and co-editor of the documentary, in the ensuing years to get the program back on KERA. She felt compelled to honor the funder’s expenditure and trust and took her own time and money to do so. More of this story can be seen at www.therootsofwar.org. The documentary is going to be posted online as well.

Dennis capped off the evening by talking about the future of the program, its collaboration with the University of Texas at Dallas (http://som.utdallas.edu/iecg/) School of Management and the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance and how the program will benefit and grow as a result.  We recently taped several programs with their assistance in providing us the very best panelists from around the world. Take a look at programs 1807 (Corporate Governance) to 1810 (Wall Street: Capitol of Greed or Builder of Capital – airing on December 27th) for programs that profoundly affect our daily lives.

And of course what would the festivities have been without the host introducing key guests who have been part of our success, from Willis Duff to John Goodman, PhD, CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, among others you’ll see on the upcoming excerpts of that night. A sterling moment highlighted energy guru Jerry Fullinwider, who in 1942, played with his then band in the very room the evening’s gala was held in. Paid the royal sum of $25 for the evening, Jerry had to spend $5 of that fee to buy the music they played. We learned Jimmy Dorsey had tried to hire him but Jerry decided to stay in college and eventually go into business. As one of our benefactors, we’re sure glad he chose that route.  But to show he did indeed have talent then and now, a trumpet magically appeared and Jerry played a few bars to resounding applause.

The evening ended with a standing ovation for the co-founders, Dennis and Niki and a promise of more good programming. Stay tuned where as always we talk about things that matter with people who care…

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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer