The January-February issue of Texoma Living! Magazine, featured an article, After more than 500 shows, Dennis McCuistion and Niki Nicastro still do programs about “… things that matter with people who care.”

Below are the first few paragraphs of the article.  Click here for the complete PDF on the McCuistion Program after 500 episodes.

About ten minutes into the program a loud, chirping fire alarm went off in the studio at KERA-TV, Channel 13, and everything came to a halt. There was no fire, just noise. After a minute or two, the alarm stopped, only to start again in a few moments. It was ten minutes before things were sorted out.

There was a benefit in the mishap, however. The guest, a man in a gray suit and baggy brown socks, had been hit with an attack of flop sweat when the red light on the camera blinked on. The perspiration had beaded up on his face, and his forehead was glistening. The interruption gave the makeup woman an opportunity to come on the set and dry him off. Taking off his jacket and complaining loudly about the heat from the studio lights, the guest, who had been thirty minutes late for makeup and was grumpy, decided to finish the show sans coat.

The floor director politely pointed out that when the show aired, it would appear that the jacket had suddenly —magically it would seem to the viewers—disappeared, so the coat went back on. Finally, all was put back in order, the imaginary fire extinguished, or at least the alarm thought so, the guest acclimated to the lights, which weren’t all that hot after all, and the taping started again.

The host, Dennis McCuistion, who has been doing this sort of thing for twenty years and is well schooled in the vagaries of television, was not particularly bothered. He watched the rerun of the tape up to the point the alarm sounded, and when the floor director gave the countdown and the action sign, he looked into the camera and restated the question the guest had been answering. The guest, who was prepared to name names in the collapse of the housing market, soldiered on, and in forty-five minutes or so another McCuistion Program was in the can.

Niki sits down with Dennis McCuistion to discuss his interview with Charles Gasparino and his views on topics discussed and the upcoming program.

Dennis McCuistion, Host of the McCuistion program, and Terry Brock, professional speaker and marketing coach, with an emphasis on optimizing technology, recently attended the 2009 Freedom Fest event, in Las Vegas. Attendees and speakers read like a “who’s who” of economists, CEO’s and thought leaders. This year’s focus, as you might expect, was on the economy.

This week straight from Las Vegas: Dennis McCuistion, Host of the McCuistion program, and Terry Brock, business consultant and journalist, are conducting short interviews with luminaries at the 2009 Freedom Fest conference, which reads like a who’s who of economists, CEO’s and thought leaders.

Freedom Fest is an annual festival where “free minds meet” to celebrate “great books, great ideas, and great thinkers” in an open-minded society.  It is independent, non-partisan, and not affiliated with any organization or think tank.

Founded and produced by Mark Skousen, (who’s been a guest on our program, A Conversation with Mark Skousen) Freedom Fest invites the “best and the brightest” from around the world to talk, strategize, socialize, and celebrate liberty. Mark comments,” Freedom Fest is open to all and is purely egalitarian, where speakers, attendees, and exhibitors are treated as equals.”  Freedom Fest has separate forums on philosophy, science and technology, art and entertainment, economics, geo-politics, finance, and literature, among others.  There’s a debate room, where a new hot topic is debated every hour, general sessions with world-renown experts, and a special one-hour time with 6-7 “bright new stars” – up and coming scholars who have something to contribute.

McCuistion and Brock interviewed Steve Forbes, who commented, “Capitalism will save America from the excesses of the Federal Reserve, the Bush Administration’s excesses and the stimulus packages of the Obama Administration. Tea parties and other indications show that we will turn these problems around.”

They spoke with Fred Foldvary who said:  “The Depression of 2008 was laid out in a paper I wrote in 1997 and a booklet published in 2007. A combination of loose Federal Reserve policy combined with real estate speculation caused the problem.”

-AND-

Michael Tanner of CATO, “The Obama health care plan will not cut costs or cover all the uninsured or increase quality.  What it will lead to is increased costs, delays in getting care and a massive bureaucracy allocating resources for consumers and healthcare professionals.”

Stay tuned for more comments and upcoming on the spot video interviews, live from Las Vegas.

Thanks for joining us,

Niki McCuistion
Producer- McCuistion TV