Thursday, September 30, 2010

KNPR To Air Oscar Goodman's HARDTALK Interview!

[UPDATE: Due to Tony Curtis' death, KNPR will air an archived interview with the late star on Friday and bump the Oscar-BBC interview to Monday. Will post the time when I know.]

KNPR General Manager Flo Rogers emailed me earlier to let me know that she has obtained the rights to re-broadcast the BBC World Service's "HardTALK" episode featuring the weirdest, most entertaining interview Mayor Oscar Goodman has ever granted. (Here's my take on it from when it first emerged.)

This is great news because the BBC site only made it available for a week and did not provide a podcast. Rogers said that they will air it on State of Nevada at 10:30 a.m. on Friday and that it will also become part of the show's podcast feed so you'll all be able to hear it, own it, savor it, share it with your kids and at cocktail parties and stuff.

By the by, I encountered Goodman the day after that blog post went up at Temple Beth Shalom while shadowing Rep. Shelley Berkley on Rosh Hashanah for a feature. He interrupted my interview with Berkley to say hello and we had this exchange:

Berkley:
Oh, Mayor! Oh, Mayor! This is Steve Friess...

Goodman: The Jewish Steve Friess!
Berkley: Yes!
Friess: I've gotta tell ya, I listened to this interview you did with the British guy? Goodman: The toughest interview I ever had in my life.
Friess: Oh my God, it was a riot to listen to. And you didn't lose your cool or anything.
Goodman: I tell ya, I got more e-mails from London, saying I'm the coolest mayor they've ever seen.
Berkley: Ha! You are!
Goodman: Every question this guy -- and he was a smart guy -- every question he asked me was negative.
Berkley: That's what Steve told me.
Goodman: He was blaming me, that there's no water, that's my fault. The foreclosures are my fault. The weather was too hot, that was my fault.
Friess: He said, 'Why didn't the mayor tell Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn to stop building?'
Berkley: I ask myself the same question!
Friess: Did you know that this was what this guy does?
Goodman: No, I didn't know that. I said, 'Uh, what did I do this for?' For a half an hour I had to defend Las Vegas.
Friess: Considering the times that you've gone nuts at journalists, I was waiting for you to just explode.
Goodman: Couldn't do it because they tell me like 15 million viewers were watching.
Friess: You also said you're the only politician in Las Vegas who hasn't been indicted.
Berkley: Hell-o-o-o?
Goodman: Well, the only local...anyway, Happy New Year.

Hear what all the fuss is about for yourself when they re-air it on Friday or subscribe to KNPR's State of Nevada podcast feed and wait for it there this weekend.

3 comments:

mike_ch said...

I'm going to geek out about details here, but you're a reporter in real life so hopefully you won't mind. ;)

Actually, BBC World Service and BBC Worldwide are two different entities in terms of ownership, rights, and intentions. BBCWS is a government grand funded external service broadcaster in the vein of Voice of America, Radio Canada International, North Korea's shortwave propaganda station, etc.

BBC Worldwide, which runs BBC America and the BBC World News channel available in most any country BUT the US (with a scant few exceptions), sells HardTALK and other shows on BBCWN. It is a profit-seeking, commercial entity that basically helps fund the BBC beyond it's taxpayer income by selling rights and concepts abroad, including on channels they don't own (Dancing With The Stars gets a BBC Worldwide credit since it's an import of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing.)

*takes off his nerd cap, walks away*

Anonymous said...

Steve - Were tape recording on Yontif and in shul no less?

SG

The Celiac Husband said...

All those London emails cam from the East End.....they want a mayor like that too.