(gentle music) (inspiring music) - Hi, I'm Shantel Destra, Managing Editor and host of "New York NOW", WMHT's public affairs program dedicated to providing reporting and in-depth analysis of all of the news coming out of the State Capitol, as well as the inner workings of state government.

Now, this is a show with a long history.

On January 9th, 1975, the original "Inside Albany" show hit the airwaves providing state political coverage from the Capitol region.

Now, through the years, the show has gone through a few different iterations and a few different hosts, but its commitment to journalism remains the same.

Today we reflect on that extraordinary journalism as we celebrate 50 years of Capitol reporting on WMHT.

- [Broadcaster] The Association of Public Television Stations of New York present "Inside Albany", a public affairs program designed to make you a witness to the governmental news of the week in the state's Capitol.

(upbeat music) A close up look at the people and the actions that can affect change in the way we live.

The reporters for this weekly journey "Inside Albany" are Dave Hepp and Peg Breen.

- Good evening, I'm Dave Hepp.

We have the unique capability through the eight public television stations of New York, of receiving reports and reaction to what's happening here from the population centers of this state.

My idea of the program, foremost, was to make viewers a witness to Albany.

Be inside Albany.

Learn what it was like.

I used to say we want to put names to the faces and meaning to the issues.

We wanted to provide context.

We also wanted to provide commentary so that we could separate stories.

- Well, we'll see.

- With commentary to further clarify and give context to what people had just seen.

The story this week, of course, is Governor Hugh Carey's first State of the State message delivered yesterday to a joint opening session of the 198th Legislature.

The new governor outlined a gloomy picture of the state's financial condition and the rather harsh measures he intends to take to correct it.

Said, Carey, "The days of wine and roses are over."

Every week was a challenge to produce a program and to make it, you know, watchable for people.

- Accordingly.

I have ordered that there will be an immediate treaty.

- It was a lot of work, and, but we decided that we could have done it the easy way.

You know, we were given a long leash by the station managers who didn't interfere.

Well, who says Congress can't get anything done?

It just ended a very long stalemate in Albany.

Woody Allen said, "90% of life is showing up."

And that's what we had to do.

Show up at all events that were important and make the viewer part of the event and explain to them why it was important in their lives.

And so that was the worldview of what it was gonna be.

- The journalism that was done and "Inside Albany" was just remarkable.

And it was really something you didn't see at the time unless you were watching your local PBS station, right?

You're having a 26, 27 minute show on state politics.

You watch the local news, - Good evening, I'm Dave Hepp.

- you're lucky you get 90 seconds.

- And I'm Peg Breen.

Welcome to "Inside Albany".

Tonight and in the weeks ahead we'll be showing you state government in action and explaining how those actions affect you.

To do this, we'll be covering the legislature, the governor and the various state agencies.

- Peg was a newspaper person who came over to television.

Very smart.

Very, had a lot of connections, covered Albany before "Inside Albany".

- You know, I don't think I had grand plans.

When the station hired me, I said, why did you hire me?

They said, "Well, you come cheap and you don't faint on camera."

So aside from not fainting on camera, I think that even if we had grand plans, we came in with the fiscal crisis.

So New York City was on the verge of going bankrupt.

The State Urban Development Corporation was in serious fiscal trouble.

And so we wound up covering one of the most important political economic stories of the day.

And, you know, that really captivated the state and captivated us for quite a while.

Governor, one of the, your most quoted phrases or the different hallmarks that you set for your administration, the compassion for people, government, economy, and efficiency.

What shaped your political philosophy?

Were there forces before you came to Albany?

Personalities you met here?

I think we tried to be fair.

- Well that opens up.

- And we tried to understand the issues, and I think that was important.

And I think even, it was a different era.

You know, Republicans and Democrats in the legislature could fight it out over an issue and then go out to dinner together.

You know, it wasn't the hard partisanship that I think most politics has today.

And Dave and I had our opinions, but we didn't try to be political about it.

- Legislators would come up to me and say, "You're still here."

"How come you're still here?"

You know, I enjoyed the work, I enjoyed doing it.

I saw Albany kind of as a, you know, there was a cast of characters and I was going to show who they were and what they were all about.

Hello, I'm Dave Hepp.

The presidential primary passed through New York like a thunderstorm, brief and noisy.

- I'm Lise Bang-Jensen.

Now that the party establishment candidates, Gore and Bush have won, state legislators are looking forward to blue skies and party unity.

We'll get to those stories in a moment.

- Lise worked for the Knickerbocker News in Albany and covered Albany, covered the legislature, had a great background, was an extremely good questioner, interviewer.

- It would go a long way improving relations with Adirondack.

- [Dave] Very good.

Used to get under a lot of people's skin with her questions, and she had to learn television.

She was unfamiliar with television, but over the years, did a great job.

- For a fourth term as governor.

- You had all this video tape and all this script material, and we wanted to preserve it for future researchers.

When somebody wants to write a book about the New York City fiscal situation, they can go to a primary source and see the Controller of the State of New York talking about it, or Mayor Beame of New York City talking about it.

On camera, week after week, to do this.

I mean, it's a treasure trove of information about New York City political and legislative history.

I got a master's degree from The Newhouse School at Syracuse.

So did my editor cameraman, Gary Kalinsky.

He went to Syracuse as well.

So we decided to get into talks with them and they were interested.

They have a special collection that includes video, and we packaged all our videotape and recording and sent it to them and sent them all the scripts and they have it all.

And anybody can go to Syracuse Library Special Collections, watch "Inside Albany" over the years.

- To me, I think of history or the way that we tell our story as a story of context.

And so this is an important creator of context for what was going on in New York State.

And so just to understand the context in which decisions have been made that affect us still today.

So why do we care about one of these programs from 1977 or 1978?

Because those decisions persist.

- The coverage is a phenomenal research tool for people to look back on the history of New York State, but not only that, but people's reactions and people's wishes and people's wants.

So this was created for the people to learn about how the government was governing and how they were making policy and making laws.

- When we announced that we were leaving the air, we got a lot of email and feedback of, "No, no, don't go away."

You know, it's like, you provide us with an insight of what's going on.

And so, I'm grateful for that and I'm grateful for people who watched over the years.

"Inside Albany" has truly been a labor of love.

I'm grateful to all the politicians who provided us with material and all the television professionals whose skill made "Inside Albany" a reality every week.

And thank you for caring enough about your government to watch us over the years.

I'd like to think that we all made a difference.

That's it for this week on "Inside Albany".

(upbeat music) - When "Inside Albany" went off the air in 2006, the station had a huge decision to make.

They had to decide if they wanted the show's legacy to end in 2006, or if they wanted to forge a new path forward with a new show.

And I think in making this documentary, the weight of that decision became clear to me.

I think, you know, working on a weekly show and putting it on week after week requires a lot of time, energy, and resources that people don't necessarily understand.

But luckily in the end, the station decided to forge a new path forward with "New York NOW" and have veteran reporter, Susan Arbetter at its helm.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This is "New York NOW" with your host Susan Arbetter.

- They had been doing "Inside Albany" for a long time.

It was extremely well respected.

I mean, it was sort of like the 60 minutes of Albany news.

And when Deb approached me to see if I wanted to come on board, I thought, well, this is the right thing at the right time.

Still public broadcasting.

I loved mounting new programs and starting new shows.

Had just started the roundtable show a few years before, and I really got a lot out of that.

So I thought, let's try television in public media.

Try it again.

So we started, we didn't even have a name, we had nothing.

All we had was the history of "Inside Albany".

Day after a Siena College poll showed again that 70% of New Yorkers.

Developing the concept of the show was really exciting.

I remember having these meetings, WMHT has this huge table that, a conference room with a great table, and everybody would come in and share ideas.

We had brainstorming sessions about what to call it, the colors of the logo.

So, whatever.

It was fun to really mount a show from zero to 10.

And we had a few months to do it.

It went through some growing pains, but ultimately we launched our first episode and it was really exciting.

It was thrill to see my stuff on TV where I had only ever done radio.

So the visual component was completely new to me.

Governor, for more on this week's news, we turn to Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio and Bob Connor of The Daily Gazette of Schenectady, who are here to wet your appetite for political analysis.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Sure thing.

- What I wanted to do was make sure that the legacy of "Inside Albany" was respected, knowing that individually I couldn't do what they did.

I didn't have the history or the experience or the bandwidth to do what "Inside Albany" did.

However, I did have the will and I tried like hell, let me tell you.

And so I would pick one or two stories a week to really dive in in.

And I wanted to make sure that we covered Albany in terms of what happened during the session, during like a headlines, a headline news portion of the program.

And then we would take, we would have a deep dive into a single issue.

After Tuesday's stunning defeat, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno defiantly told assembled media not to count him out.

- And in terms of unity, the press likes to speculation about my life.

And I appreciate all the attention you give me.

You know, you make me really feel good that every time I pick up a newspaper, I'm in a headline somewhere, for better or for worse.

- I thought it was important to make Albany, which is so dry, some of the public policy stuff, Medicaid reform, I mean, it's very dry.

I wanted to make it real and accessible to people.

That was sort of the defining goal.

And I thought humor could do that.

So I think in some of my early interviews, I did try to infuse humor into some of the driest topics in the world.

- Something I wanted to do under my leadership was kind of format the show in a very specific way, tailor the show to a broad audience, not just the folks who are kind of inside baseball.

The most fun I ever had here working at WMHT in "New York NOW" was when I got the green light to produce the documentary on former governor, Mario Cuomo.

Really the only documentary that's ever been done on him.

And to make that work, we were able to use all of those old "Inside Albany" shows.

So I went through every show from 1982 to 1994, and I was like a kid in a candy store.

Going through all those old programs, not only seeing some of the modern day politicians and how they looked when they were younger, but the journalism that was done and "Inside Albany" was just remarkable.

In 1982, New York's political landscape changed very quickly when Governor Hugh Carey decided not to run for reelection.

A number of candidates emerged as a potential successor, including then Lieutenant Governor Mario Cuomo.

In the next hour, we'll take you through the 12 memorable years he spent at the Capitol with the help of the TV program "Inside Albany".

The decision to pair up with the Times Union for us, the most prominent paper here in the Capitol region, one of the most prominent papers in the state.

And to work with Casey Seiler, who is an exceptional journalist and an exceptional human being, was really a joy.

Not too many people are on TV together for 10 years, but we somehow made that happen.

And he was terrific.

He would handle the Reporters Roundtable for the most part.

I was not on the Reporters Roundtable very much.

Yet it was still almost always my favorite part of the program.

There's so many knowledgeable reporters here at Albany who can give you that depth that you're not gonna get really anywhere else.

Okay, time now for our analysis of the week's news.

And for that, we head over to the Reporter Roundtable with Casey, who is joined by James Madore of Long Island's Newsday and Jimmy Vielkind of the Albany Times Union.

- Thanks Matt.

Gentlemen, I wanna start off by noting that we're having this conversation on Friday morning.

Always important, but especially important this week because so many things having to do with the state budget are in, it appears an extreme state of flux.

Let's start off by talking just generally about where we are and whether or not we will on Monday face the prospect of Governor Paterson, as threatened, putting through what we've come to refer to as the mother of all extenders.

- My primary responsibility on "New York NOW" was organizing and emceeing, if you will, the roundtable, which was usually the longest segment in the show most weeks.

And I love doing it because it was a chance to highlight the very good journalism that was being done by the legislative correspondents, who of course I worked alongside down at the Capitol.

The friendship and the appreciation that I hope was conveyed by the roundtable was genuine.

- My guess is always that.

- We admired each other's work, competed for scoops and that kind of thing, but we had a lot of mutual respect.

I'd say that was kind of the defining characteristic of the Capitol Press Corps, still is.

I miss the people.

I miss coming in on Fridays 'cause coming in on Fridays, even though I had to get up early, was a reminder that today is Friday.

You know, the week is almost over.

And there was something about like, walking out of WMHT on Friday morning and knowing, okay, I got a couple more hours.

But then the work week is done.

- Friday morning was go time.

I would get to the station usually around 6:00 AM or 6:30.

A lot of the time earlier than that.

I would come in, finalize the script again, make sure that everything was spelled right, that everything flowed the way I wanted it to, that everything was in the right order that I wanted it to be in, print it out, get everything ready in terms of what the studio crew would need that morning.

When I started, everything was normal in the world.

And then two months later, the pandemic burst out of nowhere and took over everybody's lives for more than a year.

After that, Andrew Cuomo was accused of sexual misconduct and resigned from office, the first governor to resign from office in a little bit more than a decade.

Unfortunately, that's not two uncommon in New York.

And then Kathy Hochul came on as governor.

So it was just this constant barrage of change, change, change.

First day of session I was in the Senate.

I didn't see what happened in the assembly, but.

In its concept, "New York NOW" is supposed to be a show that covers the news of that week.

So you can't start out the week most of the time saying, this is what the show is definitely going to be on Friday.

You have to be willing to pivot.

So you can start the show with a plan of what you want and kind of build it out from there but you always have to be prepared to pivot.

"New York NOW" is serious.

It tells you what you need to know.

It also tells you a little bit about what you want to know.

You know, like you can't always have your vegetables, you gotta have your dessert too.

So bringing that presence to the New York State Capitol is invaluable.

And a lot of states have a program like this that isn't like "New York NOW".

"New York NOW" has a boots on the ground presence, whereas a lot of programs across the country on public media do not.

They keep it right in the studio.

And the way that "New York NOW" has combated against that is by getting out there and doing things in the field and recognizing that that's important to viewers as well.

- So when I joined "New York NOW" I came in as a print reporter and I knew that I loved journalism.

I knew that I loved reporting on politics.

But one of the things that interested me about "New York NOW" the most was the connection to community.

I mean, when we're talking about politics specifically on the state level, I think a lot of people unfortunately don't understand the inner workings of politics.

You know, there's a lot of jargon, a lot of language that the average New Yorker may not understand.

But I think "New York NOW" did such a good job of informing their viewers of the news that they needed to know but also how it impacted their daily lives.

So that was something that was really special to me.

And I felt like the show had a long history that I definitely wanted to be a part for sure.

Recreation and historic preservation has been tapped.

My strengths are being someone who is very passionate about state politics.

I have a keen interest in the way that government works, in the way that different policy issues impacts people.

But I'm also a person that's very humble.

I have a lot of humility.

So I think that in a lot of ways just breaks down the barriers between the host and viewers.

I'm able to connect with them at home.

There have been a few different times where people have actually come up to me and said, you know, they enjoy watching me.

I look like I'm having a lot of fun.

And I'm very personable.

And I take that very seriously because again, I want everyone to feel like they can approach state politics and reporting and the State Capitol seamlessly.

All of the hosts from Dave Hepp and Peg Breen, to Susan Arbetter, Matt Ryan, Casey Seiler, they all brought their own authentic selves to the show, but also they had a deep dedication to reporting.

Like they gave the show their blood, sweat and tears.

And that was something that became clear to me.

But also, like, I feel the weight of that, right?

Like, I wanna do the show justice and I wanna make sure that their legacy continues far beyond them and myself.

- I think it's really important to note that it's been on the air for 50 years in different iterations of what it was.

"Inside Albany" was a presence.

And "New York NOW" continues to be a presence in Albany and in state politics and in state government.

To recognize that that's been on the air for 50 years is monumental.

- Anything that lasts for 50 years has got to have something going for it.

The number of TV news programs that make it beyond 50 years, that's a really short list.

Whether it's regional TV, statewide TV or national TV.

It's a remarkable milestone.

It's a testament to the support that WMHT has put behind it, but also the support that clearly viewers have put behind it.

And you know, the folks who pay the bills, without a doubt.

- Yeah, you just don't get 50 years out of the same television program.

And sure there's been different hosts, there's been different names, but it's the same goal for whoever's leading the charge.

And this program is just so important.

Again, that might sound self-serving coming from someone who was at the helm there for a decade.

But I'm telling you, I saw people, I talked to people, I got emails from folks who would watch us every single week.

- The fact that there is this legacy television station that is actually investing in coverage of the Albany Legislature, that is huge.

I think that WMHT and all of PBS in New York should be applauded because that's a huge investment.

News is definitely driven by people.

I mean, you can't create a news product without journalists and journalists and videographers and editors, they all cost money.

And WMHT is doing what it should do for the community by investing in that.

And I think that should be applauded.

- I hope that there will continue to be creative journalists over the course of the next 50 years.

So when we're talking in, oh my God, in 2074.

I mean, think about that.

That however people are getting their news, however they are getting that content, whether it's being piped directly into their cerebellum or something like that, that they're still thinking seriously about New York State government holding the powerful to account, trying to explain how state government, which is so vast in a state like New York, so complex, and has so much to do with money, with personality, with the desire to affect policy to make a better world, turning those complex subjects into good TV and doing it in 27 minutes a week.

That's a tall task.

And it's something that I hope WMHT continues to do.

- Through the years "New York NOW" has continued its dedication to journalism and providing New Yorkers with the savvy political news that they need to know.

Not only is it a story of history, but it's also an opportunity to propel the show forward.

And we could not have done it without the support of the station as well as the support of our viewers.

And looking ahead, the future of "New York NOW" is limitless.

We plan to continue the work of the hosts before us, hold those in power accountable and continue to equip New Yorkers with the news that they need to know for the next 50 years and beyond.

(inspiring music)