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WCBS Newsradio 880 Wins 2 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The Radio Television Digital News Association announced Tuesday that WCBS Newsradio 880 is the winner of two 2020 regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.
WCBS Newsradio 880 was awarded Overall Excellence in the large market radio division as well as Excellence in Video for reporter Mike Sugerman’s “Sweet Spot” feature about a Greenwich Village man who has been making guitars out of old wood from New York City buildings for the past 50 years.
The RTDNA has been honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast and digital journalism with the annual Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971.
Murrow was a journalism pioneer who set the standards for the highest quality of broadcast journalism.
“Murrow Award-winning journalism upholds the guiding principles of RTDNA’s Code of Ethics: truth, accuracy, fairness, context, independence, transparency and accountability for consequences,” said RTDNA Chairman Terence Shepherd. “Displaying technical excellence, creativity and innovation, this year’s winners have empowered audiences across the country to make more informed decisions for themselves and to become closer to their communities.”
“The regional RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award recipients we announce today are doing an exemplary job of serving their communities by seeking and reporting the truth, raising issues that often serve as catalysts for positive change in their viewing and listening areas,” said Dan Shelley, RTDNA Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. “I couldn’t be more proud of the high quality of responsible journalism as evidenced by these winners.”
For a full list of winners, CLICK HERE. All regional winners will advance to the National Murrow Award competition.
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Blue Point Rewards Workers With Raises, Toasts Local Heroes As Brand Pivots To Survive
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Blue Point Brewing Company is raising a glass in honor of its essential workers and those on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic while it adjusts to new operations it has been thrust into amid the shutdown of hospitality businesses.
Mark Burford, founder of the Patchogue-based craft beer brand, says his company has always been about spreading cheer.
“Even when things are as tough as they are, it’s our job, internally, to bring fun and joy and we try not to lose track of that at any time,” he said on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight focusing on small business survival, sponsored by BNB Bank.
Like most companies, Blue Point is facing the reality of a changed workforce. Employees who can perform their job functions remotely are working from home. Meanwhile, social distancing has been implemented among essential workers at its brick and mortar location for those who manufacture beer. They are so busy that employees are working around the clock. Burford is staggering shifts to sanitize all equipment at its brewery.
“Everybody was given a 10 percent pay raise,” he said of his essential workers. “There’s just nothing really more important than the safety and health of the employees, so take care of people first, and then, as we slowly come back from this, we’ll see if we really ever get to where we were where everybody had to come in every day in the building.”
Blue Point is also giving away beer and food to deserving members of communities on Long Island every week as part of its social media campaign “Toast Your Hero.” They arrive to the winners’ homes or workplaces in style in a blue-pained fire truck they purchased last summer from the Blue Point Fire Department.
“It just puts a smile on everybody’s face,” Burford said, adding, “It’s just a fun thing and we all need a little bit of that levity right now.”
Customers can also buy a meal for just $8 to be delivered without contact to frontline workers from the Blue Point restaurant at its brewery in Patchogue.
He also donated beer kegs to local distilleries.
“There’s one in Patchogue called Better Man Distillery and they changed that beer that would have gone out of code and gone bad and they turned it into hand sanitizer,” Burford said.
His philosophy is simple: Do good for others and good fortunate will return.
“There’s a lot of different ways and avenues that you can help positively impact the situation,” said the brewmaster.
Blue Point’s shipping time to national suppliers has slowed slightly and orders have slumped due to restaurant closures, but local business has been “tremendous” as it serves Long Island heroes of the COVID-19 crisis.
New York State relaxed its alcohol laws to permit delivery, which has opened the door to a new business model.
“It makes you think about what other long-standing rules and regulations that typically would not be able to be changed, but in this scenario could be changed, Burford said, offering, “For other business people out there, even if there’s stuff that you never thought of that might be eliminated or changed, now’s the time to look for that.”
Hear how Blue Point is developing long-term solutions to a changed world plus Burford’s advice for other hospitality business owners on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast above and on the RADIO.COM app.
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‘Shark Tank’ Investor Kevin O’Leary Shares His Keys To Small Business Survival
In Best Of, Featured, Guest, Interview, Latest, News Stories, Technology, The World, Top News, videosBy Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary stresses communication and a pivot to digital sales during the “unprecedented” coronavirus pandemic.
“Learn to communicate,” O’Leary advised in a wide-ranging interview with Joe Connolly on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by BNB Bank.
“Your employees and your customers: They want to hear from you every day,” he said.
O’Leary is known as “Mr. Wonderful” on ABC’s hit Friday night reality TV program “Shark Tank.” He is also a contributor to CNBC that re-runs episodes of “Shark Tank” when the market is closed. In 1986, he founded Softkey, an educational software company based in Toronto, that he sold to Mattel for $4.2 billion in 1999. He owns O’Leary Financial Group, which is a conglomerate of brands that includes investment firm O’Leary Funds. He also owns O’Leary Fine Wines. His net worth is estimated at $400 million.
“When you’re honest with your customers, they become incredibly loyal,” O’Leary said, adding, “The minute they smell B.S., you’ve lost them forever. Don’t lie to people.”
He shares his philosophy on business with Connolly, including that owners should become profitable by their third year in operations, or “take it behind the barn and shoot it.” During the global health crisis, O’Leary says owners must adjust to the changing market while playing to one’s strengths.
“They genuinely care about companies and products and services that they’ve grown to trust and they want to support them during this period of difficulty to make sure that these businesses survive,” he said.
One way to stay afloat, O’Leary underscored, is to learn digital marketing and focus one’s energy on targeting local customers.
“It means you may have to get a Shopify license, you may have to learn how to use DocuSign, you may have to understand the geo-locking tools of Facebook,” Mr. Wonderful said on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast.
“Geo-locking” is a tool within paid Facebook campaigns that allows users to target a preferred audience to optimize a paid post’s impact by demographics.
“I only want to spend my advertising dollars, reaching out to people in this specific area,” O’Leary explained, adding, “That’s what we’re finding is really working, being very concentrated in what you’re trying to do, because in times like these, you really want to play to your strengths.”
O’Leary told WCBS 880 he’s looking to cut real estate costs as his employees work from home. He said if employees are being productive and companies are using digital conferencing services and maximizing on digital marketing strategy, businesses can “save a ton of money.”
“Now the only thing is, it’s not good news for rates, it’s not good news for landlords, it’s not good news for retail space, it’s not good news for real estate, generally, because we don’t need it. Yeah, we need our houses and our apartments, but nothing else,” said Mr. Wonderful.
Hear more from entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, including what opportunities he spotted in his “Shark Tank” investments, on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast above and on the RADIO.COM app.
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Four Freedom Park Conservatory Uses Anonymous Tip App To Enforce Social Distancing On Roosevelt Island
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Four Freedom Park Conservatory on Roosevelt Island is employing patented technology to keep people six feet apart at all times to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“They’re very proactive in wanting to encourage people to communicate these type of things,” said Anthony Lavalle, founder of report it® – a patented application that partners with schools, businesses and law enforcement agencies to expedite anonymous tips for non-emergencies.
Four Freedom Park Conservatory, Inc. operates and maintains the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedom State Park. It also produces events at the park located at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, overlooking the United Nations on Manhattan’s East Side. It has been a client of report it® for a few years and approached them about developing a solution to enforce social distancing.
“We geofence an area,” Lavalle explained.
A geofence is a virtual geographic boundary that enables software to trigger a reaction when a smartphone enters or exits a defined area. Report it® sets up geofencing for its partners throughout the country to enable users to submit an anonymous tip to companies and police to act upon in a timely manner.
The Long Island based tech company was founded in 1999 at the outset of the Internet, harnessing the capability to collect and facilitate data such as photos, videos and a description of the complaint.
The park manager will receive a report immediately with key actionable information.
“We actually capture the geographic location of where that photo was taken, so that the receiver of the report knows exactly where this is occurring and where the correction needs to be made,” he said.
Those photos are also time-stamped for verification, which Lavalle said separates report it® from other applications such as the NYC 311 app because police may respond to an incident that occurred much earlier.
The report it® app is also available in all languages.
“I think that comfort level of people being able to utilize something in their native language to escalate a concern really helps them to communicate as well,” Lavalle emphasized.
He has seen an increase in reports through the app during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Chinese Operatives Spreading Disinformation About Coronavirus To Sow Political Discord In US: Report
By Neil A. Carousso
WASHINGTON (WCBS 880) — China is looking to amplify disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic to exploit political divisions in the United States, according to a report in The New York Times.
The Times interviewed intelligence officials who work in six different U.S. agencies. The officials believe China is using tactics that resemble Russia’s efforts to sow discord during our elections by utilizing social media trolls to push agendas to sympathetic Americans who unknowingly propagate its messages.
“We’re seeing, now, tactics that are not surprising to many of us who served in government,” said Nadia Schadlow, Ph.D., former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, in an interview with WCBS 880 producer Neil A. Carousso.
China is reportedly not only using social media to disseminate false information, but also sending text messages and messages via WhatsApp, which are more difficult for law enforcement to detect because it is encrypted.
One particularly unsettling message to U.S. officials that became widespread was one claiming President Donald J. Trump was set to issue a nationwide lockdown. The White House National Security Council tweeted “FAKE” in response.
Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown. @CDCgov has and will continue to post the latest guidance on #COVID19. #coronavirus
— NSC 45 Archived (@WHNSC45) March 16, 2020
“It’s disturbing and upsetting that Americans would be taken advantage of during such a difficult time in our country’s history,” Dr. Schadlow said.
She is currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, an independent policy organization in Washington, D.C. that promotes global security through research and analysis. In 2018, Dr. Schadlow advised the Trump Administration on national security strategy as an assistant to the president on The White House National Security Council.
“China’s much more of a strategic competitor to the United States,” Dr. Schadlow explained.
She noted both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concern over the Communist Party’s economic activities, including intellectual property theft.
“Essentially it wasn’t a level playing field doing business with China,” said Dr. Schadlow.
She added that when President Trump came into office in 2017, U.S. policy towards China shifted to “push back” against its malignant activities.
The World Trade Organization indicates China is the number one exporter in the world. It is also the largest supplier of goods to the United States. China accounts for 21.2 percent of overall U.S. imports, according to The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Dr. Schadlow said critical technology and medicine has been manufactured in China over the last 15 years. She believes that will change as Americans prefer to have essential supplies produced in their country or U.S. allied nations.
“I do think we are going to see a shift in those areas,” the former National Security Council advisor said, adding, “There is a recognition that it is a national security concern.”
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