U.S.-SOVIET NPR STUDENT LINKUP MAY BE REPEATED
An unusual two-hour live satellite linkup between 13 students at Moscow University and 13 students at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., drew wide enough listener response Friday morning that the program’s producers are already considering a sequel.
The dialogue, featuring discussion of U.S. and Soviet views on academia, recreation, student loans, access to government and dissent, was carried by National Public Radio and broadcast in the Los Angeles area over KPCC-FM (89.3).
Denise Hall, traffic manager of WSIU-FM in Carbondale, described the student dialogue as reminiscent of a recent televised “citizens’ summit” moderated by veteran talk show host Phil Donahue and distributed by Ohio-based Multimedia Broadcasting Co. That program, taped last Dec. 29, allowed 176 citizens of Moscow and a like number in Seattle to converse via satellite about their respective countries.
The televised linkup was successful enough to merit a sequel too: an upcoming linkup between Boston and Moscow featuring women-only participants and again moderated by Donahue.
The NPR broadcast between WSIU and Moscow University was “moderated” by translators at the two schools. Via the translators, students agreed to exchange views and print them in their student newspapers in addition to considering a continuation of their satellite dialogue.
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