THE PEOPLE SPEAK UP ON NEW PBS SERIES

“Listening to America,” Bill Moyers’ new election year series on PBS, is designed to bring the issues facing the nation into focus through interviews with ordinary people.

The series, which debuted April 7, this week will air the first half of a two-part program titled “America: What Went Wrong?”

Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning stories by Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele, reporters at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the program will attempt to dissect the nation’s social woes through interviews with individuals, officials and analysts across the nation.

“Listening to America,” which draws its name from a book Moyers wrote in 1971, will run for 28 weeks, ending after the November presidential election.

Some of the programs planned will touch on issues such as the influence of campaign contributions on politics, racism, gun control and the environment.

While the series is designed to complement PBS’ election coverage, it will not look at the candidates themselves, or at individual political contests.

Moyers has said that when he is finished putting the series together later this year, he plans to take six months off.

The journalist said he has not yet decided what to do with his time away, which is likely to be cut short by his commitment to do another series for PBS in 1993.

“Listening to America” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on KVCR and 10 p.m. on KCET and KPBS and Saturdays at 6 p.m. on KOCE (repeated the following Thursday at 8 p.m.).