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NETV special unit
Trend to minorities
By Deb Gray
The camera crew, the engineers and the sound
men were on hand. Everyone was there but State
Sen. Ernie Chambers, the guest of honor.
While waiting for Nebraska's only black senator
to arrive, Mai Adams sat in the studio reading
clips and preparing to host "Rap About It." his
monthly talk show for the Nebraska Educational
Television Network (NETV).
Adams is minority affairs director at NETV. The
minority affairs unit indicates a national trend
toward minority programming, he said.
"On the national level, there has been a concern
on the part of minorities to have a larger role in
tebvision to have programming that concerns
them," he said. "It's been the concern of the
Federal Communications Commission to reguiie
equal opportunity for minority groups.
"This employs talk of balanced programming."
Entire audience
Adams said public education and communica
tion have Increased attempts to rech an entire
audience. This trend includes NETV, he said,
which created the minority affairs unit this
summer to offer balanced programming for
different segments of Nebraskans.
As coordinator of minority affairs. Adams said
he functions as a producer of programs "relevant
to minority groups throughout Nebraska.' Those
groups include blacks, Chicanos, Indians, women
and handicapped persons, he said.
"I come up with the ideas, direct them (the
programs created from the ideas) and air them,"
he said. "I meet with representatives from
minority agencies in an effort to elicit planning.
"This takes time becauso-it's a brand new
program," he said.
Feedback 'very positive'
Adams' first major production, he said, was
"An Hour with Dick Gregory," which was taped in
the Nebraska Union. Feedback from the minority
shows has been "very positive," he said.
Adams, an Omaha native, said he has worked in
communications professionally since 19G9 when he
was a "walk on" for KETV Channel 7. He was a
newsman there for three years, then moved to
radio station WCBC in New York City. The cost of
living brought him back to !he Midwest, tie said.
Back in Omaha, Adams said, he worked in
different facets of the media: news director for
radio station KQWH, anchor man for KETV's
Sunday afternoon news, advertising manager and
reporter for the Omaha Star.
Former Omaha mayor Eugene Leahy then
appointed him to direct the City Youth Program,
he said. Aftyer a year, Adams resigned to attend
Dana College. He now attends UNL part-time, he
said.
Minority specials
At NETV, Adams hosts and produces "Rap
About it," a monthly show which he said is similar
to a show he produced in Omaha.
"I carried the program down here with me," he
said.
Adarns also produces minority specialsfilmed
documentaries of minority groups or an issue
confronting them.
In months ahead, Adams plans to spotlight
black culture during Black Heritage Week. He
said he hopes to air dramas by black authors
performed by the Afro Academy of the Dramatic
Arts and music and dance not only from the black
traditipn but from other ethnic groups as well.
Wednesday, december 11, 1974
A musician in India is composer,
conductor and performer all rolled into
one, a professional Indian singer said
Tuesday.
Vccna Sahasrabudde, 26, said Indian
music is more original than American
music and mentioned several musical
differences between the two countries.
, "Indian music is based on artist
improvisation there is no written
music," she said. "In our classical
music, the notes are more important
than the lyrics."
Sahasrabuddhe said Indians use all
melody and no harmony in their music,
based on a descant scale that sounds
peculiar to American listeners.
Audience response and instrumenta
tion also differs in Indian and American
music, Sahasrabuddhe said.
"We are more open in expressing our
feelings during a concert," she said. "If
we like whit an artist is doing in India,
we let him know by clapping or making
noises with our mouths as he
performs."
Americans always wait until the
performance is over before expressing
UNL interim trip to Israel
their appreciation, she said. .
Likewise, sitars, tablas and dhoSaks
(rhythm instruments), harmoniums and
sarangis (accompanying instruments)
are common to Indian music but foreign
to American music, she said.
The winner of the 1972 All-India
Radio contest in Delhi, India, Sahasra
buddhe will appear Dec. 17 at 7:35 a.m.
on KOLN-TV's "Morning Show."
Sahasrabuddhe and her husband,
Hari, moved to Lincoln seven months
ago through a UNL computer science
department exchange program.
Whether she and her husband return to
India after the one-year exchange is still
undecided, she said.
"If we return to India, I'll continue
my musical career," she said. "But I
don't see how I can expand my career if
we stay in America."
Sahasrabuddhe gives introductory
lectures and lessons on Indian music to
UNL students in a "Music of the
World" class, taught by Priscilla
Parson:
"The university already had two
sitars and tablas when we got here,"
she said. "They just didn't have anyone
to teach how to play them."
Ag students to study techniques
Sixteen UNL students enrolled in
Agronomy 402, crop production and soil
management will spend the interim in
Israel with their professor Leon Chesnin
and his wife studying th country's
agricultural techniques.
Israel's various land and climate
conditions were major reasons for
studying there, Chesnin said.
Northern Israel receives 30 inches of
precipitation annually and two inches of
precipitation falls in the desert. Winter
temperatures range from the 70s on the
coast. 85 degrees F. in the Dead Sea
area and in the Jordan Valley and 50
degrees F. in the Golan Heights. In the
hills around Jerusalem, it snows and the
temperature drops drastically at night.
"in order to see this range of
conditions, from desert soils to peat
soils, a class like this would have to
travel all over the United States." he
said.
"Well over 60 different important
crops some that also are raised in
Nebraska are raised in Israel."
The class will leave Lincoln Dec. 26,
step over in London and arrive at the
Agricultural Research Organization Vol
cani Center Dec. 28.
Research program continuing
Establishment of a cooperative re
sedtch program which allows persons
fto'ii both institutions to do research at
the uthei inn! (tut ion is continuing,
Cht-smn said.
Plans for the trip were started last
December, he said. Chesnin, who was in
Israel at the time, made arrangements
involving course planning and living
accommodations with the Ministry of
Agriculture.
A contract covering air fare to and
f'om Israel, transportation in both
countries, rooms, meals, sight seeing,
guides and tips, tuiuon and all fees was
arranged, he said.
The cost per student for the trip is
approximately $1 ,090, he said.
'Like Nebraskans'
"Israelis are a lot like Nebraskans
were 100 years ago," Chesnin said.
"They're a pioneering people, and their
agricultural methods are extremely
efficient. They take techniques from all
over the world and adapt them to their
own situations."
The Volcani Institute Js one of the
leading agricultural research centers in
the world. h said.
"The clin. ate and natural resources
are used so effectively that they have, in
many crops, the highest record yields in
the world. T..e basis of this is the close
relationship between independent
farmers or farm communities and the
recommendations given them by the
extension specialists of the Ministry of
Agriculture backed up by the education
and research program of the College of
Agriculture and research programs.
"If Nebraska farmers followed .the
recommendations of the University of
Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and
Natural Resources as closely as the
Israelis follow their Ministry of Agricul
ture, Nebraska would be the number
one state in agriculture production and
income in the United States.
Continued on pg. 15
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Israeli embassy agriculture attache Gideon Cohen, left, talking with UNL
students and Leon Chesnin, professor of agronomy and his wife about interim
study trip to Israel.
daily nebraskan
page 13
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