Digital and High-Definition television offer new opportunities...

This past Monday marked the premiere of the stunningly visual eight-part series, Simon Schama's Power of Art. Viewers with digital receivers who missed the first two episodes on WPT's traditional service have a bonus opportunity to catch the "Van Gogh" and "Picasso" installments in dazzling high definition on WPT-HD Thursday night. The episodes will air back-to-back at 8 p.m. and again at 11 p.m.

As the number of viewers in Wisconsin with digital televisions grows, more and more folks are experiencing the benefits of multi-cast digital transmission from WPT. And, with the government-mandated transition less than two years away on February 17, 2009, more viewers will continue to be able to access these features in the future.

In addition to the traditional service, WPT currently offers a line-up of three multi-cast stations each day from 6 a.m. - 7 p.m. These stations include history and science programs on WPT-2; cooking, gardening and how-to programs on WPT Create; and all of your favorite PBS Kids programs on WPT Kids. From 7 p.m. - 6 a.m., WPT-HD is available and includes some of the most visually impressive, content-rich programming available.

To find out what is available on WPT's multi-cast services, visit the WPT schedule portal. To learn how you can access these multi-cast opportunities, visit WPT's digital television Web site.

Our neighborhood loses a friend...

Madison civic leader Jeff Erlanger passed away Sunday night. A long-time advocate for disabled rights, Erlanger had been making an impact on the lives of others since he was a child. He never let his disability hold him back.

When he was just 10 years old, Erlanger made a well-known guest appearance on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In a segment that Fred Rogers insisted be unscripted, the young Erlanger discussed his disability and the wheelchair he used on a daily basis. Singing the song "It's You I Like" together, Rogers altered the lyrics to point out that it wasn't Erlanger's "fancy chair" that was special, but the boy that used it who was.

In 1999, Erlanger made a surprise appearance in Los Angeles to induct Rogers into the TV Academy Hall of Fame. He also discussed his early appearance on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in a WPT-produced segment a few years ago. Watch that clip in the window below:



Erlanger also spoke at Rogers' memorial service in 2003.

Below are links to a number of recent local remembrances of Erlanger's life and the impact he made on the people that he met.

Madison civic activist Jeff Erlanger dies
-Wisconsin State Journal

Jeff Erlanger, advocate for disabled, dies
-The Capital Times

Remembering Jeff Erlanger
-The Isthmus

Erlanger was a real treasure
-Doug Moe in The Capital Times

WPT Be more Tuned In Podcast -- Former Beatle Pete Best...

We spoke with Pete Best, one of only three people alive that can claim to be former members of The Beatles, via telephone from the Casbah Coffee House in Liverpool, U.K. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening. You can also subscribe to our monthly podcasts via iTunes by clicking here.

For more than 1,000 shows until 1962, Best was the drummer for The Beatles. Along with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Best performed to packed houses in Germany and throughout England as the early stages of Beatlemania grew. He was there when the group signed its first recording deal, but was quietly dismissed just weeks before the release of the "Love Me Do," the band's first in a long line of hit singles.

Now, 40 years later, Best is spreading his inside knowledge of those early days of what would become the most influential rock group ever. He has a band that performs many of the Mersey Beat songs from his Beatles tenure and has created a documentary, Best of the Beatles, which will air on WPT at 10 p.m. on Monday, June 11.

In our interview, Best discusses how he became a Beatle, why his mother had a hand in the band's inception and the possible reasons that he was replaced in the band by Ringo Starr.