Events
Monday, 7:00 p.m.: Dial-an-Atheist
Be sure to tune in for Freethought Fort Wayne’s first episode of our new live call-in television show, Dial-an-Atheist. That’s right, we’re takin’ calls! The one-hour show, which airs on Fort Wayne’s public access television (Comcast channel 57 and Verizon Fios channel 27), will have the format of a two-host talk show, where the hosts present a little lecture on some topic of interest both to the atheist community and to those in the wider community who want to better understand who atheists are, what we believe (and what we don’t), and why. Throughout the hour the hosts will take calls on the topic of the day or on any topic relevant to atheism or freethought in general, or Freethought Fort Wayne in particular.
Monday’s topic will be “What is an Atheist?” Since, after all, stereotypes and misinformation abound, and since productive discussions require clear communication, we thought we’d start by laying some definitional groundwork. We’ll talk about what the label atheist, and related ones such as agnostic, entail, and why people choose to use them.
It should be a fun hour.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by an individual contributor to this blog are not necessarily shared by all members of FreeThought Fort Wayne. That is what makes this organization so interesting. Commenters on the FreeThought Fort Wayne blog are expected to abide by our comment policy. About the author: To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. Read more from this author
The Monday, 7:00 p.m.: Dial-an-Atheist by Butter, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Tags: Discussion
12 comments for “Monday, 7:00 p.m.: Dial-an-Atheist”
Post a comment
Categories
Our Readers
This is fantastic ! I really like the idea of involving the viewer and making it an interactive show. I’m going to try and catch it live tonight.
As a public access viewer, I can’t tell you how many times I flip to Comcast channel 55 or 57 and see a man or woman preaching about the lord. Nice to see some balance in the Fort.
On a side note, can anyone tell me if the older guy who films himself in his bedroom while playing his favorite tunes is still on public access? Usually he dons a hat, has a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other, and looks to be about three sheets to the wind. If his show is still on the air, I really wish he would have the dial-in option.
Best of luck tonight !
Hate to be a downer, but do you folks think anyone is going to watch this except us? Maybe I’ll call in and toss you some softballs, like why are there monkeys still around if we evolved from them? And didn’t Darwin recant on his deathbed?
I’ll be delighted if someone unfamiliar with us actually calls, or even watches, but I’ll also be astonished. I mean, do any of you actually watch anything else on public access TV? Really??
No legal way to actually test this, but you could probably smoke bongs in the nude and no one would take notice. Sorry. (But if you try that, please invite me.)
Well, there’s always the channel surfers, who will presumably stop and give us a once-over when they see the word atheist in big block letters.
What’s the call-in number? You might get a larger response if you included the phone number in the post.
It’s too late to notify the newspapers, but it might not hurt to call WBOI (NPR). They might mention the show.
BTW, it occurs to me the old drunk guy in the bedroom might be me. I’ve been a little confused lately.
neural:
Since the number isn’t our property, but rather belongs to the ACPL and is used for other shows, we’re not going to post it here, where it’d be forever googleable and abusable. It’ll be on the screen for most of the show.
@Butter: Since internet connectivity is so good at the library, maybe for future shows you can get a Skype In number. That way you could publicize it in advance. And if you’re worried about abuse, then just change the Skype In number for every show where you take callers. This would also allow you to take Skype callers for free.
[...] What is an atheist? There’s a lot of stereotypes and misinformation to be had, but now is your chance to talk to real live atheists on the TV. Details and phone number here. [...]
I’m happy to say I was wrong. The show got a pretty fair number of calls. I’m assuming those weren’t shills.
I honestly thought there would be a terrible hour-long silence, filled only by Butter attempting to maintain a monologue.
Well done!
Thanks for the feedback John. We had great discussions and yes, I had some people call in from FFW. The last calls were from the public. The flow of the show is good and Jake and Chad work great together.
I wanted to work on the technical bugs before we did the big press releases. We had several tech problems including some equipment losing power during the shoot and a smart #$@ kid being put on the air… the phone switcher is confusing but we got the hang of it finally.
We will do the show every third Monday of the month. The next one will have the press releases.
I forgot to say this but I had a caller asking to speak with Jesus. I said wrong number.
Andy D:
All in all, a great move. As word gets out, I imagine a lot of people would like to talk to atheists. Making this regular seems like a great idea.
I noticed a technical glitch (brief loss of signal) in the middle of the show, but most other problems seemed minor.
Are you screening for crank callers? Seems advisable. Or maybe not — they’d just make themselves look silly.
I think we all know my view: That we ought to call attention to ourselves through other media. My wife, Lilly, arranged for Rhea Edmunds, a Christian Journal Gazette features writer to watch the show.
I suspect she’ll want to interview someone from the group.
Since few people stumble onto public access TV, free advertising via local media coverage seems like the way to go.
I’m the new guy here, so I don’t want to get pushy. But this is my field.
Rhea is a lovely, friendly African-American lady who never met a person she didn’t like. It would be like an interview by Mr. Rogers.
My rib is healing, and I hope to see you all sometime soon.
Cheers, John