This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] Florida This Week is the Tampa Bay area's longest running prime time public affairs program.

And soon there will be some changes.

But first, we're talking with long standing moderator Rob Lorei, and we take a look at the show's history.

That's next on a special edition of Florida This Week.

[music] Welcome to Florida This Week, I'm Lissette Campos.

After 24 years, we are beginning a new chapter for the show.

But first, we're saying a fond farewell to Rob Lorei, who will be moving on to a new WEDU interview series called Perspectives.

And now moderator Rob Lorei.

As host and managing editor of Florida This Week.

Since 2001, Rob has steered the program for decades with unflappable grace and insight.

His tenure is marked by countless impactful discussions and an enduring legacy in public media, as well as our Tampa Bay community.

Rob, thanks for being here and sharing just a little more of your time with us.

Lissette, thanks a lot.

That was a great intro.

Who wrote it?

It was way over the top.

All true.

I hope my mom is watching this on the link.

But thank you for the intro.

How did I get the job as host of the show here?

Yeah, how did you land here.

So I had been a panelist on a show called Tampa Bay Week, which was hosted by the great Sil Farrell.

Sil was moving on.

Channel 3 wanted to keep the show on the air, and they said they called me up and said, Rob, would you try out for the show?

I had no idea that I'd be even in the competition, because I think part of my competition was experienced TV anchors from other local TV stations.

So I sat down in front of a camera, which I had rarely done since college, and and I did a sample program for them, and they liked it and they hired me.

This is in 2001, right after 9/11.

Lots of things are in the news, and I was shocked that they hired me because I had one suit.

I don't think I had that many dress shirts.

I had a few ties.

Yeah.

Um, but I, you know, I certainly didn't have the wardrobe to host the show, but I was shocked when they did it.

My hair, of course, was all wrong back then.

It was a little longer and a little fuller, but it was it was the wrong.

It wasn't TV anchor hair.

You've been part of the community for so long.

I think a lot of folks assume that you're from Tampa.

Um, tell us how you ended up landing here.

I've been here for 47 years, moved down from Pennsylvania.

But the reason I moved down was I helped start the first community radio station in Florida.

WMNF and we, the radio station, when I came down, had nothing.

It had just an office.

But we built the studios.

We went door to door.

We asked for money to start the radio station, and it was a really when we started it, it was quite eclectic.

We had, you know, everything from bluegrass to all sorts of music in Spanish.

We had reggae, we had blues, we had jazz, we had a little bit of public affairs, but we, we I came down in June of 1978, and it took us more than a year to September of 1979 to get it on the air.

A lot of that time was spent really going door to door, just begging for money, which is what we did.

And surprisingly, it worked.

That's incredible.

So many viewers know you as the man in front of the camera, but what was it like to start a radio station?

Well, it was really hard because we did everything by hand, so we built some of the control boards by hand.

We did all.

Them by hand.

Yeah, we did all the soundproofing by hand.

We found old carpeting and used it as soundproofing on the walls.

And, you know, people thought it would never work.

People were predicting that it would never get on the air.

But sure enough, we were able to do it in about, you know, 15 months or so.

It was a it was a labor of love.

And, and a lot of people supported us back then.

The radio business has changed so much over the years.

What was it like when you were starting it?

Well, I'll tell you about reporting because we started reporting almost immediately.

And this town, this area, Tampa Bay, had eight local daily newspapers.

There was a local in every city, and there were some afternoon papers.

And then there were radio reporters all over who were doing local news.

We had three, I think we had three network TV stations, network affiliate TV stations.

We had a UPI radio reporter, we had an AP reporter.

So when I went to a press conference and we would stick a microphone in front of the governor or whoever, the local state attorney, um, there would be about a dozen reporters there at.

The little mike stands.

All the bikes on the mike stands.

So it looked like a presidential event because this was a really big news town, very competitive.

Everybody was going out trying to get the story.

It's really changed.

Today there's so little, uh I mean, newspapers are much weaker now.

Radio really doesn't do much reporting.

The TV stations are still okay, but they're struggling.

Their staffs are down.

So back then when we started, it was a very competitive news, news town.

We tried to keep up.

It was hard because we didn't have the big budget, but we tried.

You're a man of many talents, so not just the host and the moderator of Florida This Week, you're also the managing editor.

Can you tell our viewers a little more about that?

Well, what I do and my great producer, Spencer Briggs, every, every Monday.

I've read all the newspapers I can over the weekend and Monday I say, Spencer, I think this is going to be the big story this week.

We can never tell.

We don't have a crystal ball.

So I give them an idea of who might be the best guest to come on and address the stories.

But of course, the news cycle changes.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

I'm reading the newspapers, which I think are still I mean, I think digital and newspapers are still the best source of reporting.

There is good reporting on TV stations, but by far you've got to keep up with the Tampa Bay times.

You have more time to flesh it out, as well as a print, as a print and digital reporter than broadcaster.

So I've got to read the Tallahassee Democrat and the Tampa Bay Times.

I've got to read the Lakeland Ledger and the Sarasota Herald Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Orlando Sentinel is a great newspaper.

So I read that.

And then by Thursday, we come up with a list of maybe 10 or 15 stories that we might want to cover.

And it's very democratic.

So Spencer and I send out the list to our panelists who we probably we takes a few days because not everybody can do the show that week.

And we have a big group of people that want to do the show and who are who are loyal panelists.

To you and.

To the hard work of Spencer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so we let our panelists vote on the topics.

And so Thursday morning, they all vote.

And then we then I write the script and then we come in Friday morning we record the show.

So for more than the show's been on the air for more than 20 years, it wasn't always called Florida This Week, was it?

Yeah.

It's when Sil was hosting, it was called Tampa Bay Week, and we had a manager here, Dick Lobo, who was a he was like the Lou Grant of station managers.

They write characters based on him.

Yeah.

So so Dick was a fantastic manager, and he would come in and say, how the hell are we doing a show still called Tampa Bay week when we get into 16 counties, because WEDU has one of the largest reaches of any PBS station in the country and the largest in Florida.

So you said you got to come up with a name change.

So we came up with the name Florida This Week, although we're still interested, very interested in what's going on in Tampa Bay and Sarasota.

But we try not to be too narrow every week.

Prior to that, the show was all about Tampa and Hillsborough County, which is a small portion of the community.

It's about a million or so people, which is important, but the total reach here at the station is about five, five and a half million.

So we try to find something that's going to appeal to folks that are in Lakeland and Hardee County and also in Citrus County and Pasco.

It's really the entire west central Florida area.

It is.

You've done hosting the Senate debates.

You've interviewed governors, so many different candidates at all levels, and you've covered some really prickly issues as well.

I think that for me, as a Cuban American, I just have to ask you about the debate over the US policy with Cuba.

And what was that like for you?

Because I would watch you and on TV and I would think, how does he navigate through so many different opinions and still remain so graceful?

Yeah.

Well, we had two very sharp advocates for the for the sides.

We had Ralph Fox on who was the who wanted to change the US policy towards Cuba.

And EJ Otero was on the other side very strong.

And EJ still wanted to keep the policy in place.

Of course, the horrors of of Fidel Castro's regime, he hated that.

Al thought that it was time to move on.

And so we and we had two other people that kind of were sidekicks to them.

I think the way to do it is just make sure that everybody gets equal time and is fair, and you want to go back and forth and you don't want to let anybody dominate the conversation.

And we did.

We successfully did it where I think both sides felt like they were able to make their case of why we should change the policy, or why we should keep it as it is.

And then what we did and we did.

This is a long tradition on Florida This Week, is that we went to a local bar in Hyde Park called Four Green Fields.

So all four of the panelists went out with me and Spencer, my producer, and we sat there and over a beer.

I think we solved all the problems and all the disagreements that we ever had over the you know, it was surprising to hear al and EJ agree on some points about Cuba.

And so we found common ground.

Right.

And that's that's the beauty of having a show like this, a public affairs show where everyone knows that they have a seat at the table, and that we can discuss difficult topics in a way that's respectful and the viewers can decide for themselves.

And position they want to take.

And I almost never cut people off, and I never, you know, I might ask him a tough follow up question, but I never I never cut them off so that they can't get their ideas out because I want to hear the whole I want to hear the whole paragraph.

I want to hear the whole idea.

Well, did you get the rest of the story when you were taking the guest to to the to the restaurant afterwards?

Yeah, I think I think on TV sometimes people have their guard up and are ready for combat.

And I think once you take them out to the restaurant or the bar and you talk to them, their guard comes down and they're able to find that common humanity, you know?

I don't think anybody's ever left the table here angry, and nobody's ever shouted at anybody.

Nobody's stormed off the set.

Some people will shake their heads at what some of the other guests say, but there's never been really a personal attack, I think, on the show, which is great.

I was told that Governor Charlie Crist was one of your guests.

Yeah.

And after the show, you all went over to to the to the restaurant.

Of course.

Of course.

We took him.

We took him to have some good stories about that.

So we took Charlie had been governor for one term.

This is about 2012.

And we took him over to Ford Green Fields.

Now, Charlie, as you know, is rail thin.

So I was curious as to what is he going to drink.

And he drank a half a miller Lite.

What was weird was that the bar was filled with people, and nobody gave Charlie a second look.

No.

And so and I'm wondering what's going on.

Has has the bloom fallen off because he was golden every time he ran for office.

Recognized him?

Exactly.

And every time he ran for office, he won for a while.

He had quite a good stretch.

So we're leaving the bar, and I'm thinking, wow, maybe Charlie no longer has the magic.

And suddenly everybody from the bar gets up and follows us out the door and says things like, we didn't want to interrupt.

You know what?

You're what your conversation was, but we want your autograph.

And this big group, this big, long line of people standing there trying to get their autograph with Charlie.

[LAUGHTER] That's a great story.

And back then, did folks were taking selfies too or not really.

This was kind of pre-selfie.

I think there were small cell phone cameras that are the flip kind of selfies.

That's right.

Cameras.

Yeah.

Over the years you've interviewed so many different people from the common everyday man, everyday heroes who are at work quietly in our community to some really powerful people.

One of the folks that you interviewed was the late former president Jimmy Carter.

Welcome to WEDU, it's good to be with you.Thank you.

Great to have you here.

I want to.

Ask you talk.

To us a little bit about.

That.

Let me just say this about the common people too.

Sometimes these shows only invite politicians, and we all know what politicians are going to say.

And and so sometimes you have to invite the religious leaders, the labor leaders, you know, you got to invite the unexpected people, the activists, and invite the investigative of journalists and get them on.

But for for the interview with former President Carter, he was coming to make a speech in Sarasota and sign some books at the Sarasota News and Books, which was a great local bookstore in Sarasota.

And he had heavy Secret Service protection, and he had written a book about the Revolutionary War.

And there was a long line of people that came to see him at the bookstore, and he agreed to do an interview with us.

So gracious, so gracious.

He did a short press conference with us.

And then the Secret Service says, if you want to do the interview, you got to do it right here in the bookstore.

Well, there was no place to do it, because if we if we set President Carter out among the books, he would have no protection.

And there was for some reason, I can't remember why, but there was very heavy Secret Service protection around the president ex-president at that time.

So Sarasota News and Books said, okay, we got a room for you.

It's our stock room where we have our paper towels and we've got our.

Oh my gosh.

Toilet paper.

Toilet paper and.

All that.

And it's in a ten by ten foot room.

So my producer at that point, Jack Conley, was there.

We had to pile into the room.

Erik Jones was our camera guy.

And so we piled into this room.

We hung black curtains over all the all the supplies.

So you couldn't tell.

We were in a supply room and we were there with a burly Secret Service agent, uh, President Carter, Jack, Erik and myself.

I was knee to knee with President Carter, and so we actually had to tape my questions afterwards because we only had one camera.

So I was asking the president questions, and then afterwards.

He never complained.

And he never complained.

He didn't mind being that close to us.

And it was like the most uncomfortable room you could ever imagine.

But he had some great answers.

He was talking about Middle East peace even back then.

and he was just as gracious and down to earth as you could imagine.

Oh my gosh.

The stories just keep going and going.

You have to write a book.

Oh, yeah.

Maybe as a managing editor, not just the moderator and the host.

You have so much control over what the show, how it develops.

Right.

And so how have you tried to make this a political show that's different from the others, especially nowadays when it's such a mean season for politics?

Yeah.

When I watch cable news, I think people are are put on because they're combatants and they have mean things to say about the other party.

And I think to an extent that happens on on this show too.

But also, I want to go around the panel and give a chance for people to answer questions and then maybe make follow up points a little bit and not feel like they're under siege, not feel like the host is attacking them.

I mean, in some of the cable networks, the host is attacking one side or the other.

I want people to feel free to say, okay, this is what I really think.

And we have some very honest conversations.

I'm sure the audience has interesting reactions to some of these, some of the things that people say.

But I, I really think that that we got to get people on the record and have them really speak from the heart and speak from what's what they're really thinking.

And one of the things that you've done with the show over the years is to help to get new audiences connected and, and educated on the on the issues.

How can we get more young people, young professionals, to engage more actively in politics?

Yeah, I think I think it's so important.

I'm not sure if I've got the key, but, you know, we've done a lot of interesting programs, as you know.

Lisette.

Um, a lot of people in Florida are NPA's and independents.

About a third of Florida voters are not affiliated with one of the two major political parties.

So we did a show a few months back in which we had all independents on.

And then also a few months back, we did a show with young people, all people who were in their 20s or early 30s, and we asked them what they thought about politics, and it was a range of people.

It was not just Democrats and Republicans, but it was libertarians.

And we had a democratic socialist on and we asked them to give us their ideas.

I mean, I think I think what happens how do you get young people engaged in politics?

They've got to be portrayed in the media.

They've got to have a seat at the table.

We've got to listen to them and we've got to find out what they're thinking, because they're voters too, and they have a stake in it.

Based on that experience that you had.

What would you say was the common factor that young people were talking about, that they need the biggest obstacles that they're facing?

Well, I'd have to go back and look at the show.

But I think one of the things that came out is distrust of all politicians and politics.

As usual, they want change.

And they this was prior to the to the most recent presidential election.

And I think they wanted to see some significant change because they're hurting.

They can't afford to buy a house these days.

We know housing is very difficult.

A big problem.

Health care is a big problem.

It's very costly.

And I think they're worried about their education loans and and you know, they want a way to pay.

College is more expensive than when I went and when you went, I'm sure.

So they've got to figure out a way to pay this stuff.

And I don't think that we're hearing politicians really address those issues.

They need a seat at the table.

They need a seat at the table.

Exactly right.

And so what's what's next for you?

I know that so many of our viewers would like to know, you know, why are you, you know, pivoting.

Why are you leaving this show?

Um, I.

Got to say, I don't want to leave the show.

I love doing it, and I still have the energy to do it, but.

But about a year and a half ago or so, I was diagnosed with cancer.

And I'm fighting it.

And, you know, I go to Moffitt every couple of weeks, and I see all those people at Moffitt, all my fellow cancer patients, and it is an epidemic.

A lot of people are struggling with it.

I'm lucky.

I'm feeling pretty good.

But on some occasions, some days it takes a lot out of me.

It's harder.

And as you can tell, my hair is falling out.

For a while there, I was losing my voice.

So I felt like I just wasn't able to devote the time to the show that I should devote.

I love doing the show.

It's one of the best things I feel I've ever done.

And so I'm I'm happy to do it, but I just felt like I if I was going to give channel three of my all, I had to step away for a little bit and concentrate on my health.

And that's why I'm doing it.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to do an interview program, which I've done for years here on the station.

Exactly.

In the past, I interviewed Jeb Bush, I interviewed Pam Bondi one on one.

Uh, Al Franken was one of my guests.

Jimmy Carter was one of my guests.

Keith Olbermann, John Dean, a lot of those folks, uh, Bill Moyers, who was a reporter and producer.

For PBS for many years, uh, a great guy.

We did an interview with him.

We were I was interviewing him in Sarasota one time and and we took down a camera crew.

And Bill was sitting there, he was drinking a Diet Coke, and he was making a point during the middle of the interview and his hands went like this.

Now we're taping the interview, and he splashed Diet Coke over himself, over me and over.

We had to shut down the camera.

So.

So everybody was horrified.

But we shut, you know, he was making good points.

So we got some towels cleaned up.

The thing got rid of the Diet Coke can and carried on with the interview.

But when you watch the interview these days, you can't tell it happened.

Oh my gosh.

So describe perspectives.

How do you describe it to the person wondering like what's it going to be like?

Well, it's going to go back to those days when I was doing a one on one interview, oftentimes with authors, famous big name people that the public wants to hear from.

It's a challenge, though, because the media has changed.

There used to be book tours.

Years ago.

Politicians of all parties wanted to be on the media and we would we would be inundated with ideas for people to come on, and then we would find some of our own guests.

But now those days are different.

I think some, some politicians are resistant to coming on shows like this or on perspectives.

So and and the the book tours aren't what they used to be.

The publishers don't have the kind of money they used to have.

They used to send authors around the country to do interviews.

They don't do that as much anymore.

So it's going to be a little bit more challenging.

We're interested in Florida politicians.

We're interested in Florida activists to write, and we're interested in everybody in between.

Is there is there a topic that maybe you didn't get into as much as you wanted to, and you're looking forward to doing that on Perspectives?

You know, Paul.

Grove, the CEO now here at Channel 3, were in charge.

He'd say, do sports.

And so and there's a lot of interesting sports stories out there.

I'm not sure I'm the best one to do sports.

You know, I'm really interested in great authors and everything.

Yeah, I'm interested in everything.

I'm interested in history.

Um, you know, we've had some of the great historians on locally.

Ray Arsenault has been on Bill Maxwell, the journalist from the Tampa Bay Times has been on.

Those would be the kind of people I'd like to interview.

I'd like to.

Rodney Kite-Powell.

Rodney Kite-Powell from the History Center.

History center.

Really, really great guy.

I mean, those would be the kind of people I'd like to interview is people that have an interesting story to tell, maybe in a hidden part of our history.

Or maybe there's something that we don't know about the state of Florida that we should be talking about.

But I want to try to uncover something and not just do the kind of folks that you see all the time on TV.

Any surprises?

Was there ever something that happened on the set that you said, oh my gosh, I did not see that coming.

Uh, that.

You can talk about.

On TV.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, we.

Used to have we had, Howard Troxler used to try to crack us up.

He was a columnist for the Tampa Bay times and before that, the Tampa Tribune.

And Howard would try to crack us up and would make the most obscene gestures.

Oh my gosh.

But but my friend Mark Proctor, who was a regular on the show, would always come with a prop.

And so when it was Super Bowl time to come, he would brag and he would show his Super Bowl tickets.

And then one time when somebody had decided to jump into an important local race, he brought out a rubber chicken.

And he said, this politician can look forward to a lot of these kind of dinners.

And he held up the chicken.

The chicken was so funny because it just bounced up and down.

But Mark, I love Mark's props.

So any advice for me?

You leave.

Well, you're already an experienced.

You're already an experienced journalist, so I know you can handle it.

I guess my advice was would be take them out to Ford Green Fields.

They closed down.

So you've got to find a new place.

Thank you so much and best wishes to you.

and we look forward to seeing you on Perspectives.

Thanks, Lissette and good luck.

Thank you and thanks for watching.

Send your comments about this program to FTW at wedu.org.

Remember, this show is on every Friday night at 8:30pm and Sunday afternoons at 12:30pm, and you can also find us anytime on YouTube.

For WEDU, I'm Lissette Campos.

Have a great weekend!

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