Hopkins, Taskin To Broadcast Election Night ResultsBy Susan Bush
12:00AM / Monday, November 06, 2006
North Adams - Residents of several Northern Berkshire communities will have access to some live election night results courtesy of former news reporter Paul Hopkins and area attorney Richard Taskin.
Taskin and Hopkins will host an hour-long election watch and analysis on Northern Berkshire Community Television Channel 17 beginning at 8 p.m. on Nov. 7.
Hopkins is the director of community relations for Northern Berkshire Healthcare and a former Berkshire Broadcasting radio reporter whose work included publicizing election issues results. He is a former host of the "Opinion" WNAW 1230 radio program.
Taskin is a past chairman of the North Adams democratic City Committee and a former election night commentator for Berkshire Broadcasting radio stations.
"We plan to focus on the local races and we also plan to talk about some of the [U.S.] Senate and House races in other states that will have an impact on the makeup of the Congress," Hopkins said during a Nov. 6 interview.
He and Taskin hosted a NBCTV election night television program during the 2005 city elections and that coverage was appreciated, Hopkins said.
"We had a fairly lively discussion, I think, and we're hoping for that this time around," he said.
Plans include speaking to available candidates by telephone and the public is encouraged to call the hosts and share their thoughts about the campaigns and the election, said NBCTV Director David Fabiano.
"We're hoping to work with a couple of the candidates for telephone interviews and viewers can call in," he said. "We'll have people at the voting places checking results."
About 8 to 10 volunteers will work to bring voting results to the public during the broadcast, Fabiano said. Volunteers will also be working to gather voting results for some of the national races as well, he said.
"At the end of our night, we do tell people our results are preliminary," he said but added that several years ago, a NBCTV election night event announced a particular person had won a council term while other media outlets reported the outcome differently.
The NBCTV report turned out to be correct, he said.
Residents of Adams, North Adams, Clarksburg and Cheshire are able to access the NBCTV Channel 17. Those interested in participating with the call-in portion of the program may call 1-413-664-4408 during the live Nov. 7 event.
Susan Bush may be reached via e-mail at suebush@iberkshires.com or at 802-823-9367. |
