Sustainability-themed radio show debuts

By Kayla Habermehl | Originally Published: 09/09/08 7:13pm |Modified: 09/09/08 11:02pm | No comments

Hannah Engelson | The State News

Kirk Heinze, host of the “Greening of the Great Lakes” radio show, waits for his guest Steve Pueppke on Friday afternoon in Olds Hall. The radio show focuses on sustainability in the environment, economics and community. It airs at 7 p.m. Fridays.

A new radio program is broadcasting sustainability issues across the airwaves.

“Greening of the Great Lakes” is a collaboration between MSU and WJR (760-AM) in Detroit and focuses on sustainability issues, said Russ White, communications manager for University Relations.

“It’s everything from land use and water issues to alternative energy and biotechnology and everything in between,” White said. “We want to broadly define ‘green.’”

The program will air every Friday from 7-8 p.m. and can be heard on News/Talk 760 WJR in Detroit and East Lansing, said Jeff Marcero, the director of regional sales for WJR.

It is being hosted by Kirk Heinze, who has served on the MSU faculty in a variety of positions for the last three decades, most recently as the director of agriculture and natural resources communications, White said.

“We didn’t want a radio broadcast expert,” White said. “We wanted someone versed in the area.”

Heinze said the show’s main purpose is an educational one.

“The point is to bring on top experts who know about the issues and ask them tough questions, and listeners can decide on their own what they think about these issues,” he said.

The idea for the show came in May 2007 in a conversation between MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and Mike Feezey, the president and general manager of WJR, White said.

“They were talking and thought that the green movement was only getting hotter and was a topic that we could explore together,” White said.

The show is complemented by the “Greening of the Great Lakes” Web site — www.greeningofthegreatlakes.com — which launched before the radio show.

The first show was broadcast Friday and included interviews with guests Jeff Armstrong, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Kathy Lindahl, assistant vice president for finance and operations at MSU; and Tom Emmerich, the president of Schupan Recycling, Heinze said.

Topics covered included holistic sustainability, a “green” curriculum, balancing competing interests, making MSU a green campus and the growth of recycling, Heinze said.

The show will be posted on the Web site the week following the broadcast, Marcero said.