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From YouTube: CityTalk with John McIntire: David Finer
Description
On the 2021 season premiere of CityTalk, John interviews David Finer from City Channel Pittsburgh and the Department of Innovation & Performance.
A
Welcome
to
city
talk
another
zoom
remote
edition,
as
we
are
all
isolated
during
the
seemingly
never-ending
global
pandemic.
I'm
john
mcintyre
and
say
hello
to
our
first
guest,
the
guy,
who
is
the
head
of
the
whole
shooting
match
the
head
of
the
whole
shebang:
the
king
of
the
cable
station
and
the
youtube
channel
for
that
matter.
For
the
city
of
pittsburgh,
veteran
broadcaster
and
all
around
groovy
guy
david
feiner,
david
welcome
to
city
talk.
You
know.
B
John,
thank
you.
First
of
all,
thank
you.
I
was
thinking
about
this
the
other
day
we
saw
each
other
last
week
for
the
first
time
in
months,
maybe
six
or
seven
years
ago,
or
something
yeah
yeah,
and
I
was
thinking
about
this.
You
know
in
the
90s
when
snl
was
when
they,
when,
when
saturday
night
live
hit
its
15th
anniversary,
they
started
having
contests
between
the
hosts
like
tom,
hanks
and
steve
martin
and
people
who
have
hosted
the
show
a
certain
number
of
times
right,
the
five-timers
club
yeah,
the
five-time.
A
A
A
B
Well,
if
you
were
in
providence
john,
you
were
only
an
hour
from
where
I
grew
up.
I
grew
up
in
plymouth
massachusetts
for
those
that
their
ears
start
ringing,
that
is
plymouth
rock
mayflower,
floam
plantation
1620
thanksgiving
all
that,
and
does
everybody
get
their
own
plymouth
rock?
Yes,
it's
part
of
the
initiation
process.
You
get
stoned
by
many
people
and
if
you
don't
die,
you
get
to.
A
B
B
So
I
I
was
always
interested
in
in
the
concept
of
television
when
I
got
to
high
school.
I
wanted
to
be
the
the
next
great
anchor
on
sportscenter,
but
then
realized
really
quickly.
I
have
a
face
for
radio
and
when
I
got
to
college
I
I
learned
that
there
were
things
going
on
behind
the
camera
and
I
got
really
interested
in
those
things.
It
seemed
like
those
people
were
having
a
lot
more
fun
than
the
people
sitting
in
front
of
the
cameras.
B
Reading
teleprompters
I
worked
in
public
access
stations
all
over
massachusetts
and
I
met
a
woman
from
squirrel
hill.
She
was
doing
her
phd
at
the
university
of
rhode
island
near
where
you
still
you
used
to
work
and
fell
in
love
got
married
and
we
we
spent
some
time
in
vermont.
We
spent
about
three
years
in
vermont
and
we
moved
to
pittsburgh
in
2012.
and.
A
B
We
were
two
miles
from
the
new
york
state
line
and
eight
miles
from
the
massachusetts
state
line,
and
I
was
working
in
northwest
in
a
town
called
williamstown,
also
in
television
and
I've.
Just
since
it's
been
since
1994,
but
1998
full-time,
and
I
have
worked
in
all
kinds
of
roles
from
host
tv
show
host
to
producer
to
director
editor
camera
person.
B
B
B
A
B
My
understanding
is
that
in
the
80s
and
90s,
the
city
channel
was
a
robust
staff
of
dozens
of
people.
Engineers,
producers,
writers
and
people
were
running
around
doing
the
things
that
that
a
broadcast
channel
would
do,
but
over
the
years
because
of
budget
cuts
and
a
lot
of
issues
that
happened
before
I
got
here.
B
B
B
Watching
the
city
council
meeting,
I
I've
said
to
the
staff
many
times
and
I'm
sure
they're
sick
of
hearing
me
say
it.
I
don't
want
to
be
the
first
anything
I
want
to
be
the
I'm
sorry.
I
don't
want
to
be
the
second
anything
I
want
to
be
the
first
something,
and
so
as
much
as
I
loved
the
schoolhouse
rock
videos.
When
I
was
a
child,
I
don't
think
that's
the
that's
the
way
we
want
to
go.
B
Yeah,
so
when
I
took
over
the
channel
I
wanted
to
diversify
the
programming
quite
a
bit.
I
felt
that
not
only
were
we
not
doing
a
lot
of
programming
at
all,
but
what
we
were
doing
was
just
so
bland,
so
I
brought
in
a
lot
of
ideas
and
I
I
think
I'm
smart
enough
to
know
that
a
new
manager
doesn't
come
in
and
just
say
this
is
how
we're
doing
it
and
sweeping
changes
and
everything's
different
and
just
this
is
this.
Is
it
so?
B
I
figured
that
the
mayor
should
have
a
platform,
as
the
elected
leader
of
the
city,
to
explain
not
in
30-second
sound
bites
what
he
wanted
to
accomplish
your
interviews
with
city
employees
like
this
we
started
doing
a
couple
years
ago.
We
were
doing
these
90.
Second
employee
showcase
episodes
where
we
were
finding
city
employees
and
letting
them
tell
their
stories
in
90
seconds
or
less
josiah.
Gilliam
last
year
was
doing
our
neighbors
keeper,
rick
williams
from
the
mayor's
office
started.
Doing
inclusion
counts.
B
My
staff
laughed
at
me
the
first
year.
I
did
it,
but
I
I
did
in
the
winter
time,
in
the
middle
of
the
night,
I
played
the
city
channel
pittsburgh
fireplace
so
instead
of
just
looking
at
the
bulletin
board
over
and
over
there's
a
fireplace
and
the
running
joke
in
my
house
is,
if
I
see
it
on,
I
walk
up
to
it.
You
know
I
you
know.
Oh
it's.
Oh
it's
nice
and
warm
just
different
things
that
are
not
all
gavels
banging
press
conferences,
just
some
different
things.
A
A
B
No
one's
ever
called
me,
the
king
of
the
cable
station.
I
can
tell
you
that
you're,
I
think
you're,
the
only
one
that
does
call
me
that
okay,
my
title
is
communication
technology
manager
and
it's
evolved
a
little
bit
over
the
years.
But
in
plain
english
I
I'm
the
manager
for
city
channel
pittsburgh.
A
Makes
sense
to
me
so
suddenly,
instead
of
being
able
to
go
to
city
council
meetings
and
go
in
person
to
the
mayor's
press
conferences
and
whatever
other
events,
people
were
staging
in
the
halls
of
the
city
county
building
you
couldn't
go
anywhere
and
because
none
of
us
could
because
of
covid.
So
how
on
earth
did
you
evolve?.
B
B
That
kind
of
thing
like
my
dad
used
to
do,
but
I
didn't
even
know
where
to
start
and
city
council
said
we're
not
meeting
in
person
anymore,
we're
not
meeting
on
the
phone.
We've
got
to
be
able
to
meet
on
the
internet,
and
my
staff
took
this
opportunity
to
take
a
crash
course
in
internet
broadcasting.
B
And
came
to
me
and
said:
we
are
going
to
suggest
zoom
that
we
think
this
is
the
best
option
for
us
for
everything
we
need
and
the
four
of
us
jumped
on
zoom.
Within
days
we
had
a
how-to
guide.
We
were
streaming
to
youtube.
I
had
never
done
any
kind
of
streaming
before
in
my
life
and
we
just
knew
that
we
had
to
do
it.
It
was
new,
it
was
exciting.
I
I
used
the
word
exciting,
but
it
wasn't
exciting.
It
was
very
scary.
B
Nobody
I
mean
everybody
remembers.
Suddenly
we're
told
to
stay
at
home,
we're
not
going
outside
we're
not
going
anywhere,
but
it
was
exciting
because
we
were
doing
something
new
and
my
staff
alex
bill
and
joy.
They
really
enjoy
challenges,
and
so
what
we
were
able
to
do
is
take
everybody
from
being
together
in
person
and
put
them
on
the
computer.
B
A
B
A
Yeah
yeah,
I'm
blown
away
by
the
technology.
I've
been
doing
occasionally
in
my
capacity
as
a
regular
human,
not
as
a
city
talk
host
facebook
live,
and
it
amazes
me
that
when
I
first
was
doing
live
shots
in
local
tv
news,
you
had
to
have
an
engineer
and
a
photographer,
and
somebody
knew
what
they
were
doing
at
the
mast
up
and
down.
Now
you
just
have
an
iphone
and
you
press
a
button
and
you're
live
yeah.
B
Crazy,
it's
actually
quite
amazing.
We
I
remember
a
couple
years
ago,
mayor
peduto
hosted
the
vice
premier
of
china,
and
there
was
a
lot
of
chinese
press
here
covering
the
visit
and
many
of
the
reporters
were
holding
a
selfie
stick
and
their
iphone,
and
just
talking-
and
I
remember
thinking
I
remember
thinking-
that's
the
future
of
television-
is
not
a
camera
person,
not
cables
wires,
backpacks
tripods
batteries,
it's
going
to
be
phones.
B
I
never
I
sort
of
forgot
about
that.
Until
this
all
happened,
but
you're
right,
the
facebook
live
youtube
stream.
We
have
all
learned
as
best
we
as
much
as
we
can
as
quickly
as
we
can,
and
we've
tried
to
perfect
it
over
the
over
time,
so
that
mistakes
aren't
made
one
of
the
things
that
people
may
not
know
is
when
you're
doing
a
youtube
stream
or
a
facebook
live
stream
is
that
the
stream
is
actually
anywhere
between
20
and
40
seconds
behind,
what's
happening
kind
of
like
your
old
seven
second
delay.
A
B
B
I
do
I
really
do
I've
been
fortunate
enough
over
to
work
in
many
different
places,
with
many
different
people
for
many
different
bosses,
and
this
is
just
when
I
got
this
promotion.
My
wife
said
this
is
really
your
your
dream
job
and
I
I
think
it
is
the
the
things
that
I've,
the
talents
that
I
have
and
the
knowledge
that
I
have
I've
really
been
able
to
tackle
this
job.
B
B
If
you
look
at
the
channel
10
years
ago
versus
now,
I
didn't,
I
didn't,
do
the
work
per
se,
but
I
nudged
nudged
the
staff
to
do
a
little
more
make
it
a
little
prettier
and
I
think
it
shows
with
the
the
quality
of
the
production,
the
amount
of
production
and
I
really
enjoy
coming
here
and
giving
the
city
my
opinion
or
my
talent
to
make
city
channel
pittsburgh
better.
And
how
have
you
been
coping
with
kobe
you're
going
to
have
to
define
coping.
A
B
Depending
on
how
you
look
at
it,
I
come
to
work
so
we're
not.
She
is
working
at
home
and
my
son's
in
a
hybrid
system
going
to
school,
but
we're
we're
not
on
top
of
each
other
in
each
other's
face
all
day
long
every
day,
coping
I
think,
the
longer
this
goes
on
the
more.
I
wonder
why
it's
still
going
on
medical
experts
that
I
know
and
respect
have
said
all
it
takes.
Is
four
weeks
of
everyone
wearing
a
mask
and
we'd
be
over
this.