E-Mail This Article to a Friend WBUR’s new boss learns the ropes Plus, the comedy team of Woodward and Bernstein, and scary tales from the land of community journalism BY MARK JURKOWITZ
	MORE » Video • Woodward and Bernstein at Harvard forum, "Anonymous Sources: Lessons Learned" » Related links •WBUR: This is the Web site for the powerful local public-radio outlet now being run by veteran television executive Paul La Camera. "Deep Throat," Read the groundbreaking Vanity Fair story about the FBI official who was the secret source for the Watergate duo.

New WBUR general manager Paul La Camera has added two touches to the office formerly occupied by Jane Christo, the GM who resigned last year during a management scandal after running the station for a quarter-century.

The new décor includes an autographed sketch of director Alfred Hitchcock given to La Camera’s father, who worked as a TV columnist at the memorably gritty and long-gone Boston Record American. Then there’s the TV installed by La Camera, who spent 33 years at Channel 5 — the last 11 as general manager and president.

"There was no television set," he says, somewhat incredulously.

It’s fair to say that the station’s staff and listeners felt some trepidation when — to most observers’ surprise — WBUR announced in September that a veteran local TV executive was taking over one of the most powerful outlets in the NPR firmament.

"I’m sure they have some stereotypes about people who work in commercial broadcasting," says the silver-haired, 62-year-old La Camera, who speaks at a rapid, purposeful pace. From the station’s loyal audience, the new GM says he often heard the question: "Are you going to turn WBUR into Channel 5?"

"They’re worried I’m going to take WBUR down the path of too much localism," says the man running a radio outlet that has produced such syndicated fare as The Connection, On Point, Here and Now, and Only a Game. But, he says, "I would never, ever tinker" with the national or international programming.

La Camera’s ascension followed a period of dramatic upheaval at the station. After the management scandal that generated splashy headlines and stories revealing WBUR had run up deficits of more than $13 million, Christo — a master programmer and innovator but an autocratic and divisive boss — resigned in October 2004. She was temporarily replaced by Peter Fiedler, son of the late Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler and an assistant vice-president at Boston University.

During his yearlong tenure, Fiedler acted as a calming influence for a skittish staff and did some of the dirty work — most notably canceling The Connection — that freed La Camera to come in with a clean slate.

"There is still a lot of residual feeling about The Connection and [host] Dick Gordon and I still hear that from people," says La Camera. Gordon recently landed at North Carolina public-radio station WUNC and is planning to launch a nationally syndicated show from there. La Camera says that WBUR officials are "going to keep an open mind" about picking up that show.

La Camera, who started at WBUR in early October, calls himself "a delegator." And the expectation is he will use his beefy Rolodex to help strengthen fundraising and the station’s bottom line. He says the station — operating with a roughly $20 million budget — attracts about $8.5 million in annual corporate underwriting, nearly $8 million in listener memberships, and about $1.2 million in philanthropic giving. It’s that last category that’s a problem.

"That’s not a significant number," he says. "That’s the number we need to grow."

La Camera says WBUR is also hiring four new local reporters, focusing on business and technology, health and science, arts and culture, and state politics, who will contribute mostly to Morning Edition and All Things Considered. "We need to bring the same degree of resources and excellence to our local reporting [that] we do on On Point and Here and Now," he says. He also states that one "long-term goal," is to create a WBUR version of Channel 5’s venerable evening magazine show Chronicle.

So far, the outgoing and personable La Camera appears to be getting a positive reception from the troops.

"He seems to be doing the right things," says one staffer. "He is thinking big on larger projects. I’m just happy there’s a focus on local news." Another employee says La Camera "is much more engaged on the news end of things than we would have expected."

La Camera waxes positively effusive about the staff, lauding their dedication and skill. But with a smile, he admits that "I wish they’d watch a little more prime-time television so I’d have someone to talk about last night’s episode of Lost with."

THE WATERGATE SUPER DUO DO HARVARD

They entered Harvard’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Monday evening like a popular comedy team on a reunion tour. The Washington Post’s Watergate duo of Carl Bernstein (now 61, gray, and thick) and Bob Woodward (62 and aging more gracefully) were together again in a rare joint appearance to discuss the hot topic of anonymous sources.

In the three decades since they helped drive a president from power, the two have taken divergent career paths. Woodward, still at the Post, keeps cranking out bestsellers, frequently chats with Larry King on CNN, and remains a very influential journalist. Bernstein, who left the Post in 1977, has worked at ABC, Time, and is now contributing editor at Vanity Fair, but has been markedly less visible than his former colleague.

The two teamed up after what has been a tumultuous year. In May, Vanity Fair outed W. Mark Felt as the famous "Deep Throat" Watergate source. And Woodward created his own media furor after the recent revelation that he remained silent for several years about his conversation with an administration source concerning outed CIA agent Valerie Plame.

For a good part of the evening, the duo kept the audience entertained with war stories and easy banter. Woodward described the frantic call he got from Bernstein after President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. "He said the following," Woodward recalled: "The son of a bitch pardoned the son of a bitch."

Asked by an audience member about the lessons of Watergate reporting, Woodward replied, "night work. We were night urchins." Bernstein interjected, "We were single. Nobody’s keepin’ us home."

"And you couldn’t get a date," countered Woodward to peals of laughter. (Ba-da-bing).

Over the course of the evening, it became clear just how different the two men are. Woodward is cool, objective, and cautious. Bernstein is hot, opinionated, and impulsive. Throughout the seminar, Bernstein — dominating the conversation — eagerly blasted away at President Bush, calling his an "administration that routinely lied in a way that few presidents ... have lied. And in a Nixonian way, they go after their enemies." He also voiced the hope that Woodward, in his upcoming book, would look at "the question of whether we have a president who may or may not be competent."