A Conversation with Dale Goter

Government Relations Director, City of Wichita

For nearly two decades, Dale Goter has been the celebrity of Kansas public television. It is my pleasure to share a table with him at Cibola, where Goter is treated to a specially prepared salmon salad and blue crab cakes.

Goter left his chair as KPTS public affairs editor in the fall of 2006 to work as a government relations director for the City of Wichita. This places him up close and personal with the people he invited to appear on his show, but in a different setting. Instead of championing the cause of public TV and giving legislators and the press an opportunity to sit in front of a camera, he’s lobbying for the concerns of the state’s largest city.

Along with moderating the state’s top political debates, Goter appeared several nights a week on KPTS-TV in a format sometimes referred to as “Goter Vision.” The shows he moderated on public television that aired across the state—Kansas Week, On the Record and Ask Your Legislator—may not have rivaled the viewership of the Super Bowl, but sometimes conversations between guests ignited a spark or two.

The most contentious segment happened two years ago, he says, and was also one of the best: he paired up Senator David Atkins and the Reverend Terry Fox to represent both sides of the gay marriage amendment. “They had two very defined positions. There was no love lost between them.”

As a moderator, he’s made it a habit not to assert his opinion, but as for Fox and the Rev. Joe Wright, two of Kansas’ most outspoken clergy members, Goter says, “Whether you agree with them, they’re at least sticking their toes in the water and getting people to pay attention to them. How far it goes is part of the debate. Certainly they’ve done more good than harm.”

When guests weren’t easily recognized, when the topic wasn’t supercharged, short-on-attention channel surfers stumbling onto a Goter program in mid-sentence may have only landed there a second or two before clicking on to other channels. But to thousands of thinking, politically savvy Kansans who wanted to know what was going on at the statehouse, Goter and his programs have provided a very valuable service.

 “Sometimes the presentation broke down because people weren’t interesting in their style,” he admits. “But if I put them on the air, I thought it was important and had enough interest for thirty minutes, anyway.”

Wichitans, he’s convinced, are not as engaged in state politics as Topekans. “In the statehouse, viewership is 100 percent. Across the street, it’s 80 percent. By the time Topeka is in the mirror, it’s about 2 percent.” Still, “it’s worth pursuing the public affairs agenda, but apathy is rampant and isn’t unusual.”

Goter has been a fan of public TV since the days when he lived in Beatrice, Nebraska. He didn’t have a television but did have a Nielsen address, and filled out a television survey as a PBS viewer. Radio broadcaster Paul Harvey somehow heard this story, Goter says, and once used it to illustrate the superficiality of TV ratings.

He was inspired to join the fourth estate while witnessing media’s role as a watchdog during the Watergate Era. “I was at Fort Riley at the time, playing the oboe with the 1st and 24th Division bands.” A Kansas State University graduate, Goter went from the Beatrice Daily Sun to the Salina Journal, then worked as a statehouse correspondent for Harris News Service before he landed at the KPTS studio.

While his new schedule requires him to spend a great deal of time in Topeka during legislative sessions, he says it’s a nice change. “I don’t have to call twelve people a week to get them scheduled for a show. I also don’t have to worry about where to get the next nickel from, to keep the enterprise going.”

For a long time, he says, it’s been about the money. Statehouse TV coverage started with a single camera donated by Kansas State University that was locked down to a desk. “Legislators would sit down and hook themselves up,” he recalls. Later, Goter secured a grant for $125,000 to buy more equipment and provided donations to upgrade the quality of statehouse coverage.

In 1997 he convinced the legislature to install a microwave link at the statehouse. “This enabled the state’s three public TV stations to broadcast the show in common carriage,” he explains. “Before then, the tape would arrive a couple of days later.” They also set up a link to the statehouse to shoot Kansas Week there so legislators wouldn’t have to drive down to Wichita.

Goter hopes the vitality of public affairs broadcasting in Kansas continues long after his KPTS tenure has ended. Still, he knows some issues may not be resolved for a long time, and others possibly will never see a final argument—wedge issues such as abortion, education, healthcare, taxes, gambling, and the ongoing state board of education debate regarding evolution.

Goter can claim he produced two of Kansas’ longest running public affairs shows, and he may well continue to share with TV viewers his ability to bring the issues before the public. After all, the City’s public access channel is just waiting for new ideas and energy.

Whether at the statehouse or in the studio, Goter has amassed the kind of knowledge that makes for interesting conversation. “I feel that, after seventeen years, I know where all the bodies are buried.”