Voices of the Millennium

Voices of the Millennium

By BRIAN CARLSON
Alumni News staff

Dave Nuckolls’ first assignment as a producer at CNN was rather open-ended.

Look back over the past millennium, CNN told the 1986 NU broadcasting graduate. Identify dozens of issues and ideas that have shaped that epoch, ask hundreds of people from all walks of life for their takes on those issues and produce a yearlong series to ring in the new millennium.

The result is Voices of the Millennium, a series of 90-second segments that air throughout the day on CNN. Each segment is 90 seconds long and contains only interview clips — no narration.

“It’s smart people saying smart things about important issues,” said Nuckolls, a Fairbury native and 1986 NU graduate.

Nuckolls, who previously worked for Disney and ABC, came to CNN in August 1998. He quickly set to work on the Voices of the Millennium series.

Since the segments began airing in January, Nuckolls has been inundated with requests from people who wanted to appear in the series.

“People want to be in these pieces,” he said. “It’s almost a status symbol to be considered a ‘Voice of the Millennium.’”

Nuckolls said he had interviewed authors, doctors, scientists, political leaders, athletes, parents, kids, the man on the street – and a number of celebrities.

He has either interviewed, or plans to interview, former first couples Gerald and Betty Ford, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and George and Barbara Bush, and former first ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Nancy Reagan. Olympic gold medalists Greg Louganis and Nadia Comaneci were among other celebrities who participated.

But in producing the series, Nuckolls has also remembered his Nebraska roots. He has returned to Lincoln to film interviews, and several Nebraskans have appeared on the series.

“I knew I could come back to Nebraska and find lots of smart people to talk to,” he said.

In April, Nuckolls returned to Lincoln for another round of interviews. The return to Nebraska demonstrated the variety of experiences Nuckolls has had in filming the series.

The day before, he had interviewed former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his New York City office. On this April day in Nebraska, he said, he was waiting to interview former NU football coach Tom Osborne.

Among Nebraskans who have appeared in the Voices of the Millennium series are broadcasting professor Rick Alloway and junior broadcasting major Trisha Meuret.

The two appeared together in a segment, aired early this year, in which they discussed the role of the family in the new millennium.

Alloway said he discussed the makeup of the family in the future. With more children staying at home longer, more families may take on the character of the “extended families” that were common at the turn of this century, he said.

“The definition of a family, with mom, dad, 2.3 kids and 2.1 dogs, may no longer apply,” he said.

In her interview, Meuret said the family would maintain its central place in society.

“The family is the core unit of everything, and that’s not going to change in the next millennium,” she said.

Meuret said she did not see the segment when it first aired. She was eating with friends at Old Chicago in Lincoln when she received a call on her cellular phone from a friend who had seen the segment. Meuret called her parents, who taped the segment later that day.

“Of course, my parents were proud because I was talking about family,” she said, laughing.

Nuckolls interviewed Alloway and Meuret last November. The two may also appear in future segments.

In his interview, Alloway also discussed radio’s impact on society. He said he took inspiration not so much from celebrity broadcasters but from local radio broadcasters who must carry out important tasks such as staying on the air all night during a storm.

“The real radio heroes to me are the people who work at local stations,” he said. “They are far more heroic to me.”

Alloway cautioned viewers not to take Voices of the Millennium prognostications too seriously, however.

“I’m sure most of us will be phenomenally wrong in our predictions,” he said.

Nuckolls continues to travel and produce video clips for the series, which will continue until Dec. 31.

Every business day, CNN airs two new segments, six times each. That is a total of 10 new segments each week, or 520 for the year.

Nuckolls said he was unsure what he would do when the series was completed, but as for now, he is enjoying his work.

“The challenge is just taking all these sound bites and, hopefully, keeping the theme intact when we edit them together.”