Larry Rafkin, Author of "No Dead Air," Comes to Watertown Library.

Larry Rifkin presented his book “No Dead Air” on March 29, 2022, at the Watertown Library. He shared his experiences in the local broadcasting space and his success in bringing Barney and Friends and UConn women’s basketball to Connecticut Public Television (CPTV).

Rifkin has spent more than five decades in broadcasting, from radio, television, and now podcasting. Throughout his talk, he emphasized the importance of local broadcasting.

Rafkin worked for Connecticut Public Television during a time when it was specifically small. Rafkin said, “CPTV used to get a grand for operation purposes. We had no lifeboat if we made a big financial mistake, we were out there on our own. We had to be a little aggressive, that’s where I come into the story.”

Rafkin continued saying there were very few television stations at the time that took the initiative CPTV did. In 1989 CPTV received five regional Emmy awards, which caught the eyes of The New York Times. The same occurred in 1994.

At the beginning of Rafkins’ career as the head of programming for the local state of Connecticut, his only goal was to do great local programming. Afterward, he started doing programs in New England. He did Lighthouses in New England, Islands of New England, Vampires of New England which were sent out across America.

Rafkin also talks about one of the most successful and the biggest programs to come out of the state of Connecticut which was Barney and Friends.

He shared the story of how the show came to local television. He said, “In 1991 my daughter picked up ‘Day at the Beach: Barney and the Backyard Gang.’ The next day after watching her excitement and her enthusiasm and her passion, dad has to take a look. I had the temerity the next day to call the woman on the box. I said ‘Have you ever thought about PBS?’ That led to a four-month journey where we ended up with 2.25 million dollars from the corporation for public broadcasting and PBS to test Barney and Friends.”

The next biggest local franchise to come out of CPTV spearheaded by Rafkin was UConn women’s basketball broadcasted games. This program has the highest ratings on national public television. On a single night, they were able to raise over $100,000. Rafkin proudly led this over the course of 18 years.

Rafkin now hosts the podcast “America Trends” where he analyzes political and societal changes. He tells the public to look out for a three-part documentary on Barney and Friends coming out this fall of Peacock.