Bringing Down Curtain on Firing Line, Buckley Passes Torch To 'Worthy Successor' - Uncommon Knowledge and Its Emmy-Nominee Host Peter Robinson

    WASHINGTON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- After announcing earlier this year that
 the final episode of Firing Line will air on December 31, 1999, ending a 34-
 year run as one of the most popular public affairs programs on television,
 William F. Buckley Jr. today announced that he is naming a "worthy successor."
 In a letter to PBS station managers, Buckley recommended that the program
 Uncommon Knowledge fill the void left by Firing Line.
     "I feel a responsibility to pass on the torch to Peter Robinson and his
 television program, Uncommon Knowledge," Buckley wrote.
     Uncommon Knowledge, on the air since 1996, has attracted a wide viewership
 across America.  The stations are in New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles,
 San Francisco and in other cities.  Former White House speechwriter and author
 Peter Robinson, who hosts this lively discussion of domestic and international
 issues, was recently nominated for an Emmy Award by the Northern California
 Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
     "Uncommon Knowledge is now poised, I believe, to enjoy the prominence we
 have enjoyed at Firing Line," Buckley wrote. "I am recommending to you
 Uncommon Knowledge in the hope that it will fill the need for thoughtful
 public affairs programming that so many Firing Line viewers have come to
 appreciate."
 
 

SOURCE  White House Writers Group