About State Circle
Fridays, 7pm
For balanced reporting on political happenings, Marylanders have turned to MPT's State Circle for more than 30 years. No other source brings you as much legislative news during the General Assembly session - and now it continues year-round. Host Jeff Salkin and reporter Charles Robinson bring you up-to-the-minute, in-depth analysis of major issues and pending bills. Interviews with experts shed light on various viewpoints and actions.
Jeff Salkin, News Anchor
Jeff Salkin is a Maryland native with over thirty years' experience as a broadcast journalist at television and radio stations in the Baltimore and Washington markets
He joined Maryland Public Television (MPT) in 1991 and has become one of the most respected and recognizable journalists on the local public affairs scene. During his tenure with MPT he has served as moderator for political debates, hosted live coverage of the annual State of the State address, inaugurations, and numerous broadcast town hall meetings, and has anchored MPT's weekly State Circle broadcast during the Maryland General Assembly session each year.
As MPT's executive producer of Bloomberg Morning News, a weekday financial news report that aired in the 1990s, Mr. Salkin helped create and launch the program. It was a co-production of MPT and Bloomberg L.P. and was syndicated nationally to PBS stations.
In 2001, he began serving as anchor for Maryland Public Television's weeknight program, Direct Connection with Jeff Salkin, a community affairs interview show that made its debut on October 1 of that year.
He is an alumnus of Baltimore's Gilman School and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Salkin resides in Howard County with his wife and three daughters.
Charles Robinson, Correspondent
Charles F. Robinson, III, is an award winning journalist who works in television, radio, and print. Born in Richmond, VA, Robinson grew up in Baltimore, MD, and began his journalism career by delivering the Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper while still in junior high school.
Since 2001 he has served Maryland Public Television as a political reporter for State Circle. Currently he is the associate producer on the MPT's Hard Working Families series, which recently won a CINE Golden Eagle award.
During Robinson's career, he has worked in television as a reporter (WWBT-TV, Richmond, VA; WPEC-TV; West Palm Beach, FL; WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, OH) and national correspondent (BET); radio as news director (WEAA-FM, Baltimore, MD), political analyst (WEAA-FM, Baltimore, MD), and executive producer (TPT Radio Network, Washington, DC); and print as editor-in-chief (Sphinx Magazine).
During his career, he has covered the impact of the Rodney King verdict; the story behind the monument to the Amistad revolt; the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, and the Million Man March. His coverage of Nelson Mandela's first trip to the United States won him an award from the National Association of Black Journalist (1991).
Robinson attended Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, where began his career in broadcasting at the campus radio station WJRB (now WVCW). WVCW was named by Billboard Magazine in 1979 as one of the most innovative college campus radio stations in the nation.