Dankosky to be honored at Main Street gala

A Winsted resident who hosts one of the most recognized radio shows in the region will be honored next month by the Connecticut Main Street Center (CMSC) during the organization’s annual Main Street Awards Gala Monday, June 6, at the Warner Theatre’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre in Torrington.John Dankosky, news director at WNPR and host of the network’s live call-in show, “Where We Live,” will accept a Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) Award for Outstanding Contributions to Main Street Revitalization on behalf of the network and his popular radio show, which explores timely events and issues in communities throughout the state.Already a winner of numerous journalism and broadcasting awards, Dankosky said this week that this particular award is special for him. “When people who don’t have to give you an award just give you something out of the blue and clearly understand what you’re trying to do, that makes you feel good,” he said. “We’ve been focusing on a lot of the same issues that Main Street organizations have been focusing on for years.”Dankosky, 41, moved to Winsted 12 years ago with his wife, Jennifer, and has watched with interest as the town’s Main Street has evolved. A public Main Street Enhancement Project completed its first phase in the early 2000s, and Winsted became an official Main Street community under the guidance of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Locally, the Friends of Main Street organization maintains Winsted’s membership with the CMSC.“In one of our early shows we did a walk-and-talk down Main Street in Winsted, but we’ve been to Norwich and a number of other Main Street communities,” Dankosky said. “Community revitalization is a big topic for us. We really want to focus on communities that are trying to revive themselves in some way.”Some Main Street projects seem to catch on faster than others, but Dankosky said it is the shared enthusiasm among all of the people involved that he sees as inspiring and newsworthy. “One of the real positive things about Main Street projects is you have built-in activists who can talk about their work toward revitalization. It may not be entirely successful right away, but they all seem to point in a positive direction.”Dankosky was a resident of Hartford and prior to that, Pittsburgh, before settling in the Laurel City. “We were living in the West End of Hartford and we wanted to buy a house,” he recalled. “We knew about Winsted because we had been coming out to the Gilson Theater, this place where we could have food, drink beers and watch a movie. We started coming out on Saturdays and Sundays because we liked the place a lot.”The Dankoskys settled on a Hillside Avenue home and have been happy residents ever since. “We love living here,” he said. “It’s a nice part of the world. We hike on weekends and travel to Great Barrington and the Berkshires all the time. We’re thrilled to be close to so much interesting stuff.”A broadcaster and journalist for the past two-plus decades, Dankosky is also a jazz aficionado and drummer. He regularly engages in a bit of historic preservation of his own by interviewing noted jazz musicians. One of his favorite memories is an onstage interview with Dave Brubeck at the Litchfield Jazz Festival in 1998 (www.cpbn.org/program/where-we-live/episode/dave-brubeck-and-paquito-driv...). During state and federal elections, Dankosky organizes up-to-the-minute coverage of the polls on Connecticut Public Radio and each day manages some of the most information-filled news broadcasting in the world. Each day, he finds the time to deliver a live, hour-long broadcast of “Where We Live,” which in the past week has covered health care reform, reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden, a discussion of Afghanistan and Pakistan with Congressman Chris Murphy, a small business breakfast in Bridgeport and what it means to have good friends in your life.The CMSC’s annual awards ceremony will take place Monday, June 6, 5 p.m., at the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre, 69 Main St., Torrington. A Welcome to Main Street reception will be followed by the presentation of awards. For more information, visit www.ctmainstreet.org.