• Don’t blame NPR brass for the cancellation of Tell Me More, writes Tracie Powell in the Columbia Journalism Review. Blame stations for declining to carry the show, scheduling it in weak time slots and failing to promote it during peak listening hours. Though NPR had been offering stations discounts and incentives to air the show, “its demise can be traced to member stations’ unwillingness to run shows that veer even the tiniest bit outside NPR’s traditional wheelhouse,” Powell writes.
• The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced Thursday that Antiques Roadshow will no longer feature ivory tusks for appraisal and has removed such appraisals from its series archive. Roadshow spokesperson Kate Hathaway Weeks told Current that the WCS statement “accurately reflected” the program’s new policy, adding that Roadshow has not taped any ivory tusk appraisals for the last three seasons. She added that the series “has worked closely” with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the issue “and now has an open dialogue” with WCS.
• An Atlanta fan of college radio station WRAS has found support on Twitter from musicians including Pete Yorn and Neko Case. Twitter user Chip_Long has been tweeting at celebs, rockers and rappers to bring attention to a deal that would give Georgia Public Broadcasting airtime on Georgia State University’s WRAS-FM. His prompts earned retweets from Case (102,000 followers) and Yorn (1.49 million), and Case’s longtime backup singer Kelly Hogan also tweeted about dozens of musical artists she discovered through the station.
hey @peteyorn Won a short reprieve Still need help to #SaveWRAS Short vid to watch & share.. http://t.co/RItdnY1nGw RT We are @wrasalbum88
— Chip Long (@Chip_Long) June 5, 2014
hey @NekoCase @hoganhere We won a short reprieve but still need help to #SaveWRAS from takeover by @mygpb on 6/29-Pls RT We are @wrasalbum88
— Chip Long (@Chip_Long) June 5, 2014
.@SaveWRAS @wrasalbum88 Cocteau Twins. @kdlang Marti Jones. Cocktail Girls. Chowder Shouters. Evrything But the Girl. Feelies. X. #challenge
— Kelly Hogan (@hoganhere) June 5, 2014
.@jezdw @SaveWRAS @wrasalbum88 Nick Lowe. Swimming Pool Qs. Dreams So Real. Winter Hours. FLAT DUO JETS. Fetchin Bones. The Coolies. DQE.
— Kelly Hogan (@hoganhere) June 5, 2014
.@SaveWRAS @wrasalbum88 The DBs. The Godfathers. Fugazi. Beat Farmers. The Fluid. The Church. World Party. Southern Culture on the Skids.
— Kelly Hogan (@hoganhere) June 5, 2014
• Eight months after “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” first aired on Frontline without ESPN’s support, Hollywood is looking to keep the concussion discussion alive. Variety reports on three film projects in the works based on the story. One, produced by Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions, may star Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the forensic neuropathologist who was the documentary’s primary source on NFL brain injuries. That film would be based on a 2009 GQ article, while another at a separate studio would be an adaptation of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru’s book League of Denial (right), on which the Frontline episode is also based.