Programs/Content
A sneak peek at Native American series and specials airing this fall and beyond
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Historical documentaries, a rock ‘n’ roll film and series exploring cultural traditions are cued up for public TV premieres.
System/Policy
For Los Angeles’ KLCS, spectrum auction proceeds will relieve licensee of financial burden
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The school board–owned station may not see much of a bump to its annual budget.
Stations
KCETLink’s new programming schedule reveals balancing act
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Brand-new and renewed shows, plus a web series with Mark Bittman, signal a continued effort to thrive in the post-PBS era at the station.
Programs/Content
KCETLink and the Los Angeles Times launch events series
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The series is expected to be a yearlong experiment to reach a wider audience using KCETLink’s viewers and the Times’ web and print properties.
People
KCETLink selects former ABC Family executive as new president
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Michael Riley, a former head of ABC Family, is the new president of Los Angeles-based KCETLink, the independent public media station and satellite TV channel. Riley succeeds Al Jerome, the KCET executive who led what had been PBS’s flagship station in Los Angeles through its acrimonious 2011 split from PBS. He spearheaded the station’s subsequent merger with noncommercial satellite broadcaster Link TV in October 2012. Dick Cook, board chair for KCETLink Media Group, cited Riley’s “strong track record in brand-defining content creation, strategic partnerships, acquisitions and digital leadership — both domestically and across international markets” in Monday’s announcement. Riley began in the job immediately.
System/Policy
In historic first, LA pubTV stations agree to share spectrum for auction proceeds
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Pubcasters KCETLink and KLCS in Los Angeles have agreed to participate in the upcoming FCC spectrum auction through a channel-sharing partnership that could earn them more than $32 million.
Quick Takes
Afternoon roundup: SoCal Connected returns; Johnson to lead Colorado pubTV
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Plus: Kansas threatens to eliminate state pubcasting funding, more on Chip Rogers’ exit from GPB, and pubmedia’s 2015 Nieman Fellows.
Quick Takes
Friday roundup: Heartbleed poses danger for newsrooms; PRPD elects new chair
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Plus: KCETLink has some laughs, the CBC cuts more than 600 jobs and WCRB searches for a sonic logo.
People
After 18 years leading KCET, Al Jerome announces retirement
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Al Jerome, the broadcasting executive who led Los Angeles public television station KCET out of PBS membership and into a partnership with satellite network Link TV, is retiring within the next six months, KCETLink announced today. Jerome has served as president of KCET for 18 years and is only the third person to lead the organization in its 50-year history. He will stay on through September and assist in the search for his successor, the statement said. He joined KCET in February 1996 after a 30-year career in commercial broadcasting at NBC, CBC and ABC. During Jerome’s tenure the station won 69 Emmys, seven George Foster Peabody awards, five duPont-Columbia awards and the Edward R. Murrow Award.
Development
Facing financial woes, KCETLink to focus on ‘transmedia’
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KCETLink laid off 22 full-time employees April 19, signaling another change of course in the Los Angeles public media organization’s search for financial stability.
People
KCETLink’s Marcus exits, recalling ‘great run’ with SoCal Connected
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Bret Marcus, the KCET exec who led production of the station’s acclaimed local news series SoCal Connected, is among the 22 employees riffed in the layoffs announced last week by KCETLink, the new public media outlet formed in a merger of the Los Angeles pubTV station with noncommercial satellite channel Link TV. Marcus, a former commercial TV news executive, served as KCET’s chief content officer and executive producer of the award-winning SoCal Connected, the local public TV news show that had a storied history producing investigative series and other news reports that made a difference in communities in the region. “I feel like I had a great run there,” Marcus told Current. SoCal Connected and its predecessor, California Connected, “were very unusual programs, produced by some of the best people in the news business. I’m very pleased about that.”