Current (https://current.org/2004/06/)
NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin asks whether the network’s music reviews are too “incomprehensible” to most listeners. “They seem to tell most of us not to bother listening — this information is not for you, but only for the people who are part of the scene,” he writes.
NPR’s Bob Edwards has received about 20 job offers in radio, TV and academia since March, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. “I’m listening,” he says.
Other print media have failed to make the transition to TV, but a report published in the San Jose Mercury News about the New York Times’s TV venture with Discovery Communications says the cable channel has a distinct Timesness.
The Washington Post reports on Discovery Communications’ new business delivering streamed video to classrooms. “The long-term hope is that as households become better wired, we can provide a digital library,” says Donald Baer, senior executive of strategy. “Once we deliver in the education field, Discovery will be the brand you can trust and bring into the home.”
Bob Edwards tells the Memphis Commercial Appeal that he has “not a clue” what his specific reporting duties will be at NPR, and doesn’t quibble with a reporter’s assertion that Morning Edition has lost its distinctiveness.
Blogger and public radio programmer Eric Nuzum is joining NPR in August as program and acquisitions manager, a new position.
NPR ombudsman Jeffrey A. Dvorkin addresses listener queries about the influence of fundraising concerns on the network’s editorial decisions in this column on NPR.org. Though he writes that there is a growing concern about the issue “both outside and inside NPR,” Dvorkin concludes that “it would take more than a few Wal-Mart underwriting messages” to corrupt the network’s journalistic integrity. (via Romenesko)
Big PDF of a conversation between Ira Glass, host of This American Life, and graphic novelist Chris Ware.
In a financial report (PDF), the c.f.o. of Pacifica warns that the network “cannot survive” its current level of spending on governance, which includes the cost of its elaborate board elections.
You won’t see Bob Edwards on TV anytime soon. “It’s so bogus,” he tells the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “They put makeup on you. There are cardboard bookcases behind you. I can’t feel normal.”
“If you can make it through this show without crying, consider yourself a stoic.” The Boston Globe reviews Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues, an American Masters documentary debuting tonight on PBS.
Around Town, WETA-TV’s last regularly scheduled local series, is being reformatted into interstitial spots, reports the Washington Post. Television V.P. Kevin Harris, who decided to end the show’s 18-year run as a weekly, aims to reach more viewers by sprinkling segments on local arts and culture into primetime program breaks. “We think it’s changing into a really dynamic format,” Harris told the Post.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press covers Minnesota Public Radio’s groundbreaking on its big new headquarters in downtown St. Paul. (Reg. req.)
In a June 16 New York Times op-ed, NPR’s Juan Williams praised George W. Bush and advised him on how to attract more black votes. On Morning Edition, Williams regularly interviews members of Bush’s administration.
Nap Turner, a fixture on the Washington, D.C., jazz and blues scene and a deejay on Pacifica’s WPFW-FM, died yesterday. The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher remembers him.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch media writer Eric Mink lauds Frontline’s Ofra Bikel in this column. (via mediabistro.com)
The Chicago Tribune profiles Chicago Public Radio host Gretchen Helfrich and her nationally distributed talk show, Odyssey.
NPR will invest $15 million over the next three years in news programming, the network announced today. The money comes from the payout of the invested Joan Kroc gift.
KVCR-FM in San Bernardino, Calif., may drop A Prairie Home Companion, reports the San Bernardino County Sun. Larry Ciecalone, g.m. of KVCR, tells Current that a new affiliation fee from Minnesota Public Radio has prompted the decision. The crunch also led to program cuts at WRVO-FM in Oswego, N.Y.
The Christian Science Monitor writes up low-power FM and, in an editorial, backs the Senate bill that would expand LPFM.