Quick Takes
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He’s no Elvis: The NPR fleece jacket purportedly worn by Bob Edwards has gone for $43 on eBay — $9 less than what you can pay for what looks like the same item at the NPR Shop.
Quick Takes
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Members of Metafilter discuss Minnesota Public Radio’s new KCMP, with reactions ranging from “Now I can finally listen to music on the radio again” to “I could be unlucky, but every time I turn it on it sucks.” More praise in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “The idea that Public Radio would venture beyond All Things Considered and the lesser-known works of Dvorak to offer an alternative to popular music is so sensible, both as a business and cultural decision, it is remarkable it took so long.”
Quick Takes
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When you’re Ira Glass’s girlfriend, “you have to put up with a lot of him thinking about his job rather than what’s going on in front of him,” says his squeeze in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
System/Policy
APTS, cablers craft digital carriage deal
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The Association of Public Television Stations has struck a deal with the
cable industry in which major cable operators will guarantee to carry as
many as four program streams from all public television stations in their
markets once the digital TV transition is complete. Public TV regards multicast carriage as essential if it is to take full advantage of digital broadcasting capabilities. Cable companies now are required to carry only stations’ primary video feeds—analog or digital—in the present period before the DTV transition is done. The agreement, yet to be ratified by stations, would be triggered when stations give back their analog spectrum. It will not affect multicast deals that stations or PBS have already negotiated with cable operators.
Education/Engagement
Buster to visit gay moms on some public TV channels
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At least five public TV stations have pledged to air a controversial episode of Postcards from Buster, dropped last week by PBS, that features two families headed by lesbian parents—despite strenuous objections by the nation’s new secretary of education, whose department provides significant funding for the series. About 20 other stations were considering running the show last week after viewing a preview tape that producer WGBH beamed by satellite to member stations on Thursday, said station spokeswoman Jeanne Hopkins. The controversy over the cartoon bunny comes at an awkward time for PBS, as it prepares to compete for renewed Ready to Learn funding from the Education Department. The agency has said it will divide a $24 million pot among as many as four grantees for five-year programming and outreach contracts. In the 10-year existence of the RTL program, CPB or PBS has administered the grants.
Quick Takes
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The Philadelphia Inquirer (signup required) says WHYY has joined the pubTV stations planning to air the Postcards from Buster episode condemned by the U.S. secretary of education for featuring same-sex parents. Major stations in Boston and New York City and the Vermont and New Jersey pubTV networks say they’ll run it, too. Others won’t air the show, including Alabama PTV (Birmingham News), Detroit PTV (Detroit News), KWBU in Waco, Texas (Waco Tribune-Herald) and South Carolina ETV. In related crisis news, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants said his kidvid characters aren’t gay. Even though they hold hands a lot, the cartoon sponge and starfish are “almost asexual,” PlanetOut.com reported.
Quick Takes
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Alberto Ibargüen, chairman of the PBS Board, will serve as president of the Knight Foundation. (Foundation press release.) He will step down as publisher of the Miami Herald. (Via Romenesko.)
Quick Takes
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The Vermont same-sex couples featured in the controversial Postcards from Buster episode regret that PBS will not distribute the episode, reports AP. “I feel betrayed as a parent,” said Tracy Harris. “We feel it’s important that we not exclude kids because of what their family structure looks like,” said a WGBH spokeswoman in the New York Times.
Quick Takes
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Floridian Dave Plotkin has apparently failed in his bid to break the world record for the longest continuous radio broadcast by a single DJ. But he’s dead set on a second attempt. “I will obliterate all comers,” he tells Current. Plotkin, who finished his 110 hours Jan. 21, didn’t know that the most recent record was 120 hours, set by Arulanantham Suresh Joachim in Canada in June 2003.