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More pix on Flickr from the Third Coast Festival.
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A weakening focus on core broadcast programming is to blame for public radio’s recent audience losses, writes consultant John Sutton. “Much of the industry’s attention is on reaching new and different audiences through new and different technologies,” he says. “It’s as if a lot of people in public radio don’t want to be in radio anymore.”
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Steve Fentriss, a 19-year-old drummer and composer from Ann Arbor, Mich., has recorded a little ditty called “I Love Public Radio.” You can download it from his website (MP3). (Related article in the Ann Arbor News.)
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Ray Suarez will host public radio’s America Abroad and continue as a correspondent for public TV’s NewsHour. Public Radio International distributes America Abroad to more than 100 stations.
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See pictures from the Third Coast International Audio Festival on the Public Radio Exchange’s Flickr page.
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“Public radio forces too much money out of its on-air fund drives,” writes consultant John Sutton on his blog. “And the problem is likely to get worse.”
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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer profiles Seattle’s KEXP-FM. “They’re keeping this hopeful notion of what music is supposed to be about alive,” says a record label president.
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WTTW plans to make big changes to its signature news magazine in January when former news anchor and CBS News correspondent Carol Marin signs on at Chicago Tonight. Marin’s hiring, announced Oct. 20, foreshadows the exit of current anchor Bob Sirott, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. “The whole show will be changing,” a WTTW spokeswoman tells Crain’s Chicago Business.
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Transom has a team of four blogging this year’s Third Coast International Audio Festival.
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Mark Handley, the retiring g.m. of New Hampshire Public Radio, reminisces in the New Hampshire Union Leader about his time at the network. Handley and his wife began a sailboat trip around the world yesterday; they’re tracking their travels online.
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In a world of new media options for kids and their parents, PBS’s preeminence as the service with high-quality educational preschool fare is no longer assured, reports the Boston Globe. The landscape for kids TV has changed so much that even PBS looks to earn new revenues from commercials.
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Cuts to CPB funding proposed by House Republicans would force tough decisions at Nebraska ETV. “We would probably have to eliminate our local programming if we wanted PBS programming,” General Manager Rod Bates tells the Lincoln Journal-Star. “That’s the kind of choice we would have to make.” In June, all three of Nebraska’s Republican representatives voted against a House measure restoring $100 million in CPB funds.
Programs/Content
Monkey trial still timely for tour of radio docudrama
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Ed Asner takes the role of Bryan, not Darrow, in LATW’s drama based on the Scopes transcript. John de Lancie, at right, plays Darrow. Susan Loewenberg chose a radio play about the Scopes trial for L.A. Theatre Works’ 2005 national tour because it’s the one that teachers request most from the company’s catalog of more than 200 recorded plays. The teachers seemed to be saying the evolution/creation fight is an enduring topic in our national life and not just a quirky little philosophical eruption that excuses a quick revival of The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial. Indeed, as Ed Asner started off the tour last week as William Jennings Bryan, defender of creation, in Arcata, Calif., a new evolution trial was under way in court in Dover, Pa.
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If you’re wondering what industry could become NPR’s big competitor in serious news coverage, the New York Times had a hint on Monday. In an article fretting about newspapers’ future, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is quoted: “We will follow our readers where they take us. … If they want us on cellphones or downloaded so they can hear us in audio, we must be there.”
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“For the first time ever, hit prime time shows can be purchased online the day after they air on TV,” Disney’s new c.e.o. said today as Apple announced a $299 Video iPod that can hold 150 hours of TV, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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“I’m with people who love radio,” says Bob Edwards of his XM Satellite Radio gig. “NPR is run by newspaper people. Sometimes I think they don’t even like radio.”
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“Finding the Future of Public Television” is the topic of a day-and-a-half workshop backed by CPB in Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 14-15. Speakers include CPB programmers Michael Pack and John Prizer, leftie performer Harry Shearer, conservative producer Lionel Chetwynd, former studio chief Frank Price and other producers and writers. They’ll debate whether PBS can “fully represent America’s diverse culture.” Organizer of the workshop, the conservative American Cinema Foundation, will hold it on AFI’s Western Avenue campus.
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Radio World lists several noncommercial radio licensees, including WAMC-FM in Albany, N.Y., who received licenses after the FCC resolved conflicting applications.
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Ron Della Chiesa will step down next month as the weekday morning classical music host on Boston’s WGBH-FM, reports the Boston Herald. He has hosted classical music on the station for 35 years. (He is not retiring, as this item formerly and erroneously stated.)