Quick Takes

James Day, pioneering pubTV exec and program host, dies at 89

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James Day, co-founder of San Francisco’s KQED and host of the influential weekly interview program Kaleidoscope, died last Thursday from respiratory failure. He helped establish public television’s reputation for in-depth, serious programming and blazed the trail for pubTV on-air pledge drives and auctions. In 1995, he penned a history of public television, The Vanishing Vision: The Inside Story of Public Television. Current contributing editor David Stewart drew from Day’s account for this feature on KQED’s early years. Variety, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times have each published obits.

Quick Takes

Ten new pubTV stations join Raising Readers

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CPB and PBS have selected 10 new pubTV stations to participate in Raising Readers, a program to improve the reading skills of 2-to-8-year-olds, particularly those from low-income families in areas with low reading scores. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the initiative pairs PBS children’s programs such as Between the Lions with a literacy curriculum based on recommendations of the National Reading Panel. Ten stations have already partnered with community organizations to create local literacy programs. The new participants are WHRO in Hampton Roads, Va; Iowa Public Television; Louisiana Public Television; WLJT in Martin, Tenn.; WNPT in Nashville, Tenn.; WSRE in Pensacola, Fla.; KAET in Phoeniz, Ariz.; WFSU in Tallahassee, Fla.; WHUT in Washington, D.C.; and West Virginia Public Broadcasting. 

Quick Takes

Meet Etsy’s new COO, Maria Thomas

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Etsy, the online crafts marketplace that hired NPR digital media chief Maria Thomas as its new c.o.o., produced a video to introduce her to employees. “I love that ‘etsy’ means connecting with something authentic,” Thomas says. [Via Converge]