Quick Takes

KCET confirms layoffs, cost cuts

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KCET has detailed to Current its recent cutbacks. Station President Al Jerome said in an emailed statement that a total of 12 full-time and part-time employees are eliminated, including two senior staffers. There’ll be salary reductions of 3.5 percent to 11.7 percent based on current salaries; those affect only exempt employees and senior management. Nonexempt employees will instead have furloughs of one, five or 10 days during fiscal 2010, based on salary range. Employer retirement plan contributions are suspended indefinitely.

Quick Takes

If you’re a media maker, try for a grant

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New application deadlines and other details for America’s Media Makers: Development and Production grants are now available online through the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Public Programs website. The division funds adio, television and digital projects in the humanities intended for public audiences that “explore stories, ideas, and beliefs that deepen our understanding of our lives and our world.” Try to apply early at Grants.gov; it’s recently been slowed by a large number of applications. The next two deadlines for the grants are Aug. 26 and Jan.

Quick Takes

WPSU at Penn State ends two shows, trims eight positions

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Penn State Public Broadcasting WPSU is canceling two TV programs and reducing the staff by eight positions. Gone are Scholastic Scrimmage, a high-school quiz show, and Common Ground Lobby Talks, an audience-participation public affairs offering. While the station faces potential state funding losses of $850,000 if Gov. Ed Rendell’s budget passes, “that is only the most severe and immediate challenge; we must also confront the potential reduction of other revenue sources,” said Ted Krichels, associate vice president for Penn State Outreach and general manager of WPSU. “Those include community support and production revenue.” The station’s 2008 project, Liquid Assets, (Current, Sept.

Quick Takes

Those %&$*@#! technical difficulties

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An open mic at D.C.’s WAMU picked up an off-air conversation that included the f-word, reports DCRTV (scroll down), a website that covers Washington and Baltimore TV and radio. American University made two on-air apologies, citing “technical difficulties.” Station spokeswoman Kay Summers told the site’s Dave Hughes, “The matter has been dealt with internally through discussions with those involved. Not our finest hour, to be sure, but mistakes happen.” The expletive aired during Bob Edwards Weekend.

Quick Takes

Getler delves into the Three Nons

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The Three Nons (nonsectarian, nonpolitical, noncommercial) of pubcasting are the subject of the latest PBS ombudsman column by Michael Getler. He’s received more than 100 e-mails on the PBS Board’s decision to ban new sectarian programming on primary channels.

Quick Takes

KQED chief Jeff Clarke to retire

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Jeff Clarke, a leader among pubcasting station executives during his 44 years in broadcasting, announced his plans to retire next June as president of Northern California Public Broadcasting. Since Clarke joined San Francisco’s KQED-TV/FM as president in 2002, the organization dramatically expanded its television, radio and web operations, despite having to periodically trim spending and staff. Clarke helmed HoustonPBS during most of the 1990s and plans to retire in Houston, where his family resides. Clarke’s accomplishments include creating ground-breaking new media strategies for public broadcasting, PBS President Paula Kerger tells the San Francisco Chronicle. Kerger cites Quest, a multimedia series devoted to science and nature in the Bay Area.

Quick Takes

“30 Minute Music Hour” rocks on

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Wisconsin Public Television’s 30 Minute Music Hour, in its second season, “seems to grow more ambitious with each episode,” according to The Paper, a webpage of the Madision, Wisc., arts mag Isthmus. The first season began with live online performances that would run on the pubTV station a few days later. This year, the show won’t be posted permanently until it runs on TV a few days after the initial web performance. Musicians play live on the Web and answer questions from a “moderator-turned-stage manager,” as The Paper says. It’s the brainchild of producer Andy Moore, who added: “So far, I haven’t found anyone else on a professional soundstage putting up a live, 30-minute set of music with four cameras and a professional director.”

Quick Takes

New theater coming for Austin City Limits

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Austin City Limits, the KLRU-owned pubTV favorite, next year moves to a new home. The name is still being decided but may be Austin City Limits Theater. The show’s 320 seats will grow to 2,750. It’ll cost around $40 million by the time it’s finished around October 2010. The ACL stage will be moved from its University of Texas studio to the new theater.

Quick Takes

WashPo, CQ veteran to join NPR Digital

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NPR hired Mark Stencel, a veteran of the Washington Post and Congressional Quarterly, as its new managing editor of digital news. “His mix of experience in breaking news, political reporting, digital innovation, technology leadership and the business is wholly unique and impressive,” wrote his new NPR bosses Dick Meyer and Kinsey Wilson in this memo announcing the appointment. Stencel is leaving Governing magazine and Governing.com, where he is executive editor, deputy publisher and a columnist/blogger.

Quick Takes

Sesame Street coming soon to Tampa Bay’s Busch Gardens

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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (Fla.) knows how to get to Sesame Street — build it. It’s planning a Sesame children’s attraction similar to the one at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Va., location. The park filed plans with the city on June 12 for a roller coaster and four buildings, including a 3,513-square-foot “character support and photo” facility. A Busch Gardens rep said an official announcement will come later this summer.

Quick Takes

Smiley brings 37 pizzerias to Indiana

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Pubcaster Tavis Smiley, a native of Kokomo, Ind., is opening 37 Marco’s Pizza franchises during the next five years in an effort to create some 1,000 jobs in the Indianapolis area. The outlets will be in areas that need economic development. Smiley estimated the restaurants will generate at least $1 billion into the state economy over 20 years. His first local pizzeria opened in April with a staff of about 20 workers. The second should be in operation before the end of the year.

Quick Takes

Ombud’s advice on the torture question: “show don’t tell”

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“I recognize that it’s frustrating for some listeners to have NPR not use the word torture to describe certain practices that seem barbaric,” writes NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard in a column responding to complaints about NPR’s editorial policy. “But the role of a news organization is not to choose sides in this or any debate.” Shepard shares excerpts of a recent memo by David Sweeney, managing editor of NPR News, advising journalists to use euphemisms such as “extreme” or “harsh” interrogation techniques. She proposes that journalists describe rather than characterize controversial methods such as waterboarding: “[R]eporters could say that the U.S. military poured water down a detainee’s mouth and nostrils for 40 seconds. Or they could detail such self-explanatory techniques as forcing detainees into cramped confines crawling with insects, or forced to stand for hours along side a wall.

Quick Takes

KCET drops its 45-year-old program guide

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Citing a “downturn in our sources of revenue,” KCET president Al Jerome has announced the station will discontinue its printed program guide, effective immediately. “This is not an easy decision to make,” Jerome said in a statement. “The magazine has been a part of KCET for nearly 45 years.” KCET is offering KCET eNews in an e-mail form biweekly for programming information and printable listings.

Quick Takes

Ex-GPBer indicted in theft of $21,000

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A former Georgia Public Broadcasting finance department employee was indicted Monday on 46 counts of felony theft. Belinda Davis, also known as Belinda Botley Usher, allegedly stole more than $21,000 in a complicated fraud scheme. She was terminated from GPB in February 2008 when the theft was discovered. “We can’t comment on this indictment but I can tell you that we hope for a quick resolution and justice,” station spokeswoman Nancy Zintak told Current. “At GPB our highest priority is to be good stewards of our member support and their trust, and we will continue to do so.”

Development

Finding Explorer

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The kinds of people who like new experiences, enjoy scanning expanded horizons, want to see things from varied perspectives are the people most likely to be PBS viewers, says Margaret Mark.

Development

Fiscal year-end layoffs include 10% of PBS staff

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Swamped by the recession tsunami as they prepared for the new fiscal year, public broadcasters at PBS headquarters; WQLN in Erie, Pa.; two Wisconsin stations and Colorado Public Radio cut budgets to keep their noses above the red ink.Falling by the wayside are established services, including the weeknightly newscast for Delaware viewers broadcast for 46 years by Philadelphia-based WHYY-TV and the local reports on the radio reading service for the blind operated for 16 years by WMFE-FM in Orlando, Fla.Troubled stations typically reported revenues that were down across the board, in underwriting, corporate donations, membership and state government support. With no higher ground for refuge, PBS officials told staffers June 11 that 45 positions, including some vacancies, would be eliminated. That’s about 10 percent of the network’s staff. PBS is struggling to close a $3.4 million deficit anticipated for fiscal year 2010. Spokeswoman Jan McNamara said the job cuts and other measures already adopted will eliminate about half of that shortfall.

Quick Takes

You Must Hear This new ATC segment

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NPR Music and All Things Considered launch a new summer music series today. For “You Must Hear This,” musicians from various genres will pick a favorite piece of music and explain why it inspires them. In the debut segment, Jesse Carmichael and Adam Levine of Maroon 5 reveal their love for Prince’s Purple Rain. “It’s Hendrix, it’s James Brown, it’s outer space, it’s church, it’s sex, it’s heavy metal,” says Levine. “But at the end of the day, it’s just Prince at his absolute best — in my not-so-humble opinion.”

Quick Takes

RIP Llewellyn’s TV

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Llewellyn King of White House Chronicle, recently experienced a death in the family: The old Sony TV in the living room. But instead of mourning, they’re rejoicing. “The luxury of not having one is palpable,” he writes in The Herald in Monterey County, Calif. “No more arguing about what to watch. No more compulsive, irrational channel surfing.

Quick Takes

Renewal funding, new e.p. for “The Takeaway”

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CPB awarded a $1.35 million renewal grant to The Takeaway, the morning drive-time show hosted by John Hockenberry and produced at New York’s WNYC. President Pat Harrison says the show is “compelling and participatory” and affirms that public media belongs to “not just some of the people, but all of the people,” in a news release from Public Radio International, co-producer and distributor. The Takeaway radio show and website, picked up by 42 stations since its launch last April, also has a new executive producer. Mark Effron, a TV news and digital media exec who has supervised news coverage for the MSNBC cable net and Post-Newsweek TV stations, most recently served as president of Titan TV Media, which helps local stations develop ad revenues with their websites. He started on the job last week.

Quick Takes

Transition returns MHz to airwaves

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Here’s one service that’s thrilled with the DTV transition, which brought it back to life for its viewers. MHz Networks, owned by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting, carries international programming into 27 million households nationwide. MHz’s analog signal to its two channels went dark in September; it was the country’s first station to switch off. That caused empty static for many fans in the spot it used to occupy. Then, after the final June 12 transition and rescans by viewers …