Current (https://current.org/2009/10/page/4/)
These projects were the spawn of Makers Quest 2.0, a CPB-funded, $500,000 initiative, organized by the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR), to support multimedia works with radio components.
Long Island University has agreed to sell the license for NPR affiliate WLIU to local Peconic Public Broadcasting. A statement on the grassroots organization’s website reports that the university today accepted Peconic’s bid, a total value of $2.43 million, and that LIU has agreed to keep the station at full strength during the closing period in mid-December. “The station is projected to be self-sustaining by mid-2011 and does not anticipate the need for subsidies or additional capital raises beyond our current capital raise,” added the statement, signed by Peconic President Wally Smith. In August, the university gave WLIU until October to raise $2 million for the license (Current, Aug. 24).
The Senate yesterday defeated an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to eliminate $20 million for PTFP from the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill, reports the Government Executive publication’s website. The Public Telecommunications Facilities Program is the only ongoing source of infrastructure assistance to the pubcasting system, according to the Association of Public Television Stations. It was allotted $20 million for fiscal 2009; McCain argued that the funds are not necessary because work is been completed. The Senate Appropriations Committee said in its report accompanying the bill: “Over the years, this funding has been critical to helping stations maintain services by providing funds to stations in need of equipment replacements and upgrades.” APTS is asking Congress to undo Bush-era cuts to PTFP.
National Geographic Television is filming the daily life of President Barack Obama over the next four months for an exclusive documentary, and a PBS rep confirms the pubcaster is “in discussions” to air the film. The C21 Media website, which covers international entertainment, reports from MIPCOM in Cannes, France, that the hourlong doc, The White House: Through the Lens, is “being made for public service network PBS,” to air in November 2010. PBS Spokeswoman Stephanie Aaronson told Current the doc is one of many projects the network is considering, although specifics such as title and airdates have yet to be decided. Maryanne Culpepper, NatGeo e.v.p., told C21 that talks began with Obama’s reps last August, before he was elected. Producers received approval to begin filming last month and the first shoot took place last week.
After almost a year of recession, the public TV and radio system lost $167.7 million in its “all other” revenue category, CPB says in its recently released annual system revenue report for fiscal year 2008. The category includes gains and losses on stations’ investments and assets, including endowments, as well as results from capital campaigns and subsidiaries. The country’s official arbiter of recessions, the National Bureau of Economic Research, says the present recession began in December 2007. This revenue report reflects numbers from 70 percent of stations with fiscal years ending June 30, the remaining 30 percent ending Dec. 31.The losses in that revenue category overwhelmed TV and radio’s relatively healthy gains from members, underwriters and colleges, leaving the whole field down $73.4 million or 2.5 percent, to $2.85 billion.
Harvard scholar and PBS documentarian Henry Louis Gates Jr. is assisting radio host Tom Joyner in his efforts to have South Carolina pardon two of his great-uncles, The Associated Press reports. Joyner discovered through Gates’ African American Lives 2 that his ancestors were executed in 1915 after their convictions for murdering a Confederate Army veteran. The show traced the lineage of 12 persons, including Joyner. “The records will show they did not do what they were executed for, and maybe now they can rest in peace,” Joyner said. Gates, Joyner and legal historian Paul Finkelman wrote Gov. Mark Sanford asking for the pardons.
WNET is looking to leave its home of 10 years at 450 W. 33rd Street in Manhattan, according to a real estate report in the New York Observer. The station has hired Studley, a tenant advisory service, to scout out a 100,000-square-foot spot. It now leases about 200,000 square feet on one and half vast floors in the building near Penn Station. “Updating the existing framework would be very expensive,” WNET spokesperson Kellie Specter told Current. Specter said the station is exploring the option of moving, “as a lot of companies are doing right now,” for cost savings.
Michael Getler’s latest column offers viewer insights into the National Parks series. The PBS ombudsman reports that most letters he received were positive, but a “fair number” of writers protested what they saw as an “excessive element of religion that co-mingled with the narrative of natural beauty and the struggle to preserve it within a national system.”
At a Senate Communications Subcommittee meeting today, reps of DISH network and the Association of Public Television Stations said they expect a deal soon on carriage of noncom HD signals, reports Broadcasting & Cable. The FCC set a timetable for phasing in HD carriage over the next four years. APTS has worked out pubcasting carriage deals with cable, Verizon and DirecTV and has been negotiating with DISH.
KLRU in Austin, Texas, has posted video of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dedication ceremony onOct. 1 for its longtime music series Austin City Limits. The studio was designated a rock landmark, and a marker was installed.
NPR has invited 60 “thought leaders” in digital media and technology to share their ideas for its future as a news organization. The first-ever NPR Digital Think In convenes at frog design in San Francisco this Friday, Oct. 9. The schedule includes a series of break-outs exploring various aspects of news gathering, the roles of networks and stations, and the elusive matter of revenue models. The invitation-only event has drawn an impressive roster of participants, including Krishna Bharat, creator of Google News; Chris Beard, chief innovation officer at Mozilla; and Craig Newmark, creator of Craigslist, among many others.
Jim Henson Co.’s CGI-animated series Dinosaur Train is getting around. First up: The show’s paleontologist Scott Sampson (right, PBS photo) and star dino Buddy will appear Oct. 24 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in a free family event. Kids will see an episode and get a chance to ask Sampson questions. Meanwhile, the show also has been sold to Discovery Kids Latin America, reports World Screen.
The Independent has compiled a list of 30 Quintessential Books for Independent Filmmakers. Included are everything from How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000 (And Not Go to Jail) by Bret Stern to The Five C’s of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques, an oldie (circa 1960s) but goodie by Joseph V. Mascelli.
The Federal Communications Commission may “in the near future” take up the issue of the location of PEG (public, educational and government) channels, reports Broadcasting & Cable. The FCC received several petitions from the Alliance for Community Media, which is a national association of local cable-access programmers, and two Michigan cities asking for a ruling on whether cable operators can move PEG channels, and if there should be more specific rules about the signal quality of those channels. Comcast says that its shift of PEG channels to a digital tier in Michigan is legal and in the public interest.
A crowd of nearly 1,000 turned out Oct. 2 at WGBH in Boston for a huge public salsa dance party and sneak preview of the four-hour Latin Music USA doc. The station’s María Hinojosa served as the night’s emcee as fans danced to live performances by Bobby Sanabria y Quarteto Aché and Mango Blue. (Photo: Lisa Abitbol) In related news, President Barack Obama will host a plethora of entertainers in a Latin music night at the White House on Oct. 13, reports The Associated Press.
The demise of longtime food mag Gourmet is not stopping the Oct. 17 premiere of the new WGBH series, Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth. Another of the station’s shows, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, now in its fourth season, also will continue, WGBH spokeswoman Lucy Sholley told The Boston Herald. “Both shows are solid,” Sholley said. “We remain committed to (Gourmet editor-in-chief) Ruth Reichl as an icon in the food world as well as her ideas and editorial input to the format of ‘Adventures with Ruth,’ which will air as planned.”
George Miles, president of Pittsburgh’s WQED-FM/TV, said Sept. 30 he’ll retire a year from now, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. He’ll have run the station for 16 years. The station’s board promoted Deborah Acklin to chief operating officer, putting her in line to succeed Miles. Mac Wall, who has headed both the Oklahoma and Kentucky pubTV networks, said Friday he’ll retire Dec.
Travel site Expedia.com has jumped on the National Parks bandwagon. It has launched a page dedicated to travel in the parks, with a link to the pubcasting series. The Associated Press confirms that the launch coincides with the Ken Burns project.
Oops. More complaints (see item below) about use of the PBS logo during Ken Burns’ National Parks series, this time to the New York Times tech writer/blogger David Pogue. A reader writes that she’d been watching the series, and said it was visually stunning. “But even PBS and my local public TV station (WTTW in Chicago) constantly slapped numerous looping/changing logos in both the lower left and lower right corners of the screen—a horrible distraction from the beautiful scenery of the film. I was so looking forward to enjoying this film, and even my beloved PBS now annoys me!” Pogue writes that he “couldn’t agree more.
The premiere of National Parks: America’s Best Idea on Yom Kippur Sept. 27 disturbed some Jewish viewers, reports PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler. Other complaints generated by the series focused on the use of a PBS bug along with the line “Presents a Film by Ken Burns” on the lower screen. Then the title, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Then another PBS logo.