The guest list for the 41st season of Sesame Street premiering Sept. 27, reads like a who’s who of Hollywood hipness. Just a few of the actors: Jude Law, Amy Poehler, Jennifer Garner, Kyra Sedgwick, Collin Farrell, Wanda Sykes and Terrence Howard. But wait, there’s more, such as music superstars Katy Perry, Usher, will.i.am and NFL players Reggie Bush and LaDainian Tomlinson. And fans of the gory/sexy HBO series True Blood, stay tuned for its Sesame parody, “True Mud.”
The Anchorage Daily News has confirmed that former Republican Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, 86, a longtime public broadcasting champion, died in a plane crash in southern Alaska Monday night (Aug. 9).Stevens served in Congress from Dec. 24, 1968, to Jan. 3, 2009. He was chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee from 1997 to 2005.
Community radio station KABF (88.3 FM) in Little Rock, Ark., currently under audit by CPB, “may be broke in a matter of weeks. KABF could cease to exist as we know it,” board member Jay Jensen told station volunteers in a recent email, according to the Arkansas Times on Aug. 5. KABF began in 1984 as an affiliate ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and the controversial nonprofit remains a presence on the station’s board. An emergency KABF board meeting was convened last week to create a community advisory board for the station, which is a requirement for CPB support.
WNET.org has signed a lease for midtown Manhattan office space half the size of its present quarters near Penn Station, the licensee said Monday. Recession-driven staff reductions and the opening of a studio facility at Lincoln Center have reduced the licensee’s space needs to 100,000 square feet. After 13 years at 450 W. 33rd St., the operation is signing a lease for 15 years in the Worldwide Plaza Building at 8th Avenue and 50th Street. WNET said the space, to be designed by a+i design corp., will be “fully open plan, with no private office spaces.” The station’s technical side cleaned house with an equipment auction last week and netted $250,000, said spokesperson Kellie Specter.
A consultant’s study of public TV’s crowded Los Angeles market, commissioned by CPB, predicts a highly integrated collaboration among the area’s four stations would provide hefty financial savings and grow revenues for all four. The eight-week study by Booz & Co. — a major consulting firm spun off by Booz Allen Hamilton — said the present structure of the market has stunted the four stations. They’ve suffered a 10 percent revenue decline since 2005 and a 26 percent drop in net assets since 2007. All have average audiences below the PBS national average rating of 1.1 percent.
Sesame Workshop is partnering with the Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy to produce “Reach for the Sky,” a science event beginning this month in Abu Dhabi, according to Al Bawaba, a Middle Eastern news site. “In addition to learning about planets, galaxies, the Earth and stars, children will explore the phases of the moon and their relationship with Arabian months, including the month of Ramadan, and Islamic achievements in the fields of science and astronomy,” Al Bawaba reported. “Reach for the Sky” activities run nightly starting Aug. 12, the first day of Ramadan, and continue through the Islamic holy month.
Snap Judgment, one of three new shows conceived from the CPB-backed Public Radio Talent Quest, has become a whirlwind of multimedia production with the launch of its weekly radio programs in July, live stage shows, and television piloting. “We kind of just go-go-go all the time,” says Mark Ristich, co-executive producer with Glynn Washington, a Talent Quest winner who is host and creator of the series. “We’re going to try to keep the content as fresh as possible, because we’ll lose people if we don’t.”
The small production team is busy creating 26 weekly radio episodes and a series of live storytelling performances, the first of which was recorded in June at San Francisco’s Brava Theater. The performances will be adapted for radio and television programs.
Public TV’s World multicast channel, now in redevelopment at Boston’s WGBH, is considering picking up the TV pilots, which mix segments from the live shows with short films and animations. “We’re going to rock the small screen with the same intensity as we’re rocking the radio,” says Washington, who was one of three contestants who won pilot funding and a shot at public media stardom through Public Radio Exchange’s online talent contest in 2007.
After negotiating with PBS for eight months over a proposal to reduce its dues and remake public TV in the Los Angeles market, the city’s biggest public station announced last week that it is preparing to completely drop out of the network. If KCET proceeds with its back-up plan for financial relief, as of Jan. 1 PBS would be left without a station committed to air the bulk of its schedule in the nation’s second-largest media market. It would be the first departure of a major-market member in the network’s history. KCET President Al Jerome told Current in an extended interview that he’d prefer to remain with PBS, but — if the network doesn’t budge — he has unanimous board backing to forgo the PBS brand and the icon series from its National Program Service.
A bill introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) authorizes a spectrum auction but guarantees that the bandwidth turnover would be voluntary, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Its primary purpose is to allocate spectrum and funds to create a national public safety network, which is favored by the White House.
Yoko Ono generated news from the PBS stage Thursday (Aug. 5) during the TCA Summer Press Tour, saying she still opposes parole for her husband John Lennon’s killer even after 30 years.As for the American Masters production of “LennonNYC,” premiering Nov. 22, Ono said it contains footage even she hasn’t seen. “Yes, it seems like you know everything about us. I thought so too,” Ono said.
The “Circus” came to town today (Aug. 5) courtesy of PBS at the ongoing TCA Summer Press Tour in Los Angeles. The six-part series from the folks who brought you “Carrier” premieres in November. We get the feeling that PBS provided the only upside-down balancing gentleman onstage in the entire Press Tour. Because if PBS didn’t do it, who would?
For our RSS subscribers, don’t miss the story just posted on current.org on KCET’s possible departure from PBS as of Jan. 1, 2011. The move could leave the network without a station committed to air the bulk of its schedule in the nation’s second-largest media market. And it would be the first departure of a major-market member in the network’s history.
After negotiating with PBS for eight months over a proposal to reduce its dues and reconfigure pubTV in the Los Angeles market, the city’s bigget public station announced this week that it may drop out of the network by Jan. 1. If KCET proceeds with that option, PBS would be left without a station committed to carrying its primetime and children’s schedules in the nation’s second-largest media market. It would be the first departure of a major-market member in the network’s history. KCET President Al Jerome told Current that he’d prefer to remain with PBS, but says — if the network doesn’t budge — he has unanimous backing from the station’s board of directors to forgo the PBS brand and the icon series of its National Program Service.
A roomful of TV talent assembled Wednesday (Aug. 4) at a panel and reception for PBS’s “Pioneers of Television” at the TCA Summer Press Tour in Los Angeles. Generating the star wattage was, in front, Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek and Robert Conrad of Wild Wild West. Back row, Mission Impossible’s Martin Landau, Mike Connors of Mannix and Linda Evans of Dynasty. (PBS photo, Jake Landis)
In a random attack in the Chinatown neighborhood near NPR’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, an NPR intern was stabbed in the neck yesterday morning by a young woman who appeared to be in a hypnotic trance, WJLA News reports. Several good samaritans came to the rescue of Annie Ropeick, a Boston University junior who is interning at NPR this summer, and one man tackled the suspect and held her down until police arrived. Ropeick, whose family lives in the D.C. region, is recovering at Howard University Hospital. “The entire staff is shocked and deeply concerned, and we are maintaining close contact with the family,” NPR said in a statement. Police have charged the suspect, 24-year-old Melodie Brevard of Southeast Washington, with assault with intent to kill.
The already twisty-turny tale of UNC-TV turning over documents to a North Carolina General Assembly committee (Current, July 26) is becoming even more of a pretzel. Laura Leslie of WUNC-FM in Chapel Hill, who’s keeping close tabs on the ever-evolving mess of UNC-TV, Alcoa dams, and the state’s reporter shield law, reports several very puzzling developments:— Local commercial TV station WRAL — whose CEO, Jim Goodmon, vociferously opposed UNC-TV’s decision, on July 27 filed a public records request of its own for the same documents from the station. Then Wednesday (Aug. 4) it withdrew the request, citing … you guessed it, the state’s reporter shield law, which Goodmon had insisted protected UNC-TV.— Also yesterday, “just about every news outlet in Raleigh” was provided, by Alcoa, with an unpublished draft of a critique of two parts of the three-part series — now removed from the UNC-TV site, by the way — written by a panel of UNC journalism profs.
It was semi-retired NPR newscaster Carl Kasell, not gazillion-dollar controversialist Howard Stern who was elected by web users to the National Radio Hall of Fame this week. Kasell also bested MoneyTalk host Bob Brinker and country deejay Bob Kinsley in the category of nationally active broadcasters. Kasell is still active — keeping score on Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! while serving as NPR’s ambassador on the pubradio meet-n-greet circuit.
PBS’s long-discussed arts website goes online Aug. 23, President Paula Kerger announced at the TCA Press Tour today (Aug. 4) in Los Angeles, reports USA Today. Visitors will be able to watch national PBS programming and shows previously run by their local stations. Last year PBS received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the website.
Who’s to blame for the “11th hour scramble” on behalf of Long Island’s WLIU? The New York Daily News quotes anonymous sources who criticize general manager Wally Smith as a procrastinator who didn’t pursue prospective donors aggressively enough. Smith says the newspaper’s sources are “out of the loop.” Link to earlier coverage.