Quick Takes

NPR selects Edward Schumacher-Matos as ombudsman

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Edward Schumacher-Matos, a journalist, educator and columnist, is the new NPR ombudsman, the pubradio network announced today (April 29). He begins a three-year term on June 1. Schumacher-Matos has been ombudsman for the Miami Herald since 2007. He founded Meximerica Media and Rumbo Newspapers in 2003, launching four Spanish-language daily newspapers in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and the Rio Grande Valley. He is also founding editor and associate publisher of Wall Street Journal Americas, the business newspaper’s Spanish and Portuguese insert editions in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Quick Takes

Senate in South Carolina stands up to governor for pubcasting funding

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The South Carolina Senate is fighting Gov. Nikki Haley’s move to defund public broadcasting in the state, reports The State newspaper. The GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday (April 28) approved a measure 25-18 that uses general funds to pay for South Carolina ETV. It’s part of the debate over the state’s $5.8 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year. The governor also replaced the entire public broadcasting board last month.

Quick Takes

NPR’s succession plan put Slocum at the top

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When NPR general counsel Joyce Slocum took over after Vivian Schiller’s March departure, “the move was sudden, but not unscripted,” notes Law.com. In 2009 NPR’s board of directors drew up a succession plan that designated Slocum as the replacement if Schiller left unexpectedly. Carol Cartwright, vice-chair of NPR’s board, says one of the main attractions was that Slocum didn’t want the job. “We did not want an interim c.e.o. who would be actively pursuing the role on a permanent basis,” Cartwright says.

Quick Takes

FCC receiving complaints on proposed sale of WMFE-TV

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Several residents of the Orlando, Fla., area have contacted the Federal Communications Commission with their concerns about the sale of WMFE-TV (Current, April 18) to religious broadcaster Daystar, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Several noted that the community did not have advance warning of the sale, which WMFE management announced on April 1.

Quick Takes

PBS NewsHour autism series stirs vaccine controversy

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The PBS NewsHour’s recent series on autism has reignited the debate on the role of vaccines in the childhood syndrome, reports the Los Angeles Times. It’s a personal issue for former NewHour co-anchor Robert MacNeil: Viewers meet his grandson, Nick, who is on the autism spectrum.

Quick Takes

Overseas Press Club Awards recognize five pubmedia reporting efforts

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Public media outlets scored five honors in this year’s Overseas Press Club Awards, announced today (April 28).— The Lowell Thomas Award for radio news or interpretation of international affairs goes to David Baron, Patrick Cox and Sheri Fink of PRI’s The World for “Rationing Health: Who Lives? Who Decides?”— The Carl Spielvogel Award for international reporting in the broadcast media showing a concern for the human condition goes to Landon van Soest and Jeremy Levine of Transient Pictures for American Documentary / P.O.V. on PBS, “Good Fortune,” on how efforts to eliminate poverty in Africa may be undermining communities.— The Whitman Bassow Award for reporting in any medium on international environmental issues goes to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, for “Looting the Seas: How Overfishing, Fraud and Negligence Plundered the Majestic Bluefin Tuna.”The OPC Online Awards were presented for the first time this year. Winners include:— The General Excellence Online Award for overall international coverage on a website goes to Dafna Linzer, Chisun Lee and Krista Kjellman-Schmidt of ProPublica for “The Detention Dilemma.”— The Best Online Investigation of an International Issue or Event for coverage of a news event of international significance goes to Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica for “Mumbai Terror Attacks.”The awards will be presented tonight by NBC News anchor Lester Holt at a dinner in New York.A full list of the winners is here.

Quick Takes

3D sound to premiere on Studio 360

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Three-dimensional sound! That’s what’s coming this weekend on Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC. The show says in a statement that this will be “the exclusive radio debut of 3D sound.””Until now, only a handful of audiophiles and industry insiders have had access to this emerging technology that makes surround sound seem ancient,” it notes. Host Kurt Anderson will be joined by Edgar Choueiri, a professor of applied physics at Princeton University, whose decades-long passion for recording technology led him to develop a digital filter that produces what he calls “pure stereo.” The filter will work on any stereo recording played through an ordinary pair of speakers. Andersen will give listeners instructions on placing their speakers to best appreciate the effect.

Quick Takes

Minnesota pubcasting fans gather for Public Radio Day at capitol

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It was Public Radio Day at the Minnesota State Capitol Wednesday (April 27), as supporters gathered to ask legislators to continue funding Minnesota Public Radio. Standing in the rotunda, MPR founder and president Bill Kling told volunteers to wave their signs, bend the ears of legislators and “give them hell,” according to the Star Tribune. The network is requesting $3.3 million over the next two years.

Quick Takes

Jesse Thorn, waiting impatiently

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What do young, up-and-coming public broadcasters dream about? The retirement of older public broadcasters. That’s one of the many topics that Jesse Thorn, host of The Sound of Young America, discussed during an interview today (April 27) on the Nieman Journalism Lab site. As Thorn says: “I have these conversations with public radio people, and they say, ‘Well, you know, Terry Gross is going to retire, and Diane Rehm is going to retire, and Garrison Keillor is going to retire, and they’re need a show with a proven track record to fill in.’ And I’m like, Terry Gross is only like 50!

Quick Takes

Proposed: a minute’s quiet for the campus stations silenced

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A campus broadcaster group has called for its constituency to observe a national “Minute of Silence” Thursday at noon, Central time, on Thursday (April 27) to raise awareness of college station closings.”College broadcasters need to do a better job of explaining their value and purpose to the schools and communities they serve,” said Candace Walton, board president of College Broadcasters Inc. In many cases, she said, local programming is replaced by shows piped in from out of town. Houston: Thursday is the day that Rice University student station KTRU-FM in Houston is to be transferred to pubradio station KUHF at the University of Houston. The students’ programs will continue to go out through the website KTRU.org and on KPFT’s HD Radio channel 2. Nashville: At Vanderbilt University, it’s not the administration but Vanderbilt Student Communications that owns and proposes to sell student-run WRVU-FM, 10,000 watts at 90.1 MHz, hoping to get $3.5 million to $5 million to invest in an endowment to pay for student media. WRVU would continue to operate online.

Quick Takes

Viewers get to query Space Shuttle astronauts via NewsHour

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Want to ask questions of the Space Shuttle Endeavour crew? PBS NewsHour, Google and YouTube are teaming up to give viewers that opportunity. The astronauts will respond to questions submitted by the public in a live interview to be moderated by NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien at 2 p.m. Eastern May 2 (subject to change, of course, as weather or technical problems could delay the launch or interview).Participants may submit video or text questions by following a link at the show’s website, clicking “submit a question” on its YouTube Channel, or sending a Tweet using the hashtag #utalk2nasa. The public will vote for the best questions for the astronauts; retweets count for one vote.This is the second time PBS NewsHour has collaborated with Google and You Tube to offer the public direct access to newsmakers. In July 2010, during the Gulf oil spill crisis, the show took viewers inside BP’s Houston headquarters to ask Bob Dudley, the BP executive in charge of the clean up, their questions about the spill, in an exclusive hourlong interview moderated by NewsHour senior correspondent Ray Suarez.

Quick Takes

Remember the DTV transition? Here comes another one

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The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) board, meeting in Washington in two weeks, will probably decide to go ahead with plans to develop a new standard for TV broadcasting in the next five to 10 years, reports TVNewsCheck’s Harry Jessell. That will enable stations to broadcast more programming, more reliably to more places. But for viewers, it probably will also mean another messy transition similar to the June 2009 switch from analog to digital.Jim Kutzner, PBS’s chief engeineer and the ATSC’s next-gen planning committee, says it’s time. “If you don’t start now, many years down the road you’ll be in the same place.” He points out this move is a hedge against the FCC’s proposal to take big swatches of spectrum from broadcasters and make it available to wireless broadband providers. “If the broadcasters are consolidated down into a smaller amount of spectrum,” he says, “then we will have far less spectrum to transition from where we are today to where we want to be in the future.”

Quick Takes

Frontline retooling for a “post-broadcast future”

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Frontline is concentrating on repositioning the investigative show for a “post-broadcast future,” reporting and packaging information in a multiplatform, digital-centered way. “As we expand to a year-round series and publish on more platforms — print, broadcast, radio, online — it’s become a whole new game,’’ Executive Producer David Fanning told the Boston Globe in a story today (April 26). They’re working to retool the show’s content for devices like the iPad while breaking news 24/7. “Taking weeks or months to polish a story will no longer be the norm,” the paper noted.

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Equipment grantmaker PTFP will stop making grants but continue monitoring those already awarded

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CPB’s older sister in the federal grantmaking world, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, died a month ago in the midst of the federal budget upheaval and finally posted its own obit yesterday, saying it will continue to monitor past grants to make sure grantees fulfill their obligations.Ellen Rocco, g.m. of North Country Public Radio, says PTFP gave vital assistance to the regional broadcaster, which now covers the northern, rural one-third of New York state with 33 transmitters: “We simply couldn’t have done it without them,” Rocco wrote in her blog today. “Or, it would have taken several decades longer, so perhaps people in Old Forge or Newcomb or Glens Falls would be waiting until 2020 to hear our station.” She thanked PTFP Director Bill Cooperman and the staff “who belie all the nasty stereotypes we hear about ‘bureaucrats.'”

Quick Takes

PBS, NPR explore possibilities of new Storify website

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PBS and NPR were among news outlets that gave the Storify website a test run before its public launch today (April 25), according to the New York Times. Storify is one of several new sites (including Storyful and  Tumblr) that are developing ways to help journalists sift through online content and publish the most relevant information. NPR Twitter guru Andy Carvin, who recently drew raves from the online world for his social networking coverage of revolutions in the Middle East and northern Africa, first used Storify to cover the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in January. “It quickly evolved into looking at how people were discussing the media coverage surrounding it and its potential political impact,” Carvin, senior strategist on NPR’s social media desk, told the Times. “There’s a big need for tools that allow people to collect bits of social media context and organize them in some fashion.”

Quick Takes

WNET bids to manage NJN

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WNET in New York City has submitted a bid to manage the television side of the New Jersey Network, “and is expecting to hear back next week,” the Wall Street Journal is reporting (third item).The network has been in play since last year (Current, July 6, 2010), when Gov. Chris Christie decided the state must end its $11 million subsidy due to budget constraints. The Journal says other pubcasting stations interested in the network include WHYY in Philadelphia, and local groups such as WBGO, the Newark NPR affiliate. Transfer of NJN has been set for July 1. The state is seeking bidders to manage the TV network, and purchase or manage the radio network.

Quick Takes

PTFP announces shutdown, April 2011

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April 25, 2011

PTFP to Shutdown
Grant Round CancelledOn April 15, 2011, the President signed Public Law 112-10, The Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, which provided no funding for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) in Fiscal Year 2011. As a result, NTIA will not process applications it has received or award any additional grants under the PTFP. NTIA has begun the orderly shutdown of PTFP and will destroy copies of all applications received for the FY 2011 grant round upon the shutdown of the program. NTIA will continue to monitor PTFP grants it has previously awarded to ensure that taxpayer funds are utilized in the most responsible and efficient manner. The terms and conditions of all PTFP grants remain in effect until the expiration of a grant’s award period.

Quick Takes

Louisville’s WFPL drops local talk show, plans newsroom expansion

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Louisville Public Media’s WFPL is replacing its local midday talk program State of Affairs with Here & Now, the nationally syndicated show from WBUR in Boston. With the switch, WFPL plans to put more emphasis on in-depth news reporting and interviews that can be aired within Here & Now and other national programs. The local news inserts “will be sort of like State of Affairs interviews except they will be a little shorter,” Todd Mundt, chief content officer, tells the Louisville Courier-Journal. “This allows us to delve into topics that maybe wouldn’t get an hour but they’re still important.” The WFPL news team also will report on important local topics for occasional hour-long news specials, which will preempt national shows. The schedule change is part of a planned expansion of WFPL’s news team, according to the Courier-Journal. State of Affairs host Julie Kredens continues to contribute to WFPL news programs, including State of the News, a news analysis show that held onto its Friday 1 p.m. timeslot.

Quick Takes

NPR News reports on Gitmo detainees

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NPR News is reporting new details about detainees from the U.S. military’s Guantanamo Bay prison. A series of investigative reports, mined from secret documents leaked last year to WikiLeaks, were published last night on NPR.org; NPR correspondents Tom Gjelten, Dina Temple-Raston and Margot Williams will report more findings on NPR News programs throughout the day. The New York Times, which received the cache of classified military documents from an anonymous source, shared them with NPR.Huffington Post reports behind-the-scenes details of the race among major news outlets to publish their findings from the WikiLeaks Gitmo documents. Both the New York Times and NPR benefited from the expertise of Margot Williams, a former Times reporter now working in NPR’s investigations unit. Williams, who maintained the Times database on Gitmo and continued to work on it after leaving the paper, has “absolutely encyclopedic” knowledge of the prisoners held there, NPR Executive Editor Dick Meyers tells HuffPo.