Quick Takes

APTS elects Bob Kerrey as trustee

By |

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey has joined the board of trustees of the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS). Kerrey, who also served as a governor of Nebraska, is currently chairman of M & F Worldwide Education Holdings, parent company of GlobalScholar, Scantron and Spectrum K-12. Prior to joining GlobalScholar, Kerrey was president of the New School University in New York City. “I believe public television has an especially important role to play in the education of our children — and also in public safety, job training and other essential public services,” Kerrey said in a statement.

Quick Takes

Stars turn out for Mark Twain Prize, to air on PBS

By |

Fan of the red carpet? You’ll enjoy PBS’s photos from the Kennedy Center of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded Sunday evening (Oct. 23) to comedian Will Farrell. Big-name stars attending included actors Paul Rudd, Ed Asner, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandburg and Molly Shannon, as well as PBS NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill. PBS members stations will air the show Oct.

Quick Takes

ITVS announces Global Perspectives selections

By |

The Independent Television Service has chosen eight international documentary projects from its 2011 call for the Global Perspective Project. This year’s selections “provide extraordinary access and insight into the daily lives and struggles of people who live in Uruguay, Iran, China, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Myanmar and India,” the CPB-backed ITVS said in a statement. Docs were selected from 476 submissions from 118 countries representing 72 languages. All eight are bound for the PBS series Independent Lens, P.O.V., and the international series Global Voices on the World channel. The 2012 ITVS International Call opens Nov.

Quick Takes

Democracy Now! at 15 years: “People speaking for themselves”

By |

The six-hour, live streaming news coverage by Democracy Now! of Georgia inmate Troy Davis’s execution on Sept. 21 was viewed more than 800,000 times online, reports the New York Times in a profile of the show, which is celebrating its 15th year. The popularity of that reporting attests to “the hunger for this kind of information,” host Amy Goodman told the newspaper. “Yet there was no network that was there to cover this moment throughout the night.”Some fans as well as critics describe the show as progressive, the Times notes, but Goodman rejects that label and instead says it’s a newscast that has “people speaking for themselves.” She also criticizes networks that have counted on on pundits, rather than actual protesters, to discuss the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Quick Takes

Michele Norris steps back from ATC post after husband accepts Obama campaign role

By |

NPR’s Michele Norris is leaving her co-hosting duties for All Things Considered until after the 2012 elections, due to husband Broderick Johnson’s new position with President Obama’s re-election campaign. “Given the nature of Broderick’s position with the campaign and the impact that it will most certainly have on our family life,” Norris said in a note to colleagues this morning (Oct. 24), “I will temporarily step away from my hosting duties until after the 2012 elections.” NPR hasn’t decided who will substitute for her. Norris said she will produce signature segments and features and working on new reporting projects.

Quick Takes

Mattel acquires Kids Sprout channel partner HIT Entertainment

By |

Toy giant Mattel is buying HIT Entertainment, part owner with PBS and Sesame Workshop of the Kids Sprout children’s educational cable channel, for $680 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter. With more than $180 million in annual revenue, HIT is one of the largest independent owners of intellectual property for preschoolers, holding titles including Thomas & Friends, Barney, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and Angelina Ballerina. Sprout launched initially as a video on demand service on April 1, 2005, and became a cable and satellite channel in September 2005 (background, Current, Nov. 1, 2004).

Quick Takes

Lack of live WBAI coverage of Occupy Wall Street puzzles Local Station Board member

By |

Where is New York City Pacifica Radio WBAI’s live coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement? That’s what blogger Matthew Lasar is pondering after receiving this note from former WBAI programmer Doug Henwood: “I’m stunned. [The station is] right on Wall Street. They could walk out the door and ask the denizens of Brown Bros Harriman and Deutsche Bank what they make of it. And then walk five minutes down the street to Zuccotti Park and cover breaking news and all kinds of stuff.

Quick Takes

Nonprofit news site Bay Citizen loses c.e.o, one month after editor’s departure

By |

Lisa Frazier, c.e.o. of The Bay Citizen nonprofit news website, has announced that she is leaving for personal reasons. This follows Bay Citizen Editor Jonathan Weber’s departure in September to join Reuters. Frazier has led the news organization since its founding. Her appointment in January 2010 “raised eyebrows,” the San Francisco Business Times noted, “both for her lack of direct media experience and her salary of $400,000.”

Quick Takes

Maine Public Broadcasting discontinues its on-air auction after four decades

By |

After 40 years, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network is ending its MPBN Great TV Auction, reports the Maine Sunday Telegram. Lou Morin, director of marketing and public relations for MPBN, said the auction usually brought in about $450,000 in gross revenue, but after expenses the net revenue was only about $150,000. The auction usually took place over 10 days in April, pre-empting the network’s regular nightly schedule — which became a factor in the decision to end it. “People want their normal programming interrupted as little as possible,” Morin said.

Quick Takes

Knight report points to strategies for sustaining nonprofit news start-ups

By |

A new Knight Foundation report provides details on locally focused nonprofit news websites and their progress in engaging web audiences, building revenues and cultivating donors. “Getting Local” profiles seven news start-ups and draws conclusions about what it will take for them to become financially self-sustainable. Nonprofit news ventures must “aspire well beyond producing high-quality journalistic content,” write co-authors Mayur Patel and Michele McLellan. “Entrepreneurial revenue development, audience focus and a mission of engagement, and technology to support that mission are essential components of a sustainable nonprofit news venture.” Poynter columnist Rick Edmonds summarized highlights of the report in this Oct.

Quick Takes

Maine Public Broadcasting shatters one-day radio pledge record

By |

Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s “Super Thursday” one-day pledge drive raised $252,719 from 2,866 donors today (Oct. 20), more than doubling its previous daily record of $107,558 in April. Its goal was met in less than 12 hours of on-air appeals, which was “totally unexpected,” said Jennifer Foley, MPBN’s director of development and philanthropic giving, in a press release. One man walked into MPBN’s studio in Lewiston and donated a jar of loose change, which totaled $45.59.Foley said MPBN had heavily promoted the pledge drive for the past two weeks, with pre-recorded messages written for MPBN’s audience by a dozen NPR radio personalities, including Carl Kassel and Peter Sagal from Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!, Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon and Fresh Air host Terry Gross.MPBN radio pledge drives usually last for about a week.

Quick Takes

NETA recognizes best of public TV with annual awards

By |

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — First-time NETA Award winner KRSC/RSU-Television in Claremore, Okla., was also a double winner for its Will Rogers & American Politics, claiming both the biography and history honors in the content production category. The National Educational Telecommunications Association also pays tribute to the best of promotion, community engagement and instructional media with the annual awards, presented today (Oct. 20) at its national conference here.Another double winner was Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh, N.Y., also in content production, for Cirque du Soleil: Flowers in the Desert (performance) and The Boobie Sisters (news and public affairs). The NETA Education Center presented its Enterprise and Innovation Award to WKYU in Bowling Green, Ky., for the project that converted its traditional incandescent production studio lighting to a smaller, more configurable and more cost-efficient LED system.  In all, 28 crystal plaques were presented to recipients who traveled from as far away as Virgin Islands Public Broadcasting.

Programs/Content

Simeone’s activism prompts inquiry into ethical standards for pubradio freelancers

By |

Public radio is once again struggling to define the line between on-air talent who report as ethically bound journalists and those personalities who are permitted to express opinions. Freelance radio broadcaster Lisa Simeone, a veteran host of public radio documentary and music programs, was fired late Oct. 19 from Soundprint, the independently produced long-form doc series, for violating NPR’s ethics code. Her role as spokesperson for “October 2011,” an anti-war group aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement that has staged protests in Washington, D.C., put her longtime affiliation with public radio in jeopardy. The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call first questioned whether Simeone’s activism violated journalistic ethics in an Oct.

Quick Takes

PBS Food opens its online doors; PBS Distribution expands deal with Amazon.com

By |

PBS today announced two online initiatives, one a new website, another an expanded content agreement with Amazon.com.It’s launch day for PBS Food, a gateway to some 150 pubTV food and cooking programs and more than 1,700 searchable recipes from local station and national archives. The site features classic episodes of shows such as Baking With Julia, and Victory Garden, and an appearance from a very young Emeril Lagasse.And PBS Distribution has broadened its licensing agreement with Amazon.com, which will allow Amazon Prime members to instantly stream current and archived PBS programming. “Expanding the reach of our content by making it accessible through digital platforms is a key priority for PBS,” Jason Seiken, s.v.p., PBS Interactive, said in a press release. Prime members will have access to more than 1,000 episodes of shows that air on PBS, to roll out over the next several months. Content includes NOVA, Masterpiece and Antiques Roadshow, along with the Ken Burns documentaries The Civil War, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Baseball, Jazz and his latest, Prohibition.

Quick Takes

WTTW adding Al Jazeera English content

By |

WTTW is picking up Al Jazeera English programming beginning Oct. 31, the first time the news provider will be seen on the air in Chicago. AJE will run from 6:30 to 7 a.m. and 11 to 11:30 p.m. weekdays on the WTTW Prime multicast channel, and 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. Saturdays on its main Channel 11. Additional time slots for AJE on WTTW11 will be available beginning in early 2012, WTTW said. “Our station has a long history of providing quality public affairs programming,” said Dan Schmidt, WTTW president, “and by adding broadcasts from Al Jazeera English, we are providing a broader perspective on critical global issues.”

Quick Takes

First pledge drive for Pittsburgh’s WESA seen as key indicator of listener support

By |

Pittsburgh’s WESA is making its first fundraising appeal to listeners since the station changed format and call letters under new owner Essential Public Media. Its $250,000 fundraising goal is less than half of the amount raised in a record-breaking February 2010 drive for WDUQ, as the station was known during its years as a split-format news and jazz station, the Pittsburgh Tribune reports. But back then, listeners who pledged a total of $525,000 were responding to Duquesne University’s decision to sell its public radio station, a transaction that finally closed this summer.After the switch to its all-news format in July, the audience for 90.5 dipped to a 1.4 share of Pittsburgh radio listeners, according to Arbitron data cited by the Tribune. But EPM execs expect to recover and improve upon WDUQ’s performance. They’re aiming for a weekly cume of 200,000 listeners, which would top WDUQ’s best-ever Arbitron book of 180,000 listeners in 2009.

Quick Takes

“Antiques Roadshow” companion program coming in spring 2012

By |

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Public TV broadcasters got some tantalizing details on the long-awaited spinoff of the hit Antiques Roadshow. John Wilson, PBS program chief, said the program, with the working title of Market Wars, will debut in spring 2012 from Roadshow e.p. Marsha Bemko. Wilson said PBS has ordered 20 episodes initially, “at a very effective production cost per hour.” In the show, two rotating expert appraisers will drop into a community for a friendly competition: Each begins with a set amount of money, hits flea markets and auctions to find interesting objects, and the one with the best net wins.

Quick Takes

Butler at NETA: Federal pubcasting funding a lifeline, not a yoke

By |

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, told attendees at the National Educational Telecommunications Association conference this morning (Oct. 19) that he doesn’t want the public to get the impression that “public broadcasters are eager for the day when federal funding will go away.” He was reacting to a question from the breakfast crowd about Louisville Public Media’s “Campaign for Independence” radio pledge drive, going on now, that aims, according to its website, to help the station “become independent from unreliable funding streams.””This attitude is not really helpful to us,” Butler said.”I fear that some of our friends in public radio, because they feel burned by recent political fires, just can’t wait to get out from under the ‘yoke’ of federal funding,” Butler said. While some see government support that way, “others see it as a lifeline, which it really is.”