Quick Takes

Pubcasters raise issue with vulgarity in Newsweek

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Three pubcasting stations have complained to the Pledge Partner Magazine Premium Program that Newsweek, one of several magazines offered as a gift in exchange for donations, has been using more vulgarities since its merger with the Daily Beast website, reports the New York Times. Zunk Buker, founder of Pledge Partner, describes it as a “minor firestorm.”Bill Sanford, g.m. of Lakeland Public Television in Bemidji, Minn., told station execs in a recent e-mail that a major donor had complained. Sanford agreed, and said he wanted the station “to offer premiums that reflect our values.”Stephen Colvin, chief executive of the Newsweek Daily Beast Co., told the Times in an e-mail: “We are very proud of our partnership with public broadcasting stations.” Justine Rosenthal, executive editor of Newsweek, said, “We do not use profanity unless within a quote or in the context of a story and care is taken to ensure it is never used gratuitously.”The Pledge Partner program has made some $375 million for pubstations since its inception in 1991, according to Buker; since 1996 when it was first offered, Newsweek brings in about 90 percent of the money.

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NPR Digital and KPLU discover Facebook geotagging “a powerful journalism tool”

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Here’s a look from the Nieman Journalism Lab at what geotagging on NPR’s Facebook page did for KPLU in Seattle. In October 2011, NPR Digital Services and Digital Media launched an experiment with the member station, sharing certain KPLU.org content on NPR’s 2.3-million fan Facebook page, but making it visible only to Facebook users in the Seattle region. “Four months into this experiment, we’ve made some unexpected discoveries around Facebook communities and the power of localization on a national platform,” write Eric Athas and Keith Hopper of NPR Digital. The test drove KPLU’s site to record traffic for a single day (January 19), second-highest traffic for a single month (October 2011) and the highest traffic for a single month (January). And Seattle stories had a higher engagement rate (likes, shares and comments) too.

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NPR’s Richard Harris back on the air, after vocal fold paralysis

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NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris is suffering from unilateral vocal fold paralysis, probably due to a virus, he reveals in a post on Shots, NPR’s health blog. “It turns out this disorder is common enough that there’s a line of medical products to address it,” he writes. His specialist at Johns Hopkins used an injection of water, gelatin and sodium carboxymethylcellulose — “yes, cellulose as in the indigestible fiber that tree trunks and paper are made of” — to help align Harris’s paralyzed vocal cord with his functioning one. “Over the next six to 10 weeks, the carboxymethylcellulose will degrade in my gullet,” Harris writes. “That will buy time for the nerve to heal, which it often does.

Quick Takes

He’s a fan, by George

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Who loves NPR? George Clooney, reveals this photo posted by Tanya Ballard Brown, an editor at NPR.org, currently ricocheting around the Internets.UPDATE: Fishbowl LA reports that Clooney was at NPR West — surrounded by female staffers — to record a segment on All Things Considered.

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Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s KWIS-FM now on the air

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KWIS-FM, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s radio station, is now on the air from Plummer, Idaho, one of more than two dozen Native stations that received FCC construction permits in 2008. KWIS, pronounced “kwee-ss,” means “to be called” in the Coeur d’Alene language, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press.

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Kansas House committee turns down $800,000 extra for pubcasting

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The Republican Kansas House Appropriations Committee chairman broke a 10-10 vote deadlock to reject a request for an additional $800,000 for public broadcasting, the Lawrence Journal-World reported Thursday (Feb. 9). Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 included $600,000 for public broadcasting, down from $2 million; a House budget subcommittee added $800,000, bringing the total to $1.2 million. Rep. Marc Rhoades (R-Newton) cast the deciding vote.

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CPB to present Community Lifeline Awards for station response during disasters

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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has established a Community Lifeline Award (PDF) to recognize pubcasting stations “that have provided exceptionally exemplary service to their communities” during “local emergencies, natural disasters, and other urgent situations.” Any station that receives a Community Service Grant may apply. The station must have provided information and updates in close coordination with government agencies and first responders, presented extensive coverage of the situation, and station staff “demonstrated strong personal commitment” during the crisis through long hours or “calmness under pressure.” The number of recipients of the award will vary; CPB estimates presenting two to three annually.

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Knight “evolves” its News Challenge grants program

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The Knight Foundation is revamping its Knight News Challenge for 2012, “evolving the challenge to be more nimble and more focused,” it announced Thursday (Feb. 9), with three distinct application rounds. The first concentrates on networks, and ways entities might use existing platforms to drive innovation in media and journalism; applications open Feb. 27 and close March 17. Subsequent rounds will be an open competition, “looking for new ideas broadly,” the foundation said, and a third on a specific topic.

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Contributions, grants to KCET fall 41 percent in first year away from PBS, paper reports

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Contributions and grants to KCET have plunged 41 percent since its departure from PBS membership in January 2011, according to the Los Angeles Times, including corporate as well as individual giving. But the station also received $28.8 million from the sale of its historic studio to the Church of Scientology; the newspaper noted that while the purchase price was $45 million, the station temporarily leased back the property). KCET also “sharply trimmed its spending on programming and production,” the paper said, down 37 percent to $21 million. “We saw an uptick in the fourth quarter 2011,” Al Jerome, the station’s president and chief executive, told the Times in an email. “We’re hopeful this trend continues through 2012.”

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CPB ombudsman criticizes redactions in IG audit of WQED

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Joel Kaplan, ombudsman for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, writes in a column Wednesday (Feb. 8) that information redacted from a recent CPB Inspector General’s report on Pittsburgh’s WQED, “is inconsistent with CPB’s pledge of transparency.”Kenneth Konz, the inspector general, conducted an audit of WQED Multimedia, released in December 2011, that determined that because WQED did not comply with certain CPB guidelines for reporting nonfederal financial support, CPB made improper Community Service Grants to the station in excess of $798,000.”If you read the audit report,” Kaplan writes, “you will find that it is filled with redactions about specific monetary expenditures at the heart of the audit report.” Kaplan said a reporter contacted him asking why the redactions were allowed, especially because CPB noted in its latest business plan that it has “engaged in a continuous process of improving its own transparency.”The redacted figures concerned WQED’s sale several years ago of Pittsburgh Magazine, a for-profit publication. George Hazimanolis, WQED spokesman, told Kaplan that the CPB inspector general’s office “offered WQED the opportunity to redact anything that was proprietary and harmful to WQED’s business, which we understood to be normal procedure. WQED responded very broadly to that offer.”

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KCET announces new spring shows, including first series from $50 million production deal

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KCET in Los Angeles will premiere several new programs beginning in March, including a four-part original documentary series on caregiving, Your Turn to Care, hosted by actress Holly Robinson Peete. A companion website officially launches Feb. 15, with tips for coping with aging family members from guest experts, including best-selling author Gail Sheehy.Classic Cool Theater premieres March 10, the first project in a $50 million production collaboration with Eyetronics Media & Studios (Current, Aug. 16, 2011). Each episode of the weekly two-hour series will include a retro cartoon, feature film, newsreel, and musical short, each from the 1930s to 1960s.

Quick Takes

Elliott Mitchell dies at 67; pubcasting staffer, public access advocate

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Elliott Mitchell III, who worked in public broadcasting in Florida, New York and Tennessee, died Feb. 1 in Nashville. He was 67.His obituary in the Paducah (Ky.) Sun said that during his career he produced Today in the Legislature, a statewide program from Florida Public Broadcasting in Tallahassee, as well as At The Top and other music programs at WXXI television in Rochester, N.Y. He was a member of the WPLN-FM community advisory board in Nashville, and a national and regional board member of the Alliance for Community Media, which advocates for Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) channels. He was also a founding member of the Education Access Corporation, which programs Nashville public-access channels.Survivors include his wife, Marie Fagen, and their son, William; brother Rick and his wife, Linda, and several nieces, nephews and cousins. There will be no service at Mitchell’s request.

Quick Takes

In case you missed it …

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Here’s a link to get you caught up on the posts thus far at “The Babes of NPR” on Tumblr, which the New York Observer calls “oddly funny, moderately creepy.” Here’s a typical post on the faces behind the voices: “Sure, Bob Edwards left NPR for XM Radio but how could you stay mad at someone with a hero chin and male model hair? HOT.”

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WFMT to offer annual Immersion Day as a live online stream for $20

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Classical WFMT in Chicago is conducting an experiment with its third annual in-studio Immersion Day on Feb. 11, said Steve Robinson, e.v.p. for radio and project development. The popular event, where fans pay $150 to attend a daylong seminar on a specific aspect of classical music, mingle and share lunch, this time also will be streamed live. Henry Fogel, former president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a leading expert on opera singers, will discuss how those vocal performances have changed over the past 100 years.Participants attending the seminar will receive full access to the stream, which will be archived online for a year, Robinson told Current. Fans elsewhere pay $20 to listen in that day, and also get archival access.”This is an experiment in niche streaming,” said Robinson, who got the idea when he heard about YouTube investing $100 million in targeted original content.

Quick Takes

Mike deGruy, cinematographer for several Nature docs, dies in crash

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Mike deGruy, an acclaimed cinematographer with a love of the sea who created several Nature documentaries on PBS, was killed in a helicopter crash in Australia on Feb. 4. He was 60. His employer, National Geographic, said that deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight crashed after takeoff near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney. Australia’s ABC News reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter.

Quick Takes

PBS Arts Festival supporter tops Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2011 largest donors list

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The late Margaret Cargill, whose Anne Ray Charitable Trust backed last year’s PBS Fall Arts Festival with an $800,000 donation, was the most generous philanthropic donor in America in 2011, according to this year’s Philanthropy 50 list from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The top 50 donors gave a total of $10.4 billion in 2011, up from $3.3 billion the previous year, according to the Chronicle study. Cargill’s $6 billion bequest created the surge; although she died in 2006, her foundations weren’t able to liquidate her assets until last year, the Chronicle noted. Here is the entire list, and information about how the 12th annual research project was conducted.

Quick Takes

World Channel seeks long-form documentaries for upcoming series

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The World Channel is announcing its first open call for content, in advance of a new long-form documentary series premiering later this year focusing on “stories of unique and diverse Americans,” it said Monday (Feb. 6). Liz Cheng, World g.m., said the series will run films that “explore individuals, issues and ideas not often seen on mainstream television.” Deadline is March 1; more information here.

Quick Takes

WDSC-TV staffers must reapply for jobs

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The 14 employees at WDSC-TV at Daytona State College must reapply for their positions, which are being eliminated June 30, reports the Daytona Beach, Fla., News Journal. A plan for the station that will be presented to the college’s board of trustees this month contains only six or seven staff positions. “Employees are encouraged to apply not only there but to any other opening they may be interested in at the college,” said Tomas LoBasso, s.v.p. of student development and institutional effectiveness. College President Carol Eaton said state and federal budget cuts have prompted the restructuring, and that the station probably would cut back on local programs and instead acquire more shows. “We will probably let local programming wind down,” Eaton said.

Quick Takes

KIXE-TV gets 32 applications for g.m. spot

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KIXE-TV in Redding, Calif., received 32 applications for general manager and will interview eight candidates by phone, according to the local Record Searchlight newspaper, to select two or three for in-person interviews. Mike Quinn, station interim g.m. since last August, has applied for the job.