Quick Takes

PBS agrees to consider moving indie showcases after online outcry from filmmakers

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In reaction to recent pressure from the indie film community following Current’s story on PBS’s move of Independent Lens and P.O.V. from Tuesdays to Thursdays, the network has agreed to consider shifting the indie showcases to another night, reports the New York Times. An open letter to PBS from Kartemquin Films now has several hundred signatories. And PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler weighed in on the controversy in his column Thursday (March 22). His concerns as a PBS viewer, he writes, “are two-fold. One is that the series not be marginalized if that is what the schedule change winds up doing.

Quick Takes

Two ex-candidates sue WNIN, alleging exclusion from 2010 debate

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Two former Libertarian candidates for Congress are suing pubcaster WNIN in Evansville, Ind., contending they were wrongly excluded from a debate at the station, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. Other defendants named in the suit are the League of Women Voters of Southwestern Indiana, the president of that organization, and the national League. John W. Cunningham and Edward Gluck are asking for $450,750 in damages. The lawsuit centers on a Oct. 26, 2010, debate at the WNIN-PBS9 studio between one Republican and one Democratic candidates for the 8th District seat.

About Current

Best way to congratulate the editors: Subscribe!

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To Karen Everhart, recently appointed interim managing editor of Current:

The announcement that the March 12 issue of Current is the last to be published under the editorship of Steve Behrens brought back so many memories for me from the last 35 years. In 1977, Steve and I were colleagues and he was the editor of the in-house publication of the nonprofit where we both worked when I introduced him to my good friend Jim Fellows. Jim loved smart and talented people, and he soon became a fan of Steve’s many journalistic talents. So, it wasn’t too surprising for me when, a couple of years later, Jim persuaded Steve to join him at the National Association of Educational Broadcasters to design and launch a new newspaper covering exclusively the field of public broadcasting. We greatly missed Steve’s talents on our staff, but I understood how persuasive Jim could be. Jim was enormously proud of his honorary title as founder of Current. He believed deeply in the importance of Current’s contribution to the development of public broadcasting as a profession and to the field as a whole. I think it’s fair to say that Jim was as strong a champion for Current as anyone in public broadcasting for decades. He certainly felt it to be one of the most important legacies of his own long career in educational and later public broadcasting.

Quick Takes

News editor Khalid gone from Baltimore’s WYPR-FM

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Sunni Khalid, managing news editor at WYPR-FM in Baltimore, is gone from the station after more than nine years, reports The Baltimore Sun. His last day was March 16. According to the newspaper, Khalid “had been on probation in February for comments he posted on the Facebook page of a friend questioning the influence of Israel on American politics.”

Quick Takes

DEI and AIR will mentor radio producers in proposal writing

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Amie Klempnauer Miller, who has written proposals that raised more than $20 million, will mentor a pilot group of AIR producers this spring. Application deadline: April 18. The Development Exchange (DEI) and the Association of Independents in Radio are jointly organizing the four-hour training session for the first time. Miller, who is DEI’s foundation support coordinator, will help producers find their way, identifying and building relationships with possible funders and designing case statements specifically for them. Info online.

Quick Takes

NPR hires Edith Chapin from CNN as new senior foreign editor

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NPR News announced today (March 21) that it has hired CNN v.p.and deputy bureau chief Edith Chapin to lead its foreign desk, starting May 14. It also promoted Didi Schanche to deputy senior foreign editor; she has been an editor with that unit since 2001. Chapin will oversee correspondents based in 17 bureaus worldwide as well as a team of editors and reporters in Washington, D.C.Chapin has spent her career at CNN, beginning in 1987. Based in London in the early 1990s, she covered events in Bosnia, Rwanda, Zaire and Ireland. For seven years she directed editorial coverage from CNN’s New York bureau, including its reporting on 9/11 and its aftermath.

Quick Takes

Aero files countersuit to complaint from PBS, WNET, other broadcasters

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Aereo, an new online TV service supported by media mogul Barry Diller, has filed a countersuit against PBS, WNET and several other broadcasters who are claiming copyright infringement, according to Reuters. The suit, filed Tuesday (March 20) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also includes plaintiffs Fox, Univision, and WPIX, a CW station in New York City. It comes about a week after Aereo filed a similar suit in response to a complaint from ABC, CBS, NBCUniversal and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo.The new service, which launched this month in New York City, says it offers “proprietary remote antenna and DVR” technology “that consumers can use to access network television on web-enabled devices.” It provides over-the-air signals from various broadcasters to its subscribers for $12 a month.

Quick Takes

Charlotte’s WTVI to merge with local community college

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The merger of PBS member station WTVI in Charlotte, N.C., with Central Piedmont Community College was approved Tuesday (March 20) by Mecklenburg County commissioners in a 6-3 vote, reports the Charlotte Observer. “This is not about saving a legal entity, it is about saving local programming that is valuable to our community,” Chairman Harold Cogdell said. “It’s about access to education through programming, as well as those (students) learning to put together that programming at the community college.” The county will provide financial support for the merger of $357,000 to finalize the deal and some $800,000 over the next four years for equipment upgrades.WTVI made cuts in 2010 after the county slashed its support from nearly $860,000 to just $95,000. In June 2011, station president Elsie Garner said WTVI’s survival was in jeopardy, and it was “bleeding money.”

Quick Takes

NPR plans to develop geotargeting app for Facebook

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NPR is applying for a Knight News Challenge grant of $340,000 to develop an app, GeoGraph, based on its successful experiment last year that drove visitors to Seattle’s KPLU.org via geotargeted posts on the NPR Facebook page.”The project could have an impact on how other media companies — and possibly brands — distribute content through Facebook,” noted the Inside Facebook website.In its News Challenge application, NPR said, “We will enable publishing through specific pages on Facebook, starting with NPR’s 2.3 million ‘likers’ in partnership with our 268 member stations. We will build our GeoGraph tool using Facebook’s Graph API. We worked with Facebook during a proof of concept; they committed to assisting us with it moving forward.” After launching with the grant from Knight, “member fees will provide ongoing funding,” it said. They anticipate the project will take seven months.UPDATE: PBS also has been geotargeting Facebook posts for member stations, reports Kevin Dando, director of digital marketing and communications for the network.

Quick Takes

NewsHour offers more international coverage than rest of TV newscasts, Pew report finds

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The State of the News Media 2012, the annual report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, was released Monday (March 19). Among the data of interest to pubmedia stakeholders: A look at how community news is faring (“The future for local and regional sites probably will see increased use of news networks and partnerships — with public radio, local television, even local daily newspapers that may have resisted such alliances just a few years ago”); a section on Native American media (“Mark Trahant, a former president of the Native American Journalists Association, described the state of Native media as ‘a narrative of expansion'”), and an in-depth look at the PBS NewsHour’s ratings, staffing, financial support and content (“The PBS NewsHour differs in its agenda from other television news programs. The most striking difference is that the NewsHour offered more than a third more coverage of international news proportionally in 2011 than the rest of the media over all, including all other forms of television news”). Here’s a press release that details major findings, including that some 27 percent of Americans now get their news on mobile devices, and for most of them, this is increasing their news consumption.

Quick Takes

NPR offering new online system to map analog, digital radio and TV signal coverage

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NPR Labs has launched an interactive online mapping system, reports Radio World, to give pubradio and pubTV stations a better idea of analog and digital coverage of their signal in cars, on mobile handheld devices and indoor receivers. NPR Labs Senior Technology John Kean told the site that the system allows overlays to compare analog and HD radio at original and higher FM power levels. The DTV coverage, especially for  mobile devices, will predict how well viewers can receive full service and translator systems. The ATSC-M/H coverage was developed with assistance from the Open Mobile Video Coalition. “The demographic data is ideal for gauging and comparing coverage for actual populations, which planners and underwriters may use,” Kean said. The system is free and works best with online browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 9 and above.

Quick Takes

FCC announces plan to resolve backlog of FM translator apps

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The FCC took another step yesterday toward licensing more low-power FM stations, which advocates for community radio have been awaiting for years. The commission will begin to work through a backlog of thousands of applications for FM translators under a new system that it adopted yesterday, a modified version of a proposal that it floated last summer (Current, July 25, 2011). The translator applications must be processed first because some could conflict with potential LPFM stations.The FCC will toss out FM translator applications in larger markets to make way for LPFMs in those areas while continuing to process applications for translators that would serve less-populous areas. The commission will also limit applicants to a maximum of 50 translator applications nationwide, in an effort to prevent the kind of speculative filing seen in previous application windows (Current, March 28, 2005). The FCC also asked for comment on a variety of measures affecting noncommercial radio, including some that would give a boost to Native American groups.

Quick Takes

Writers Guild of America, East, voices support for “Independent Lens” petition

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The Writers Guild of America, East, is urging its 4,000 members to sign Kartemquin Film’s online open letter to PBS protesting the network’s move of indie showcases Independent Lens and P.O.V. from their longtime Tuesday timeslots to Thursday nights (Current, March 12). In an email to its members, WGAE President Michael Winship, senior writer on Moyers & Company, said, “It is imperative that we all support high quality public affairs programming and give it the opportunity to reach the widest audience possible.””PBS’s decision to move these two programs from their long-held primetime slots is a disservice to viewers and undercuts a critical part of public television’s mission by diminishing the independent voices essential to diversity and democracy,” he wrote. “That is why we urge everyone to sign the petition.”

Quick Takes

American Graduate launches revamped website

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The website for CPB’s American Graduate initiative relaunched today (March 19) with a new research center, video from pubstations around the country, and connections to more than 600 local partners. The research center includes indices for all 50 states and information on how dropout data is being used to inform and drive action. There are also full-length pubmedia programs and specials focused on the crisis, along with local content such as student stories and teacher town hall meetings and highlights from upcoming broadcast premieres.

Quick Takes

Concern over “Independent Lens” shift to Thursdays grows

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Current’s March 12 story on the ratings and carriage drop for Independent Lens, and larger issues associated with programming diverse content, is getting wider attention. The New York Times followed up in an article posted Sunday (March 18). It noted that as of that afternoon, 65 indie producers, including Bill Moyers, Stanley Nelson (screenwriter, director of Freedom Riders) and Alex Gibney (producer, director and a writer of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), had signed Kartemquin Films’ online letter to PBS protesting the scheduling change. (By Monday, that had grown to more than 100.)Also, the International Documentary Association is encouraging producers to sign Kartemquin’s letter.And Patricia Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media at American University, posted an online commentary, “Antiques or Independents? Why it Matters Where PBS Puts Independent Lens and POV” on Saturday (March 17).

Quick Takes

Deadline approaching for INPUT travel grants

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Want to go to INPUT, the International Public Television Screening Conference, May 7-12 in Sydney? CPB is providing a limited number of travel grants via South Carolina ETV, the U.S. secretariat for the conference. It’s the worldwide forum for professionals involved in television in the public interest. More than 1,000 participants from some 50 countries will meet to discuss the challenges of producing public television, and get a chance to see 80 hours of content from around the world including five programs from the United States. Deadline to request a grant to help with airfare, registration and lodging is April 2; application details here.

Quick Takes

Ira Glass on his nervous pitch to monologist Mike Daisey

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Current’s Feb. 27 story on This American Life’s recent breakthroughs with enterprise reporting describes the inspiration behind “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” the story on Apple factories in China that was later retracted. Glass tells Current that after seeing Daisey’s monologue last October, he was already “editing the radio version in my head” as he left the theater. “I thought [Daisey] was doing something remarkable,” said Glass, “which is taking a fact that we all already know — that these devices we love are made in China in conditions that are probably not so wonderful, and he makes us feel something about it.”

Glass invited Daisey to lunch, and he recalls feeling nervous when they met Nov. 16.

Quick Takes

Scripps Howard Awards include pubmedia journalists

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Several public-media reporters are winners of the annual Scripps Howard Awards, recognizing excellence across multiple platforms. Journalists from California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting won the Roy W. Howard Award for public service reporting, and $10,000, for “On Shaky Ground,” a 19-month investigation exposing flaws in seismic safety compliance and oversight at public schools; Paul Kiel and Olga Pierce of ProPublica won the William Brewster Styles Award for business and economics reporting, along with $10,000, for exposing the failure of industry and government responses to the foreclosure crisis; and Dan Grech and Kenny Malone of WLRN and The Miami Herald won the Jack R. Howard Award for radio reporting and $10,000 for “Neglected to Death,” a series that uncovered abuse and neglect within Florida’s assisted living industry. A list of all winners is here.

Quick Takes

OPB nearly got to star in “Daily Show” mock-debate sketch

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The cancellation of the GOP presidential debate set for Monday at Oregon Public Broadcasting may have disappointed a lot of people, but the writers at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart saw it as an opportunity for a wacky segment playing up Portland’s offbeat reputation.Earlier this week, OPB President Steve Bass heard from the show, which originally wanted to cover the debate. But after the event was canceled on Thursday, they still wanted to come — to use the studio set for a segment.What they were planning “actually sounded pretty funny,” Bass said. The concept: Portland was so disappointed that the event wasn’t happening that a Make-a-Wish Foundation-style organization comes in to grant the city’s wish for a debate. In the sketch, The Daily Show Correspondent Aasif Mandvi would interview Bass and Allen Alley, chair of the Oregon Republican Party, a debate co-sponsor. “They wanted me to be the straight man,” Bass said.