Current (https://current.org/2013/01/page/3/)
As the executive producer who acquired and managed co-productions of British dramas for Masterpiece and its predecessor titles for more than 26 years, Eaton has brought high-profile miniseries such as Prime Suspect, Bleak House and recent hits Sherlock and Downton Abbey to PBS.
KERA in Dallas has hired Glenn Fisher as its chief operating officer. Fisher will oversee daily administration of the organization, managing the finance, membership, underwriting, engineering and IT departments. Fisher spent 28 years at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, serving as v.p. of station operations, v.p. for development and communications, and v.p. of broadcast operations. PBS named him Development Professional of the Year in 2005.
When public radio managers gathered for November’s Super-Regional Meeting in New Orleans, home to Bourbon Street and the drive-through daiquiri bar, NPR Chair and ideastream COO Kit Jensen mentioned in passing during a panel discussion that her station has its own official cocktail. The “ideaScreamer” is a mix of Grey Goose orange vodka, cranberry juice and a twist of lime, garnished with a lightstick stirrer, according to Peg Neeson, ideastream community relations director. “It’s really quite pretty in a martini glass,” she said. No one at ideastream can recall when the ideaScreamer was created, possibly due to overindulgence in the drink. But bartenders at The Passenger in Washington, D.C., still remember exactly when and how they decided to make a Big Bird, even though the drink was created as a special offering several months ago.
WETA in Arlington, Va., has received a two-year, $100,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation for its BrainLine, a national multimedia project offering resources about preventing, treating and living with traumatic brain injuries. The grant will be used to expand coverage of military-specific information, according to the station. The actor was a big supporter of public broadcasting. His charitable foundation, funded by his Newman’s Own line of grocery goods, donated $2.2 million to nine pubcasting stations — including WETA — in December 2010. Also, in 2007 and ’08, Newman was in the process of developing a public affairs show with a production budget of $5 million with Connecticut Public Television, his local station.
The FCC has just released a staff summary of the upcoming broadcast television spectrum incentive auctions. The 11-page document explains in clear terms why the auctions are taking place, what the FCC hopes to achieve, and the specific decisions that television broadcasters face. It’s part of a new LEARN (Learn Everything About Reverse Auctions Now) website, which aims to be “a one-stop information resource for incentive auction stakeholders, particularly broadcasters,” said Gary Epstein, chair of the Incentive Auction Task Force, in a post on the FCC’s blog.
PASADENA, Calif. — The special package of primetime shows about gun violence that PBS unveiled to television critics Monday offers an example of how Beth Hoppe intends to operate as the network’s new chief programmer. Hoppe had been promoted to chief program executive and g.m. only three days before the Dec. 14 shooting in Connecticut claimed the lives of 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. As news of the tragedy unfolded, Hoppe was on the phone with producers, “trying to figure out what the appropriate PBS response was,” she told Current.
This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. George H. Rogers, who worked as development and community relations director at WCET-TV in Cincinnati in the early years of the station, died Dec. 27 at his home in suburban Florence, Ky., after a three-year battle with lung cancer. He was 83. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Rogers started at the station, now branded as CET, almost 50 years ago.
Spot.us, the crowdfunding website allowing journalists to raise funds for their reporting projects, has been hit by a sharp decline in usage since its acquisition by American Public Media, which has been making changes intended to revamp its business model and protect the site’s journalistic integrity in the world of online pitch funding.
New York’s WNYC has released for the first time recordings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. interviewed on several occasions in the 1960s by Eleanor Fischer, a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reporter who later worked for NPR. The interviews capture King discussing a wide range of subjects, including his childhood, his adoption of nonviolent resistance tactics, and the Montgomery bus boycott. The recordings were among tapes given to WNYC’s archive in 2008 after Fischer passed away. “We are a rich archive in content but not a huge staff of people and we have received many collections,” wrote Archive Director Andy Lanset in an email to Current.
Next Avenue — the online magazine for Americans aged 50 years and older created by Twin Cities Public Television — is now sharing its content with RLTV, a cable and online network for seniors. The agreement, announced Jan. 2, marks the beginning of a targeted syndication push, said Next Avenue Executive Director Judy Diaz. “We’re investing a lot in content, not just in money but in the time it takes to create the pieces,” she said. The plan is a win-win, expanding Next Avenue’s content distribution while raising revenue, Diaz said.
Audie Cornish, who guest-hosted ATC during Michele Norris’s 2012 leave of absence, becomes permanent co-host of the NPR newsmag, alongside Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. Cornish has been a reporter and host for NPR since 2006.
This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. Rocky Mountain PBS is merging with local jazz pubradio station KUVO-FM and I-News, a Colorado nonprofit investigative reporting service, the Denver Post reports. In a press release, RMPBS said it has partnered with I-News since the launch of the service in 2009, and the organizations already share content and location. Doug Price, RMPBS president, said the station also has “a long tradition of collaboration” with KUVO, “which serves a culturally rich, diverse audience that reflects the demographic future of Colorado.”
The three organizations have started the transition to share resources, information and news, the announcement said. The formal merger between KUVO and KRMA should be complete in April.
Apple announced Monday that fans of Downton Abbey from Masterpiece Classic can get early access to all Season 3 episodes — including those yet to air on PBS — by purchasing an iTunes “Season Pass,” available Jan. 29. PBS spokesperson Jan McNamara said that is the retail release date of the full DVD set for Season 3, which is available on iTunes through PBS Distribution (PBSd). “There have always been VHS or DVD release dates within the broadcast window of any given title,” McNamara told Current. “In this case iTunes is simply selling a digital version at the same time as the physical DVD becomes available.”
PBS is weighing whether to schedule the debut of the next season of Downton Abbey for the fall, when it is set to air in the United Kingdom, or continue its practice of delaying the premiere until January.
PBS Kids is premiering a new animated show for preschoolers this fall, Peg + Cat. Partnering is the Fred Rogers Co., which also helped bring Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood to little viewers last year. Co-creators are Billy Aronson (Postcards from Buster) and Jennifer Oxley (The Wonder Pets!). In the daily program, a little girl named Peg and her sidekick, Cat, “embark on adventures and learn foundational math concepts and skills,” PBS said Monday in the show’s announcement at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. The two encounter problems requiring math and problem-solving skills to get through.
When the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts announced a settlement with Boston’s WGBH over its handling of $60 million in federal grant funds, it was the second time in two years that a major producing station had come under scrutiny by auditors for its handling of grant monies for public TV productions.
PBS unveiled upcoming feature programming today at the annual Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. Highlights include a week of special programming examining the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct. PBS NewsHour, Frontline, Nova, Need to Know and Washington Week with Gwen Ifill each will focus on different aspects of the tragedy; new offerings from P.O.V. and Independent Lens such as director Michael Apted’s 56 Up; the first autobiographical documentary on famed physicist Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Mine; a six-part series, Latino Americans, narrated by actor Benjamin Bratt; and, for fans of British dramas, The Bletchley Circle, a three-part murder mystery, and How Sherlock Changed the World, a two-hour examination of the popular detective character. PBS’s sessions at the TCA Press Tour conclude tomorrow.
This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. The Library of Congress has asked New Mexico PBS to contribute unedited footage of interviews from its program Bataan: A 70th Anniversary Commemoration, which recalls the horrors of the Bataan Death March, for inclusion in the library’s archives in Washington, D.C.
In April 1942, following World War II’s Battle of Bataan in the Philippines, the Japanese Army forced some 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war to march more than 60 miles between internment camps. Along the way, thousands of Filipino and up to 650 American soldiers died due to physical abuse and atrocities at the hands of their captors. New Mexico PBS recorded 90 minutes of interviews with Pedro “Pete” Gonzalez, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, and Bill Overmier, survivor of both the battles of Bataan and the related Battle of Corregidor. Also participating was retired Lt. Gen. Edward D. Baca, former head of the New Mexico National Guard and the National Guard Bureau in the Pentagon, and longtime spokesman for Bataan survivors.
The production company behind NPR’s popular Science Friday has reached a settlement in its trademark infringement lawsuit filed against Colorado preacher Bob Enyart and his show, Real Science Friday, which has now been rebranded Real Science Radio, the National Center for Science Education reports. In a Dec. 28 letter to the court, Manhattan-based Sciencefriday Inc., the company behind the show heard on more than 300 NPR stations, and Bob Enyart Inc. said a settlement had been reached but terms of the deal were sealed. The main visible concession seemed to be name change of the show. The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court State of New York, County of New York in Manhattan Nov.
This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. A former volunteer at Houston’s jazz format NPR affiliate KTSU has been jailed for allegedly stealing credit card information from listener pledge sheets and using the information to buy electronics and gift cards, which he would then sell for cash. Michael Whitfield, whom the Houston Chronicle reports has a history of financial crimes, was charged Jan. 9 with the fraudulent use and possession of identifying information for more than 50 people, a third-degree felony. Investigators say there are more than 20 confirmed cases but there could be as many as 300 potential victims.
Texas Southern University, which owns KTSU, released a statement Jan.