Quick Takes

2013 Golden Globes: Maggie Smith wins PBS’s only statuette

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PBS was nominated in four categories at the 70th Golden Globe Awards Jan. 13, but only Dame Maggie Smith of Downton Abbey earned a win from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Smith won for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series for the show’s second season. The awards, which celebrate both film and television, had also nominated Downton Abbey for Best Drama, while star Michelle Dockery had been nominated for Best Actress in a Drama. The Showtime series Homeland won in both categories. Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch had been nominated for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, but lost to Kevin Costner for his work in History’s Hatfields & McCoys.

Quick Takes

Finn will replace Adkins as exec director of West Virginia pubcasting

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The State Educational Broadcasting Authority of West Virginia voted Jan. 10 to hire Scott Finn as the new executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the Associated Press reports. Finn previously served as a reporter and the news director of the network, but left in 2009 to become news director at WUSF in Tampa, Fla. He will replace Dennis Adkins, who is retiring on Feb. 1 and had been fighting the board for months over financial concerns.

Quick Takes

Pubcasting supporter Sen. Jay Rockefeller to retire in 2014

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Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), today announced that he will not seek re-election in 2014. Joining him for his appearance in Charleston was his wife, Sharon Rockefeller, who is president of WETA in Arlington, Va., and a past CPB chair. Sen. Rockefeller chaired the Commerce Committee, which oversees CPB and FCC funding. “As I approach 50 years of public service in West Virginia,” he said at the announcement, “I’ve decided that 2014 will be the right moment for me to find new ways to fight for the causes I believe in and to spend more time with my incredible family. Serving West Virginia in the U.S. Senate is an abiding honor and privilege, and Sharon and I are so full of gratitude to our state and to the countless friends and supporters who have made my public service possible.”

Quick Takes

FM tuners in smartphones may be coming soon

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FM tuners on smartphones could soon be a reality. On Tuesday,  at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, representatives of Sprint Nextel said that some phone models could soon come equipped with FM chips. Sprint said it had entered into a preliminary agreement with radio industry representatives that will let its customers listen to local FM stations. “FM radio could be delivered through the NextRadio tuner application or other radio apps or services,” the company said, in a release. “This is a great development for the radio industry, one which will help us bring the content and services that only radio can provide to the wireless system,” said Bob Pittman, c.e.o. of Clear Channel.

Quick Takes

Community-funded Homicide Watch partners with Sun-Times to launch Chicago website

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Homicide Watch, a crowdfunded community reporting site that tracks city murder victims, will launch its third site in Chicago by the end of the month through a partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times, reports the New York Times. The startup is the brainchild of Laura and Chris Amico, who manage the site’s flagship Washington, D.C., edition. They’ve kept the site — which they started in September 2010 and most recently relaunched in August 2011 — running with help from crowdfunding campaigns on platforms like Kickstarter and Spot.us. Despite financial struggles, including their inability to find a local news organization to partner with, the Amicos have reaped many journalistic accolades for their data-driven reporting, including the 2012 Knight Public Service Award from the Online News Association. A second branch of Homicide Watch operates in Trenton, N.J., in partnership with The Trentonian.

Programs/Content

PRX set to launch overhaul of Public Radio Player iPhone app

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Four years after the first iteration of PRX’s Public Radio Player iPhone launched, a complete, “ground-up rewrite” is ready, with features including a prominent “donate” button and the ability to download content for listening off-network. PRX announced the features of the newest version of its app during a conference call with stations Jan. 10. Director of Technical Projects Matt MacDonald said the overhaul’s goal was to continue to make the app one that individual stations without resources to build their own would continue to view as theirs. The Public Radio Player app, which is only available for Apple iOS devices, offers up thousands of stations streams, programs and podcasts from PRX, NPR, PRI and APM.

Quick Takes

Experts leery of FCC meeting 2014 spectrum auction deadline

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Will the FCC meet its self-imposed deadline of 2014 for completion of broadcast spectrum auctions? That’s still to hard to say, according to several experts speaking on panels at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, reports TVNewsCheck. Rick Kaplan, executive vice president of strategic planning for the National Association of Broadcasters, sounds doubtful. One sticking point: Spectrum complications along the Canadian and Mexican borders. “Border issues are enormous,” he said.

Quick Takes

Harvard and Stanford business schools among partners on NBR-U

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Nightly Business Report has entered a content partnership with several top business schools for its new NBR-U initiative. The Miami-based weeknight financial program is working with Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Vanderbilt University for online and broadcast pieces. Articles supplied by the partners will run on the NBR-U website, and professors will appear in video segments each Monday. Tom Hudson, NBR’s managing editor and co-anchor, said the video reports and articles will “provide the depth that leads to real understanding, without hype and conjecture.”

Quick Takes

Sesame Workshop examines possible unlicensed North Korean knock-off toys

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Sesame Workshop voiced concern Wednesday after a North Korean government-owned trade publication highlighting a toy company’s apparent offerings came to light that appear to include unlicensed Sesame Street characters. The photos appeared in the latest issue of Foreign Trade of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a quarterly publication highlighting manufacturers of products ranging from plush toys and “Gold Liquor” to “cornhusk shoes.” On page 13 of the publication is a profile of Kyonghung Trading Corp., a 7-year-old manufacturer of plush toys, some bearing the likenesses of Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Elmo. In an email to Voice of America, which ran the story, Sesame Workshop said “we believe the toys pictured are unauthorized.” But, on his Twitter feed Thursday, Felix Abt, author of A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom cautioned that the picture did not equal proof the North Korean company was producing illegal knock-offs of Sesame Street characters. “Where is the evidence?

Quick Takes

Nominees for documentary feature Oscar include two films on PBS

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Two documentaries on PBS received Academy Award nominations at the 5:30 a.m. Pacific announcement today from Los Angeles. Honored in the documentary feature category were The Invisible War, an examination of rape of soldiers within the U.S. military, on Independent Lens; and 5 Broken Cameras, which looks at the reaction of one village to a separation barrier, on P.O.V.  Winners will be announced during the live Oscar telecast on Feb. 24.

Quick Takes

PRI hires Kathy Merritt as v.p., content strategy and development

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Kathy Merritt, senior director of radio program investments at CPB, has accepted a position as vice president, content strategy and development at Public Radio International. Merritt will identify new talent, production and business partners, and work with producers on content development, audience research and new business opportunities, the Minneapolis-based PRI said in today’s announcement. She will report to Chief Content Officer Melinda Ward. “Kathy’s wide range of experience in public broadcasting,” Ward said, “including leadership positions at stations, industry associations like SRG [Station Resource Group] and Public Radio News Directors Association, and her most recent tenure at CPB, uniquely qualify her for her role in developing PRI’s content strategy, working with producers and ensuring that our content meets station and digital needs.”

At CPB, Merritt oversaw development and implementation of investment strategies for CPB’s Radio Program Fund, and administered grant projects such as the Local Journalism Centers. She takes her position at PRI Feb.

Quick Takes

Larry McDaniel, WDET-FM’s ‘Arkansas Traveler,’ dies at 72

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Larry McDaniel, known for decades on public radio in Detroit as “The Arkansas Traveler,” died Jan. 4 after a lengthy illness, reports the Detroit News. He was 72. He was a fixture on WDET-FM from 1977 to 2009, with his bluegrass show that was part of a block of American roots music on Saturdays. A 2002 press release marking the program”s 25th anniversary noted it was one of the station’s most popular offerings, and one of the longest-running bluegrass shows in the country.

Quick Takes

WGBY interviews real-life Downton Abbey Countess

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Three nights after 7.9 million people tuned into the third-season premiere of PBS’s Downton Abbey, WGBY in Springfield, Mass., will broadcast an interview tonight with Lady Carnarvon of Highclere Castle, the filming location of the BBC-produced series. The interview is being shown as an episode of the program Connecting Point and is not available for national carriage, so only those New Englanders lucky enough to receive the WGBY signal will be able to watch this evening. “I got in touch with Lady Carnarvon’s personal assistant last fall for a different reason,” WGBY spokesperson Myrna Flynn told Current regarding how the station landed the exclusive. “Circumstances naturally led to this. The Countess was very gracious and accommodating.” In 2011, the Countess authored a book, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle.

Quick Takes

Robert Bednarek dies; was deputy chief scientist at CPB

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Robert Bednarek, a technology expert at CPB in the early 1980s, has died at age 55 after a battle with cancer, reports Space Policy Online. Bednarek was CPB’s deputy chief scientist. SatNews, which covers the satellite industry, said that while at CPB, he “managed the research, development and application of new telecommunications and information technologies.” 

Following his tenure at CPB, Bednarek founded a D.C.-based technology consulting firm, Rubin, Bednarek and Associates, and then joined PanAmSat (now Intelsat) as chief technology officer, overseeing operation of its fleet of communications satellites. From there he joined Dutch satellite operator SES, rising to president and c.e.o. of its SES World Skies division. 

He was a consultant for the National Research Council’s influential 2009 study “America’s Future in Space: Aligning the Civil Space Program with National Needs,” and was inducted into the Society of Satellite Professionals Hall of Fame in 2011. Bednarek was a board member of the nonprofit Space Foundation, and held several U.S. patents involving GPS (Global Positioning Systems).

Quick Takes

New York’s WQXR offers weekly opera show starting Jan. 19

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New York Public Radio will launch an opera-focused radio show Jan. 19 on WQXR, its classical station in New York City, and also make the program available nationwide. Operavore will cover opera news, preview new recordings and feature interviews with opera personalities as well as playwright Terrance McNally, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and TV and theater star Tyne Daly. The show will be hosted by WQXR’s Naomi Lewin and will feature mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne as a weekly guest. Operavore expands on a WQXR website and all-opera web stream of the same name that launched a year ago.

Quick Takes

Aereo, target of lawsuits by broadcasters, to expand nationwide

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Aereo, the digital television distributor that grabs and streams over-the-air signals to web-enabled devices, is expanding nationwide, reports Hollywood Reporter. The new technology, backed at its New York City launch in March 2012 by broadcasting giant Barry Diller, has obtained an additional $38 million to spread service to 22 more cities. It says it uses “proprietary remote antenna and DVR” technology to enable subscribers, for a monthly fee, to watch over-the-air broadcasts on their smart phones, tablets and computers. PBS and WNET are among broadcasters with pending copyright infringement lawsuits against Aereo, saying that the company doesn’t have the right to sell access to their over-the-air content. New cities for the service will be Atlanta, Austin, Texas; Baltimore, Birmingham, Ala.; Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Mo.; Madison, Wisc.; Miami; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Providence, R.I.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Salt Lake City, Tampa and Washington D.C.

Quick Takes

Downton Abbey premiere spikes PBS ratings

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The Masterpiece Classic Season 3 premiere of Downton Abbey drew nearly 8 million viewers, a 5.1 household rating, almost doubling those numbers for the first episode of Season 2, according to PBS and Nielsen. The 7.9 million fans just about quadrupled PBS’s average primetime rating. From 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, PBS was the second-most watched network, behind only CBS. Local numbers were also strong: Seattle’s KCTS saw a 9.5; WGBH in Boston, 8.7; KLRU in Austin, Texas, 8.0; and New York’s WNET, 8.0.

Programs/Content

PBS inks deals for on-demand access to local station content

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PBS unveiled deals to distribute public TV programs on two additional on-demand video streaming platforms — Roku and Xbox Live. The contracts, unveiled last week by PBS Digital chief Jason Seiken, lay the groundwork for apps that will feature local station programming and a limited selection of national content. To gain access, Xbox and Roku users will provide email addresses and choose their local station. The graphic interface on both services will be cobranded with PBS and local station logos. “Xbox and Roku are leaders in the fast-growing ‘over-the-top’ television phenomenon, in which viewers access television programs on-demand on their TV sets using an Internet connection,” Seiken wrote in Jan.

Quick Takes

Four candidates vying for director’s job at Quad Cities PubTV in Illinois

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Western Illinois University in Macomb has announced the four candidates for director of its WQPT-TV, Quad Cities Public Television. Interviewing for the position are Victor Hogstrom, executive director and general manager of the Utah Public Radio Network; Mary Pruess, former president and general manager of WNIT, South Bend, Ind.; Sharon McNeal, former coordinator of communication and marketing at Pinellas (Fla.) County Schools; and Andrew Chalanick, director of programming at WDSC-TV, Daytona Beach, Fla. Interviews should be concluded by the end of the month.