Programs/Content

With credits gone, NPR’s off-mike staffers get silent treatment

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NPR ended the practice Aug. 30 of crediting the off-mike staff behind the scenes of its newsmagazines, citing evidence that the lists of names cue listeners to tune away. The network had been considering the change for some time, said Margaret Low Smith, senior v.p. of news. In addition, credits could not accommodate all staffers, so those named “ended up being a select slice of people,” Smith said. And stations aren’t always consistent in crediting their own staffs during the newsmagazines.

Quick Takes

WTJX in Virgin Islands hires controversial former government official

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Marc Biggs, a former U.S. Virgin Islands official convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for government contracts, went to work this week as facilities coordinator for WTJX, the PBS member station in St. Croix, reports the Virgin Islands Daily News. Biggs was property and procurement commissioner for the island territory when he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2008. He is currently on home confinement as his sentence comes to an end. “I know his hiring might be a little controversial,” said Osbert Potter, station c.e.o., “but we’re an equal employment opportunity entity.

People

Board selects Sukhdeo to run WPBT in Miami

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Dolores Sukhdeo is the new president and chief executive officer of WPBT-TV in Miami, the station’s board announced Tuesday. She replaces Rick Schneider, who takes over this month as executive vice president and chief operating officer of WETA in Arlington, Va. Sukhdeo joined the station in 1998 as v.p. for facilities services and was promoted to c.o.o. in 2003. She began her television career in 1990 in the international newsgathering division of Disney/ABC News. She also serves as president-elect of the board of the International Women’s Forum of South Florida and is chair of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Board’s Nonprofit Business Committee.

People

Seiken, PBS Digital head, will exit pubcaster for London-based post next month

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Jason Seiken, PBS’s innovative head of digital media who exhorted stations to embrace a more videocentric future, will leave the public broadcaster in October to take over as chief content officer and editor-in-chief at the Telegraph Media Group in London. PBS President Paula Kerger told public television executives in an email today that Seiken has done “a truly extraordinary job” over his nearly seven years at PBS. Under his leadership, PBS launched local-national digital initiatives, including the COVE video site and Bento website toolbox for stations. It also pioneered the Webby Award–winning PBS Digital Studios and pushed PBS.org and PBSKids.org to large increases in traffic. Kerger added that “on a personal level, I know that this move makes the most sense for Jason and his family, as they have been interested in moving back to London for some time.”

People

Analyst starts new firm, renames another

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Public radio analyst John Sutton has established a new research firm and changed the name of his 16-year-old consulting company. Sutton announced Sept. 5 that Maryland-based John Sutton & Associates, launched in 1997, is now Sutton & Lee LLC. The name reflects increased responsibilities for Sonja Lee, who will run the business and provide most on-site services for clients. Sutton & Lee advises stations on growing audience and membership revenue.

Quick Takes

Tomczyk heading both WTVP and Illinois Public Media

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Chet Tomczyk, president of WTVP in Peoria, Ill., is now serving double-duty as interim general manager of Illinois Public Media in Urbana, reports the Peoria Journal Star. Tomczyk, who has been with WTVP for 19 years, began managing WILL as of Sept. 3, stepping in for previous station chief Mark Leonard, now head of Nebraska Educational Telecommunications in Lincoln. “This collaboration offers an unprecedented opportunity for two neighboring public broadcasting entities to jointly increase their relevance and value to the many communities they serve,” Tomczyk said in the announcement. “WILL and WTVP have strong programming and community support, and will retain their independence,” said University of Illinois College of Media Dean Jan Slater.

Quick Takes

After 20 years, Latino USA grows to an hour

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Latino USA, the longest-running Latino-focused program on radio, expands to an hour beginning Friday. Incoming contributors include Al Madrigal, standup comedian, actor and correspondent on The Daily Show; Pilar Marrero, political reporter and immigration reporter for La Opiníon, a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Los Angeles; and Julia Preston, immigration reporter for the New York Times. New segments will provide advice, examine how the “Class of 2030” will impact the education system, chronicle personal stories of families separated by immigration problems, and explore Latino self-identity. The program is produced by the Futuro Media Group, an independent nonprofit media organization, and distributed by NPR. “For 20 years, Latino USA has reported on Latinos with an authentic voice,” said Maria Hinojosa, host and executive producer, in today’s announcement.

Quick Takes

More Secrets, and asteroids, coming soon to PBS

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PBS has commissioned Britain’s Pioneer Productions for a six-part series and a Nova special, reports Televisual, a British-based news site that covers the business of television. The Secrets series continues Pioneer’s Secrets of the Manor House, looking inside additional British institutions including the Tower of London, the high-end department store chain Selfridges and Scotland Yard. Asteroid: Doomsday or Payday? is a one-hour special for Nova that explores “the earth’s violent and increasingly interesting relationship with the asteroid,” as Televisual said.

System/Policy

Greater Public, iMA announce merger

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Greater Public, formerly DEI, and Integrated Media Association (iMA) announced today that the organizations had merged as of the end of August. Atlanta-based iMA will keep its name and website for the next year to ease the transition, but its board of directors is in the process of dissolving. Ultimately, the 10-year-old organization will function more as a new division within the Minneapolis-based Greater Public, with iMA Executive Director Jeannie Ericson heading up the tentatively named Digital Services unit from Atlanta. “Digital innovation has become increasingly cross-disciplinary and integral to everything we do, which is very positive for public media,” Ericson said in a statement. “This merger is a natural evolution as iMA and Greater Public see their futures intertwined.

Programs/Content

Second American Graduate Day to raise dropout awareness nationwide

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The second American Graduate Day, a live multiplatform “call to action” event focusing attention on high-school graduation rates, hits public TV airwaves Sept. 28. The broadcast from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City will air from noon to 7 p.m. Eastern as part of the CPB-backed initiative American Graduate: Let’s Make It Happen. Major partner organizations Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, City Year, Horizons National and United Way will participate, along with nearly 30 other national partners, 14 local organizations and celebrity guests involved in education and youth-intervention programs.

The program will air as 14 half-hour segments, each of which will accommodate local cutaways for stations to insert locally produced live or pretaped seven-minute segments on organizations that provide support to at-risk students, families and schools in their communities. Viewers and online users at AmericanGraduate.org can connect with their local pubTV stations and community organizations.

System/Policy

Technical hurdles, unknown costs loom in spectrum repacking

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As the FCC prepares to reshuffle the layout of the nation’s television spectrum for the repacking process, public broadcasters are girding for some difficult choices as they consider how to navigate a complex and potentially expensive transition.

Quick Takes

KOPB-FM’s website tops nation in market penetration, study shows

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The Media Audit reports that the website for pubradio KOPB-FM in Portland, Ore., has the nation’s highest reach into its metro area, according to the Radio and Internet Newsletter. More than 385,000 adults in a market of 2 million have visited its site in the past month — that’s 19.8 percent of that population in Portland. No other single station site exceeded a 6.2 percent penetration. “The latest figures suggest that radio websites are growing in popularity and are becoming more important in defining the overall reach for a radio station or radio group,” the Media Audit also says. Details from the full report here.

Quick Takes

Mashable post contemplates impact of news aggregation apps on NPR

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In a post Tuesday on Mashable.com titled “Will Public Radio Survive Music Streaming Apps?,” Scott Pham, digital content editor for NPR member station KBIA, ponders how news aggregation apps such as Swell will affect public radio stations:
Promising mobile apps like Swell and AGOGO launched this summer, representing a new challenge to legacy media companies like National Public Radio. These apps create new listening experiences for consumers of talk and news because they tie together segments of audio into customizable and curated streams.

AGOGO combines podcasts with segments from NPR, the BBC, audio from videos and text-to-speech versions of newspaper articles. And Swell has been dubbed the “Pandora for news.”

I’m a producer at an NPR member station, and these are frightening words in my world. Pandora dealt a massive wound to our cousins in music radio. The advertising dollars Pandora sucked up will likely never return to the table for terrestrial radio.

Quick Takes

New Sesame Street online hub to focus on math and science skills

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Sesame Workshop will launch a new Sesame Street online hub focusing on science and math on Sept. 24, the New York Times reports. “Little Discoverers: Big Fun With Science, Math and More” aims to go about “teaching nature, math, science and engineering concepts and problem-solving to a preschool audience — with topics like how a pulley works or how to go about investigating what’s making Mr. Snuffleupagus sneeze.”

Programs/Content

OPB courts partners for statewide news network

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Oregon Public Broadcasting has a track record of launching effective news collaborations. Its newest project to create a statewide news network is featured in a recent report from American University’s J-Lab, “News Chops: Beefing up the Journalism in Local Public Broadcasting.”

Quick Takes

Lehrer to premiere biographical play, then assassination novel

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Ex-anchor of the PBS NewsHour, Jim Lehrer, has a play premiering Sept. 12: “Bell,” a one-man show “exploring the curious mind of Alexander Graham Bell.” The show will run eight performances at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., 7:30 nightly plus a matinee at 2 p.m. Saturday. Bell, the inventor of the telephone and advocate for persons who are deaf, was also the society’s second president, and his family remained active in its management for decades. Rick Foucheux, a member of D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre company, will appear as Bell.