System/Policy

Two Native tribes are first to benefit from FCC rules favoring tribal applicants

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Native tribes in New Mexico and Arizona are the first to benefit from the FCC’s Tribal Radio Priority, a provision created by the commission to help tribal entities start new radio stations. The FCC announced March 1 that it set aside FM allotments for Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, N.M., and for the Hualapai Tribe in Peach Springs, Ariz. Allotments serve as placeholders for future FM stations; the tribes must now wait until the FCC opens a filing window and accepts their applications for construction permits. The commission created the Tribal Radio Priority provision in 2010, establishing standards by which Native tribes could be given priority in securing licenses for AM and FM stations. “The need for Tribal radio stations is clear,” wrote Geoffrey Blackwell, chief of the FCC’s Office of Native Affairs and Policy, in a blog post announcing the allotments.

People

Chris Lydon returns to Boston airwaves as WGBH-FM contributor

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Former radio host Christopher Lydon will return to the Boston airwaves as a weekly contributor to Boston Public Radio, a daily local news/talk show on WGBH-FM. Lydon will appear on the show Thursdays to discuss current events with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, who debuted as hosts Monday. The duo formerly hosted a show on commercial talk station WTKK in Boston, which switched format last month. WGBH also announced that Emily Rooney, host of Greater Boston on WGBH’s TV channel, will be Friday’s featured guest. Rooney previously served as a Boston Public Radio co-host.

About Current

Current Reader Survey closes on Friday

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Current has come a long way in the past two years, but we haven’t stopped thinking about how much more we’d like to do. We’re asking readers to share their insights on our news service and public media coverage by participating in our 2013 online Reader Survey, which closes at the end of this week. Please take a few minutes to tell us how you use Current and what we could do to make our publication and website even more useful in the years ahead. Your feedback will guide us as we make decisions about how to focus our editorial resources and which new products and services would be most valuable to the public media community. You can access our short survey online here: http://tinyurl.com/current-survey

If you have any questions or want to give feedback directly, contact Kathleen Unwin at 877-745-8776 X. 1

Thanks from the entire staff for sharing your thoughts, and for your support of Current.

System/Policy

Supervisor of Pacifica elections points to flaws in system

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The elections supervisor for the boards of Pacifica’s five radio stations has recommended that the network revamp its process for selecting board members because the current system is “too costly, time consuming, factionalized and factionalizing.”

In a report on the latest round of elections, which concluded in January several months behind schedule, Pacifica National Elections Supervisor Terry Bouricius described numerous flaws in a process that’s been in effect for nearly a decade. Pacifica’s elections favor “ego-driven individuals,” he wrote, and bring in votes from roughly 10 percent of the total membership of the five stations. The small percentage of those who do vote are likely not representative of the whole. In addition, station staffers complain that on-air programming required for the elections is unpopular with listeners; stations must broadcast statements by local candidates and call-in shows featuring the candidates. The stations’ donor records are not adequately maintained to support the election process, Bouricius wrote.

System/Policy

Pacifica policy to keep enemies off boards draws ire

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The Pacifica National Board passed a resolution barring individuals who have clashed with the network’s leadership from election to the boards of its five stations, a move that critics decried as a political witch hunt. The resolution, which passed Jan. 24 by a vote of 11–10, denies seats on Local Station Boards to three classes of people:

“Individuals whose actions have been declared by a court of law to be breaches of fiduciary duty, or breaches of the duty of loyalty or the duty of care;”
“Individuals who have been separated involuntarily from foundation employment for cause;” and
“Individuals who have been banned from station premises due to threatening behavior or creating an unsafe environment for others.”

Anyone denied candidacy for board service can appeal to the PNB. Such measures are common among other nonprofit boards, says Bill Crosier, vice chair of the PNB. “I can’t imagine any other nonprofit letting people in one of those categories be on their boards,” he says.

People

Dana Davis Rehm to leave NPR due to restructuring

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Dana Davis Rehm, NPR’s senior v.p. of marketing, communications and external relations, will leave the network May 6 due to a reorganization of her division under new Chief Marketing Officer Emma Carrasco. The restructuring is intended to “put more emphasis on marketing than on communications,” said NPR President Gary Knell in a Feb. 14 email to station leaders. “Though I have only known Dana for a little more than one year, I can’t think of anyone who has demonstrated a deeper commitment to NPR and public radio, or who better reflects our values,” Knell wrote. “As our longest serving head of Marketing & Communications, she has established effective communications strategies and practices and a built a staff that has given me confidence that we could deal with anything that might come our way.”

Rehm joined NPR in 2001 after serving as head of Wisconsin Public Radio.

Programs/Content

NPR will move production of Weekend ATC to L.A.

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NPR announced today that this summer it will move production of Weekend All Things Considered to NPR West, its production center based in Culver City, Calif. “Moving the show west will broaden and deepen our coverage and allow us to bring strong geographic diversity to our programming,” said Margaret Low Smith, senior v.p. of news, in a press release. “In addition, this plan gives us a new level of business and editorial continuity. By having a full team stationed at NPR West, we will be able to respond quickly if weather or a major news event incapacitates NPR headquarters.”

NPR said the move will give the show access to the Los Angeles area’s pool of program guests in the fields of science, technology, entertainment and international trade. The city’s ethnic diversity will also present a “whole new range of stories,” the release said.

Programs/Content

NPR targets younger listeners with four-city “radiotypes” campaign

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NPR has launched a three-month multimedia marketing campaign that aims to increase audience for stations in four markets around the country. The campaign runs the gamut of media, including billboards, social media and print, TV and digital ads. Participating stations are KERA in Dallas; WFYI in Indianapolis; KPBS in San Diego; and WMFE in Orlando, Fla. NPR chose the stations based on their opportunity to grow audience and their eagerness to work with the network, according to Emma Carrasco, chief marketing officer for NPR. They were also selected for geographic diversity.

People

Former executive director of Oregon’s JPR sues over dismissal

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The former executive director of Oregon’s Jefferson Public Radio has filed a lawsuit against Southern Oregon University and the Oregon University System alleging blacklisting and breach of contract in his March 2012 dismissal, among other claims.

SOU dismissed longtime JPR chief Ron Kramer after a university audit found a conflict of interest between his roles as both head of JPR and as executive director of the JPR Foundation, a related nonprofit that had undertaken restoration of historic properties. Yet the university had previously approved of Kramer’s dual role, the lawsuit claims.

According to the lawsuit, SOU first proposed in February 2012 that Kramer should resign as executive director of the Foundation. Kramer then filed a grievance with the university, which it rejected, the lawsuit says. He filed another grievance in July, and a grievance committee of the university found that SOU President Mary Cullinan failed to comply with university policies in dismissing Kramer. The lawsuit also points out that Paul Westhelle, who replaced Kramer as executive director of JPR, is now serving in the same role with the JPR Foundation as well.

Development

Houston station boosts security as DJ faces identity theft charge

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A volunteer DJ has been charged with stealing donors’ credit card information from a Houston radio station and using it to make personal purchases. Michael Whitfield was arrested in December after police found him in possession of credit card information taken from more than 300 donors to KTSU, a jazz station licensed to Texas Southern University in Houston. He is being held on $200,000 bond. Police began their investigation in July 2012 after a KTSU donor reported unauthorized charges on their credit card, and they traced them to an IP address to Whitfield’s apartment. Investigators have confirmed 25 cases of theft so far, according to Donna Logan, an assistant district attorney for Harris County, Texas.

About Current

Last chance to participate in Current’s 2013 Reader Survey

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Dear Readers,

I wanted to take a moment to remind you about Current’s Reader Survey. Not that long ago, Current Newspaper and Current.org became a part of our family as a new center at the American University School of Communication. We take our role in managing Current very seriously, and look to you to help shape the future direction of this important industry resource. For over thirty years, Current has been the independent news and information source for public media professionals. We intend to build upon its strong foundation by adding additional editorial bandwidth and online resources to further serve you.

Programs/Content

Cocktails to honor Big Bird and friends? That’s the spirit

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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.

Programs/Content

WNYC shares previously unreleased recordings of Martin Luther King Jr. interviews

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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.

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

Philadelphia’s WXPN converts alt-rock stream to singer-songwriter format

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Philadelphia’s WXPN-FM has converted a long-running alternative-rock stream into XPN2 Singer-Songwriter Radio, the broadcaster announced last week. The new stream, which can be heard online and as an HD Radio channel in the Philadelphia area, highlights music by performers “rooted in the singer-songwriter tradition,” the station said in a press release. The stream had launched in 2006 as Y-Rock on XPN, a reincarnation of alternative rock station Y100. That former FM station went online-only in 2005 after falling victim to a format change. It then adopted XPN’s brand.