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William Greaves, documentary filmmaker and Black Journal EP, dies at 87

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William Greaves, a documentary filmmaker and executive producer and co-host of a pioneering public TV show for African-Americans, died Monday at his home in Manhattan, according to the New York Times. He was 87. Greaves worked as a stage and screen actor and dancer in the 1940s and ’50s and appeared in productions staged on Broadway and by the American Negro Theater. He spent most of the ’50s working as a documentary filmmaker in Canada before returning to the U.S. to form William Greaves Productions in 1964. His early documentaries for public TV included a film about the black middle class.

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Sherlock adds three Emmys in primetime ceremony

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Sherlock: His Last Vow, a BBC production that aired as part of WGBH’s Masterpiece, won three Primetime Emmys at the televised awards ceremony Monday. That brought the detective drama’s total Emmys to seven, the most of any program. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock Holmes in the series, won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or movie, while Martin Freeman won for outstanding supporting actor in a miniseries or movie for his portrayal of Sherlock’s sidekick, John Watson. Writer Steven Moffat took home the Emmy for outstanding writing for a miniseries, movie or dramatic special. The drama also won four awards at the Creative Arts Emmys announced Aug.

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Sherlock, Downton Abbey lead PBS to eight wins in Creative Arts Emmys

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Sherlock: His Last Vow won four of the eight Creative Arts Emmys awarded to PBS programs by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during the Aug. 17 Primetime Emmy gala celebrating technical achievement. Sherlock, a BBC production that aired on WGBH’s Masterpiece, picked up its four wins in the miniseries or movie categories. Editor Yan Miles won for outstanding single-camera picture editing for a miniseries or movie, and Director of Photography Neville Kidd won the Emmy for cinematography in a miniseries or movie. The detective drama also won awards for sound editing, with statuettes given to supervising sound editor Doug Sinclair; sound editors Stuart McCowan, Jon Joyce and Paul McFadden; Foley editor William Everett; and Foley artist Sue Harding.

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Pubcasters take home 17 NABJ honors, and more awards in public media

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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS
Public broadcasters received 17 Salute to Excellence Awards from NABJ with NPR, Chicago’s WBEZ and Milwaukee Public Television taking home multiple awards. NPR won two awards in the network radio category and one in digital media. NPR’s coverage of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington won best long form news, while the article “USC Students Allege Racial Profiling by LAPD” won best short form news. The story “Science Rap B.A.T.T.L.E.S. Bring Hip-Hop Into the Classroom” was recognized for best digital media feature story. Two other radio programs won awards among network radio.

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Buffalo’s WNED changes management responsibilities, prompting layoff

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WNED in Buffalo, N.Y., is tweaking its management of programming, resulting in one layoff. Gabe DiMaio, who programmed classical WNED-FM, confirmed to Current Thursday that his position was eliminated. He previously served as assistant program director at WBFO-FM, the broadcaster’s NPR News station, as well as producer and local host for All Things Considered. He’s also secretary for the board of the Public Radio Programming Directors Association. Ron Santora, WNED’s v.p. of broadcasting, is adding radio programming to his portfolio.

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“Steve was my hero”: a remembrance of a radio rebel

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Steve Post, legendary New York radio personality for more than 50 years, died Sunday. He was 70 years old. Steve was the acerbic host of Morning Music, heard on WNYC-FM for 25 years. Every morning Steve read his version of the news. When Mayor Ed Koch had a stroke, his doctors announced that he had “the brain of a 12-year-old.” Ever after Steve referred to His Honor as “him with the 12-year-old brain.”

Weather reports were called “the weather lies.” Steve delivered news of leaks from nuclear reactors, always ending with the line, “No significant amount of radiation was released,” whether in the wire copy or not, read absolutely straight with an incredulous voice.

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Margot Adler, veteran NPR correspondent, dies at 68

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Margot Adler, a longtime NPR correspondent and former contributor to Pacifica Radio, died July 28 after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 68. The granddaughter of renowned Viennese psychotherapist Alfred Adler, she began her radio career in the mid-1960s as a volunteer reporter for Pacifica’s KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. Adler then moved to New York and joined Pacifica’s WBAI in 1972, launching and appearing on local talk shows. In 1978 she joined NPR as a freelance reporter covering New York and became full-time the following year.

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Joy Parker, WXXI station relations and web coordinator, dies at 43

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Joy Parker, a station relations and web coordinator for WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., died July 12 after a years-long battle with ALS. She was 43. Parker joined the TV station in 1996 as an operations technician. In 2002 she was promoted to segment producer on programs such as Need to Know and Assignment: The World, and she worked as an associate producer on the local documentary Crucible of Freedom. “She always brought a lot of energy to her projects,” said Marion French, WXXI’s v.p. of education and interactive services and Parker’s supervisor.

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Bresnahan to lead two Central Illinois TV stations as dual president

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Moss Bresnahan will become the public television system’s first dual president when he takes over in September at WTVP-TV in Peoria, Ill., and WILL-TV, 90 miles to the east in Urbana-Champaign. He succeeds interim dual General Manager Chet Tomczyk, who delayed his retirement from WTVP to temporarily lead the two stations. Tomczyk has been in charge of WTVP, a community licensee, and WILL, part of the College of Media at the University of Illinois, since September 2013. The unique agreement was designed to foster more collaboration on content between the stations and to save on salary costs. “We have two great stations here, and the staff at each is so dedicated and has such a great legacy,” Bresnahan said in an announcement Friday.

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Madison Hodges, longtime station manager and pubradio advocate, dies at 66

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Madison Hodges, a longtime manager of public radio stations and advocate for the system who worked to increase the community impact of pubcasters nationwide, died July 18 in Tallahassee, Fla., from cardiac arrest following treatment of a rare bone cancer. He was 66. Hodges ran several university-licensed public radio stations over the course of his career and served as executive director of the University Station Alliance. He also oversaw station services at NPR and spearheaded initiatives with the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program to increase community involvement, help licensees secure CPB funding, identify gaps in public radio’s coverage and quantify stations’ community impact for license-holders. He began his broadcasting career as a reporter for a commercial radio station in Little Rock, Ark., before joining the city’s public radio station, KUAR.

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PBS leads networks in news Emmy nominations

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PBS’s 43 nominations for News and Documentary Emmys topped all networks. Its programs will compete against each other in many categories. In some categories, including those for outstanding investigative journalism, best documentary and coverage of a current event, PBS earned more than half of the nominations. Frontline, the documentary series produced by WGBH in Boston, led with 11 nominations, including three of the six nominations for investigative reporting. Those went to “A Death in St.