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Kentucky Legislature honors KET founder O. Leonard Press

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O. Leonard Press, who founded Kentucky Educational Television in 1968 after lobbying the state legislature for 10 years, has received the 2012 Vic Hellard Jr. Award recognizing his distinguished public service. The award lauded Press was for launching innovative live coverage of state General Assembly in 1978 and for his long track record of supporting programming that exemplified the KET tagline, “Bringing Kentucky Together.”

“We are so pleased that Len Press is being recognized with this award,” said Shae Hopkins, KET executive director. “Through his vision and hard work, he created and established KET as Kentucky’s only broadcast network and one of the nation’s preeminent public broadcasting services. From KET’s inception, Len Press set forth the educational mission and priorities that still serve the commonwealth and nation today.”

The annual Hellard Award, named after the long-time executive director of the state’s Legislative Research Division, has since 1997 honored excellence in public service.

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Emily Squires, Emmy winner for Sesame Street

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Emily Squires, who worked on the first regularly scheduled public television series as well as Sesame Street and Between the Lions, died Nov. 21 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She was 71. Squires won six Daytime Emmys for directing more than two dozen episodes of Sesame Street.

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WTTW captures seven Midwest Emmys, Wisconsin Public TV wins a pair

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The Chicago station topped several program categories, and its staff took awards for individual achievements in television crafts. Architect Michael Graves: A Grand Tour won for outstanding cultural documentary. It was produced by Daniel Andries with associate producer Elizabeth Reeves and executive producers Dan Soles and V.J. McAleer. Andries and Geoffrey Baer, who wrote the program, received Emmys for outstanding crafts achievement off-air. WTTW’s Kindred, produced by Michael Sternoff, Beth Bennett, Scott Lamps, Marl McLennan, Marnie Sprenger, Maria Bain Ferraro, Jaclyn Foutz, Aj Gomberg and Susan Buchanan, was named outstanding topical documentary.

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Pubcasters in Austin and Houston capture five Lone Star Emmys

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KLRU in Austin won three statuettes, including one in the community service category for “Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project 2012,” a contemporary ballet and education program promoting human rights through the arts, education and public dialogue. Cited were Sara Robertson and Karen Bernstein, producers; Betsy Gerdeman, executive producer; Maury Sullivan, community engagement; and Cookie Ruiz, project supervisor. KRLU also won with “KRLU Collective: Asian Occasion” (Eve Tarlo, producer/editor) for arts/entertainment program feature, and “Arts in Context: Trouble Puppet” (Lauren Burton, producer; Mario Troncoso, producer/editor/videographer) for arts/entertainment program. Houston’s KUHT won an Emmy for public and current affairs with “Houston Refugees: Stories of Courage,” produced and hosted by Patricia Gras. In addition, Matthew Brawley was named best director of a live or live-to-tape program for KUHT’s 2012 Houston PBS Spelling Bee.

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Wendell D. Garrett, Roadshow appraiser

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Wendell D. Garrett, an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow since 1997, died Nov. 14 at a hospice facility in Williston, Vt. He was 83. In addition to his work on Roadshow, Garrett was a retired senior vice president of the prestigious auction house Sotheby’s, and the longtime editor and publisher of The Magazine Antiques, a highly regarded publication in the field.

People

Huell Howser, California public TV host

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Folksy public TV personality Huell Howser, who chronicled California’s unique people and places while retaining his dulcet Tennessee twang, died Jan. 6 in Palm Springs. He was 67.

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Nine Network of St. Louis recognized as ‘Best of the Best’ in 2012 NETA Awards

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The St. Louis public TV station’s Nine Academy, a program that trains individuals and community organizations to produce short videos on stories of “community impact,” received special recognition among the awards presented during NETA’s recent conference in St. Louis. In honoring the academy as the top winner in its annual awards program, NETA cited the station for groundbreaking community work. NETA recognized 20 public TV stations in 30 categories spread across four divisions — community engagement, content production, instructional media and promotion.

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NPR, Frontline cited for 2013 duPont-Columbia Awards

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Public media outlets were cited for six 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, announced today by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. NPR received three awards, with one given to reporters Deborah Amos and Kelly McEvers for their coverage of Syria. “NPR’s series of daily news reports about the conflict in Syria was wide ranging, balanced and in depth,” the announcement said. “Veteran foreign correspondent Deb Amos provided critical context and explanation in her reporting that helped listeners understand the complex sectarian and regional factors at play. Her reporting from inside Syria at the scene of a massacre and the capitol Damascus documented spikes in violence.”

“Correspondent Kelly McEvers brought a focus on individual stories that made the conflict real in human terms,” the citation said.

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NPR adds two journalists to new race, ethnicity and culture unit

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NPR has added two journalists to its six-person race, ethnicity and culture unit backed by CPB and preparing for launch in the spring. The network hired Gene Demby, a Huffington Post editor and founder of the blog PostBourgie, as blogger and correspondent; and Shereen Marisol Meraji, a Marketplace reporter and former NPR producer, as a reporter. Demby started PostBourgie in 2007 and continues to contribute to the group blog, which covers race, class, gender, politics and other subjects. In 2009 the blog won a Black Weblog Award for best news/politics website. Demby also worked for the New York Times for six years as a writer and news assistant. In 2011 he joined the Huffington Post, where he managed the Black Voices channel through its launch; he also reported for the channel and served as its senior politics editor for much of this year.

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WFYI chief honored for leadership in public TV

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Lloyd Wright received the 2012 William Kobin Public Television Leadership Award from public TV’s Major Market Group. Wright has served as president of WFYI Public Media in Indianapolis for more than 23 years and was recently re-elected to his fourth term on the PBS Board of Directors. For the past two years he’s also served as chair of the MMG’s Board of Directors. The award was established in 2010 in honor of Bill Kobin, among the first producers of national programs for National Educational Television (NET), the forerunner of PBS. Kobin also headed stations in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, and led the MMG for 14 years until retiring in 2011.

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Ideastream recognizes WCLV’s Robert Conrad for ‘innovative and generous acts.’

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Conrad, president and co-founder of the 50-year-old Cleveland-based classical music station, received ideastream’s “Great Idea Award” for his service as a leading classical musical broadcaster, producer and distributor of cultural programming. Ideastream praised Conrad and his colleagues for ensuring that WCLV remains a treasured resource by donating the commercial station to the nonprofit ideastream, operator of WVIZ-TV and WCPN-FM. The transfer takes effect Jan. 1, 2013. “This will complete the transition of WCLV into the ideastream family and will give listeners who appreciate classical music on the radio as well as businesses, foundations and other organizations, the opportunity to support this institution,” wrote Conrad on the WCLV website.

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In reshuffle of PBS executive ranks, Hoppe ascends to chief programmer

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PBS has restructured its senior management, effective immediately, elevating programmer/producer Beth Hoppe to chief programming executive and general manager, according to a memo circulated to PBS stations today. Chief programmer John Wilson, who has worn many hats since joining PBS in 1994, will focus on fundraising programs as senior v.p., pledge strategy and special projects. Wilson will “build on the experiments undertaken this year to reshape our pledge programming and will continue to work closely with PBS colleagues, producers and stations to develop these plans,” said PBS Chief Operating Officer Michael Jones, in his memo announcing the management changes. Hoppe signed on at PBS last year as one of Wilson’s deputies. She has specialized in nonfiction programming during a TV career that includes a run as one of PBS’s hottest producers and a stint producing and developing science programming for Discovery Studios.

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APT cites top series for programming excellence, names Robert Scully ‘Person of the Year’

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During last month’s Fall Marketplace conference in Sanibel Harbour, Fla., APT honored Doc Martin, Nightly Business Report, Rick Steves’ Hidden Europe and New Scandinavian Cooking with Programming Excellence Awards, recognizing the four series for their positive impact on public TV based on a number of factors, including scope of content, execution, originality, creativity and effectiveness. APT also recognized Robert (Bob) Scully, host and producer of Scully/The World Show, for his outstanding contributions to public television. Scully has provided “10 years of smart television programming” to stations through APT distribution, APT said. He’s also awarded $80,000 in travel scholarships to 63 local station programmers over the years, making it possible for those whose stations couldn’t afford to send them to APT’s Fall Marketplace to attend the event. APT President Cynthia Fenneman presented “Savvy Scheduler Awards” to programmers at five public TV stations, honoring those who have used APT programs to greatest advantage.

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BURN: An Energy Journal wins AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science singled out the first of four BURN documentary specials, “Particles: Nuclear Power After Fukushima,” which aired March 11, 2012, the first anniversary of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan. The series was produced by SoundVision Productions in partnership with American Public Media’s Marketplace and distributed by APM. The award citation recognizes SoundVision Executive Producer Bari Scott, Host Alex Chadwick, Managing Producer Mary Beth Kirchner, Senior Producer/Editor Robert Rand and Technical Director/Mix Engineer Robin Wise. AP science reporter Seth Borenstein, a judge in the competition, called the broadcast “gripping, informative and thorough — radio science journalism at its best.” Larry Engel, an associate professor in the American University School of Communication, praised its “excellent combination of story reporting, writing, character development, and sound recording and editing.”

The award was announced Nov. 14, and the winners will receive $3,000 and a plaque at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston in February 2013.