Quick Takes
Bergsma to retire from KPBS; secured $200 million Kroc request for NPR
KPBS Associate G.M. Stephanie Bergsma, best known in the pubcasting system for cultivating the historic $200 million bequest in 2003 from the ...PRX’s Public Media Accelerator renamed Matter Ventures, relaunched with partner KQED
KQED in San Francisco, Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and the Knight Foundation today announced a $2.5 million media entrepreneur initiative, Matter Ventures. ...FCC extends comment and reply deadlines for spectrum auction issues
The FCC announced on Thursday that it has extended its deadline for comments on upcoming broadcast spectrum auctions. The original deadlines, Dec. ...Former Education Department adviser joining WNET as vice president
WNET in New York City has hired Carole Wacey, a former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Department of Education, as vice ...California’s Gold producer Huell Howser retiring
Huell Howser, the California pubcaster whose popular destination shows ran on stations throughout the state for two decades, is no longer producing ...Wendell Garrett dies at 83; Roadshow appraiser since 1997
This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. Wendell Garrett, an appraiser on Antiques Roadshowsince 1997, died Nov. 14 at a hospice ...Third Clash accuser surfaces, files lawsuit demanding $75,000
A third accuser is alleging that Kevin Clash, the former puppeteer of Elmo the Muppet, had an improper sexual relationship with him ...Public media recipients among new NEA grants for $23.3 million
The National Endowment for the Arts today announced recommendations for 832 grants totaling $23.3 million through Art Works, its largest funding initiative. ...Incoming host of Live from Lincoln Center is also frequent performer there
Actress and soprano Audra McDonald, winner of five Tony Awards and two Grammys, is the new host of Live from Lincoln Center. McDonald will ...Dust Bowl from Ken Burns scores well for PBS ratings
Filmmaker Ken Burns’ latest documentary, The Dust Bowl, more than doubled PBS’s average primetime rating during its premiere last week, according to PBS and ...Former Frontline producer now president of Nat Geo TV
Brooke Runnette, who spent a year as a producer at Frontline, is the new president of National Geographic Television. Runnette worked at WGBH’s ...Tangled Bank Studios, new doc house, opens as part of Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a nonprofit research and philanthropic organization based in Chevy Chase, Md., is getting into the documentary arena. It ...Clash exit from Sesame Street affects more than Elmo
The departure of Kevin Clash, the Elmo puppeteer who resigned from Sesame Street last week, is leaving a large void in the close-knit Sesame ...Emily Squires dies at 71, won six Emmys for directing Sesame Street
This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. Emily Squires, who won six Daytime Emmy Awards for directing episodes of Sesame Street, ...ITV commissions Season 4 of Downton Abbey
Britain’s ITV is commissioning a fourth season of Downton Abbey, it announced on Friday. Filming of the eight new episodes begins at Highclere Castle ...
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