System/Policy

Judge in Pacifica suit affirms earlier decision against former executive director

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An Alameda County, Calif., judge has upheld her previous ruling that the Pacifica Foundation’s board of directors acted within its bounds when it fired Executive Director Summer Reese earlier this year. Judge Ioana Petrou made the ruling Monday, a day before both Reese and the board were to appear in court to argue the matter. In her opinion, Petrou wrote that based on her earlier ruling, the board would likely prevail and that reversing the decision would cause “great harm.” Petrou gave Reese and her legal team until 5 p.m. Pacific time Monday to contest the ruling. A permanent injunction went into effect when the order was not challenged.

System/Policy

FCC denies stations’ bid for looser underwriting language

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A public radio licensee’s bid to boost underwriting revenue by skirting restrictions on credit language met with a flat rebuttal from the FCC May 15. The licensee of Phoenix’s KBAQ and KJZZ asked the Commission in March to approve a three-year “limited and controlled demonstration project” to relax limits on language in the stations’ underwriting credits. Maricopa County Community College District proposed allowing qualitative terms, such as “award-winning” and “experienced,” and information about sales, discounts and interest rates. Such wording is currently barred under FCC rules. Maricopa argued that the relaxed restrictions would help the stations increase underwriting income amid a challenging climate for public broadcasting funding.

System/Policy

Students opposing WRAS deal get new support

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College Broadcasters Inc. and the Student Press Law Center are speaking out against a channel-sharing agreement that gave Georgia Public Broadcasting control of Georgia State University’s 88.5 WRAS-FM during daytime hours. Under the agreement announced May 6, GPB will program the station with news from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. The student organization that until recently controlled all programming will take over nighttime hours. The announcement surprised and disappointed the station’s student hosts, who set up a website to protest the agreement. In letters to the University administration, CBI and SPLC expressed support for the students and denounced the deal, which was made without notifying the programmers. “CBI believes, and I believe personally, that student ownership is key for these student media outlets, and it’s been taken away from them by all accounts without any discussion or dialogue,” CBI President Greg Weston said in an interview.

Programs/Content

NPR will cancel ‘Tell Me More’, eliminate 28 jobs to balance budget

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An updated version of this article was posted May 28. NPR announced today that it will cancel Tell Me More, its weekday midday show with an emphasis on news and issues relating to people of color, effective Aug. 1. The network will also eliminate 28 jobs in its newsroom and library, eight of which are currently unfilled. “Today we are announcing changes in the newsroom to ensure we remain a leader in a dynamic and intensely competitive news environment, while living within NPR’s budget,” said Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s senior v.p. for news, in a memo to staff.

System/Policy

Damaged transmitter delays license renewal for Houston’s KPFT

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Houston Pacifica station KPFT-FM is preparing to ask the FCC for a third extension on its license renewal, a delay resulting from transmitter damage caused by a lightning strike two years ago. The station, part of the financially troubled Pacifica network, has been struggling to raise funds to replace the transmitter. It has operated at half power since March 2012 and is pursuing its third Special Temporary Authority from the FCC. By failing to operate at full power for so long, the station puts itself at risk of  FCC fines. KPFT General Manager Duane Bradley said the internal divisions plaguing Pacifica aren’t helping.

System/Policy

Calif. judge orders Pacifica’s ousted leader to end occupation of network’s offices

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Summer Reese, former executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, was ordered to vacate the network’s headquarters Monday after an Alameda County Superior Court judge sided with the majority of the Pacifica board who fired her in March. Reese’s continued occupation of Pacifica’s national office “constitutes trespass and a nuisance,” wrote Judge Ioana Petrou in her ruling. Petrou ordered that Reese leave Pacifica’s headquarters immediately, as her presence there was impeding the foundation from conducting its normal business. “The Court finds that the current situation is not only far from ideal, but completely untenable,” Petrou wrote. After Pacifica’s board voted March 14 to dismiss Reese, she questioned the validity of the firing and broke into the foundation’s headquarters with a team of supporters.

Jarl Mohn
Jarl Mohn

NPR names media exec and venture capitalist Jarl Mohn as new CEO

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Philanthropist, investor and former cable TV executive Jarl Mohn will join NPR as its new c.e.o. July 1, the network’s board announced Friday. Mohn has served on the board of KPCC in Los Angeles since 2002 and is currently chair. He has worked mainly in commercial media, with a run as g.m. of MTV Networks from 1986–90. From 1990–98 he was c.e.o. of E! Entertainment Television, which he also founded.

System/Policy

Pubmedia symposium examines how to define, quantify impact

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“Impact” is a feel-good media buzzword of the moment, increasingly required by the funders of many projects and invoked by some PTV stations, news organizations and documentary producers as key to demonstrating the social good derived from their work. But defining the concept and then measuring whether a media project has demonstrated its value remain elusive challenges for many. During “Understanding Impact,” a two-day symposium convened last month at American University in Washington, D.C., participants explored a number of the ad hoc systems for tracking impact that are taking form. Organizations including the Center for Investigative Reporting in Emeryville, Calif., and KETC, the Nine Network of St. Louis, have developed their own methodologies and hired staff members to measure the impact of their work.

System/Policy

Vermont Public Radio urges Montreal listeners to oppose college station’s repeater

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A request by a Canadian college radio station to mount a 100-watt repeater in Montreal has triggered stiff opposition from Vermont Public Radio, whose coverage in the market would suffer interference if the signal were approved. The Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation, a nonprofit connected to Montreal’s Concordia University, operates CJLO 1690 AM. An area near one of Concordia’s campuses receives the AM signal infrequently if at all. An engineer looked for room on Montreal’s crowded FM band to accommodate a 100-watt repeater, which would fill the hole in the AM signal. The proposed signal, 107.9 FM, is also used by VPR’s Burlington station, about 100 miles away.

System/Policy

Vermont PTV should be sanctioned for closed meetings, CPB IG finds

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CPB’s Inspector General has recommended that the corporation sanction Vermont Public Television in response to 22 open-meeting violations by VPT’s board dating from July 2011. In the May 5 report, IG Mary Mitchelson said that while 17 of the meetings were closed for appropriate reasons, such as personnel matters, the station failed to provide written explanations for why the meetings were not open to the public. The IG’s conclusions were based on interviews of board members who attended the meetings in question as well as an examination of documents detailing what business was transacted, the report said. Following the IG’s recommendation, the decision on whether or how to penalize the station rests with CPB’s management. Michael Levy, e.v.p., said CPB will respond to the IG within 90 days.

Programs/Content

GPB coming to Atlanta airwaves with WRAS-FM deal

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In a channel-sharing agreement announced Tuesday, Georgia Public Broadcasting will expand its public radio service into the Atlanta market starting June 1 via Georgia State University’s 88.5 WRAS-FM. GPB Radio will program the station with a news format from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., providing Atlanta with its first public radio outlet to air news in midday hours. The city’s WABE, operated by Atlanta’s public school system, airs NPR’s newsmagazines but also schedules classical music from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. “We wanted to bring something that is not currently in the market,” said Bert Huffman, v.p. of development for GPB. “We recognize that people can get classical music from WABE.”

System/Policy

PBS proposes video-on-demand service in FY15 budget

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PBS’s fiscal year 2015 draft budget includes the launch of a Membership Video on Demand service that will generate revenue by drawing on the network’s expansive library of content. MVOD members will get exclusive access to on-demand PBS videos, according to a budget document acquired by Current. “This is a critical product to help stations drive membership of the growing digital audience,” it said. The service will be integrated with PBS’s COVE video platform, and the public broadcaster anticipates hiring additional staff for the project. The budget proposal, now awaiting comment from stations, also requests a 2.5 percent increase in assessments from stations.

System/Policy

Public Radio Capital rebrands, launches new projects 

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Pubmedia consulting company Public Radio Capital has rebranded as Public Media Company and announced a pair of upcoming projects that reflect its desire to expand its client base. The 12-year-old Denver-based operation announced the name change April 22, along with a website redesign. Public Media Company will also grow its operations with Channel X, an online marketplace for public media video content, and the Public Media Database, a performance-metric platform for stations. “The scope of our work has broadened pretty dramatically,” said CEO Marc Hand. Public Media Company had been working with joint licensees and pubTV stations for years before its name change.