System/Policy
Texas Public Radio employees seek to unionize amid leadership transition
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The staffers say the union would “safeguard our organization’s future success.”
Current (https://current.org/current-mentioned-sources/adizah-eghan/page/560/)
The staffers say the union would “safeguard our organization’s future success.”
“As traditional broadcast gives way to new media, public television needs to dust off its early spirit of scrappy, decentralized innovation.”
Public television’s March pledge drive raised $46.7 million for 146 local stations, an increase of 19.3 percent from last year’s spring fundraiser.
Occidental College professor Peter Dreier takes issue with PBS coverage of a 2010 education documentary, while advocating for a new doc being offered for pubTV distribution.
Plus: FiveThirtyEight crunches the numbers on Bob Ross, and noncom radio stations are on the rise.
The ongoing standoff over Pacifica’s leadership reached the California courts last week, opening what could become a protracted legal battle over the Pacifica Foundation board of directors’ decision to fire executive director Summer Reese. Reese, who has defied the board’s March 14 vote to fire her and taken up residence in Pacifica headquarters in Berkeley, filed a civil lawsuit in Alameda County, seeking a restraining order to reverse the board’s decision. During an April 9 hearing, Superior Court Judge Ioana Petrou denied the request by Reese and her supporters for a temporary restraining order on procedural grounds. Petrou will rule May 6 on Reese’s request for a temporary injunction to stay the board’s decision. “I wasn’t surprised by the decision, a temporary restraining order is a high bar and this is a complex case,” said Amy Sommer Anderson, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, Pacifica Directors for Good Governance.
Plus: A Boston Marathon playlist, a professor accuses PBS of bias and Laura Poitras returns to the U.S.
The Public Media Futures Forum, in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting, will host “Understanding Impact,” a two-day discussion in Washington, D.C., April 17-18.
American Public Media is replacing its weekend personal finance show Marketplace Money with Marketplace Weekend, beginning June 28.
WFMT-FM in Chicago racked up 700 pledges in a six-hour period relying solely on listeners’ reactions to recorded performances of a Vera Gornostaeva, an 84-year old Russian pianist who spent most of her peak performing years trapped behind the Iron Curtain. WFMT ran a one-day pledge drive April 4 with the goal of collecting 700 pledges. For the drive, the station only played selections from a CD featuring recently remastered archived recordings of Gornostaeva performing compositions by Chopin. Listeners who pledged $40 received a copy of “Chopin Recitals” as a premium gift. WFMT played the CD four times, and pledges continued to pour in despite the repetition, according to Steve Robinson, g.m. As a result, the station hit its goal around 1 p.m. and suspended the fundraiser.
Plus: KCETLink has some laughs, the CBC cuts more than 600 jobs and WCRB searches for a sonic logo.
The spending plan, the House GOP’s blueprint for balancing the federal budget by 2024, now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is widely expected to defeat it.