Programs/Content
New preschool series aims to teach coding skills
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“Mia & Codie,” a public TV show from the creator of “WordWorld,” combines computational thinking and socioemotional learning.
American Public Media Group shuffles leadership
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Chandra Kavati is now SVP of business development and president of American Public Media.
Quick Takes
Friday roundup: NewsHour launches new website; podcasting patent fight continues
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• PBS NewsHour unveiled a redesigned website Thursday, featuring responsive design, new navigation menus and an expanded digital editorial presence. The new site combines stories from the program’s weekday and weekend editions, as Current reported in July 2013. “This new site is designed to meet the demands of an expanding and more involved audience,” NewsHour Creative Director Travis Daub wrote in an introductory post, adding that the redesign is the most expansive in the website’s 18-year history. • Pittsburgh Public Media has applied to the FCC for permission to boost the wattage of WYZR-FM, the jazz station it launched in August 2013. The proposed boost to 10,000 watts still would not get WYZR into Pittsburgh from its location in Bethany, W.Va., PPM President Chuck Leavens told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
System/Policy
Border stations appeal Canadian agency’s crackdown on friends group charities
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Canadian organizations that raise financial support for U.S. pubcasters are fighting a shift in tax policy that could threaten the funds they deliver to stations across the border.
System/Policy
FCC hews to mid-2015 time frame for spectrum auction
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The FCC affirmed today that it plans to hold the spectrum incentive auction for television broadcasters in mid-2015 and will issue the awaited report and orders this spring. The announcement is in line with a December statement by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler that delayed the original target date of holding the auction this year. Gary Epstein, the FCC’s Incentive Auction Taskforce Chairman, assured FCC commissioners at today’s open meeting that the auction will not take place until auction software is thoroughly tested and stakeholders are made aware of the process. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai emphasized the importance of outreach to ensure that broadcasters participate in the process and testing. To increase participation, broadcasters must get an idea of what the potential payoff could be for selling spectrum, he said.
Programs/Content
With Top Coast Festival, MPR News mounts its own big-idea conference
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Minnesota Public Radio News will look for solutions to the world’s pressing problems at its first Top Coast Festival, a three-day conference bringing together more than a dozen academics and media personalities.
Quick Takes
Afternoon roundup: LPFM permits proliferate, KLRU show sizzles
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The FCC has granted nearly 500 low-power FM (LPFM) applications so far, according to Radio Survivor. Applicants include animal advocacy groups, schools, colleges, churches, tribal entities and arts organizations. Austin’s KLRU-TV is producing a documentary series about barbecue culture with local meat legend Aaron Franklin. Called BBQ With Franklin, the show will be based on KLRU’s web series of the same name, which the station launched in 2012 for PBS Digital Studios. The program will air in early 2015 and be made available through national distribution.
Programs/Content
$2.5 million in grants will help rural stations complete DTV transition
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced six grants totaling more than $2.5 million Wednesday as part of its Public Television Digital Transition Grant program. “These investments will help public television stations serving substantially rural communities make the transition to digital broadcasts,” said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Patrice Kunesh, who announced the grants in Bethel, Alaska. The FCC required all broadcasters to convert full-power transmitters to digital signals by June 2009, but stations have until 2015 to convert repeaters and low-power TV signals. The largest grant, $750,000, goes to the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority. The network will convert its television production studio in Charleston from analog to HD digital.
Quick Takes
Afternoon roundup: WCAI expands signal, CCTV hosts meet Muppets
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WCAI Cape and Islands NPR, the only public radio station for coastal communities in southern Massachusetts, has boosted its signal from 1,200 to 12,500 watts. WCAI Managing Director Mindy Todd noted in Tuesday’s announcement, “Now, more than 200,000 additional listeners — plus millions of fish in Cape Cod Bay, Nantucket Sound and the Atlantic Ocean — will have a clear signal and clear access to the region’s only locally-produced and locally-broadcast public radio station.”
Starting Friday, CCTV Children’s Channel in Shanghai, China, is airing a special “Happy New Year” series marking the first time its hosts are interacting with Sesame Street’s Muppets. During a segment on Chinese New Year, Elmo, Cookie Monster and Lily chat with their Chinese friends about their special customs. The 10 segments about different New Year traditions will run on the channel through Feb. 6. The filmmakers behind American Promise, who filmed their African-American Brooklyn family over 13 years as their son and his best pal progressed through school, will interact with participants in a live OVEE online screening of the doc from 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern time Feb.
Development
WETA receives $1 million for culture, history and public affairs programs
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Washington, D.C., philanthropist and financier David M. Rubenstein has established a $1 million fund at WETA in suburban Arlington, Va., for producing programs about American culture, history and public affairs. Announcing the donation Tuesday, Rubenstein said he believes in “the power of public media to be a force for education, sharing the vibrant culture and rich history of this country.” Rubenstein is co-founder and co-c.e.o. of the Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment firm. He has been a station member since 1988, according to WETA spokesperson Mary Stewart. Sharon Rockefeller, WETA president, called the gift “truly inspiring.”
Tech
L.A.’s KLCS to participate in nation’s first TV channel-sharing pilot
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Two Los Angeles television stations, one commercial and the other public, will pilot the first television channel-sharing project in the country, CTIA — The Wireless Association announced today. The noncom KLCS, licensed to the L.A. Unified School District, and bilingual KJLA are voluntarily participating in the experiment. CTIA, an international organization representing the wireless communications industry, is supervising the initiative in conjunction with the Association of Public Television Stations. “APTS has been involved in the development of this pilot in support of our member station KLCS,” Lonna Thompson, APTS c.o.o., told Current. “We support this pilot project because we think it will provide valuable information to our member stations considering whether to engage in their own channel-sharing effort.”
The FCC is offering a channel-sharing option to stations as part of the upcoming voluntary spectrum auctions, which will free bandwidth for use by the growing number of mobile devices.
Quick Takes
Afternoon roundup: Prairie Home Companion tailgating, Madeleine Brand returns to radio
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Episode four of the new season of Portlandia, starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, will feature A Prairie Home Companion tailgating. The sketch is also being spun off into a series of four webisodes, which can be viewed online before the season premiere. Season four of Portlandia premieres Feb. 27 at 10 p.m. on the Independent Film Channel. If an avid blogger can’t leave a comment on your website, he’ll write about it. That’s what tech-savvy journalist Doc Searls did when he encountered issues with a story from WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station.