Quick Takes

Second member resigns from Vermont PTV board

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A second member of the Vermont Public Television board has resigned. VPT remains under investigation by the CPB Inspector General’s office after an anonymous complaint that the board broke CPB’s open-meetings rules. The board accepted Jim Wyant’s resignation after a Jan. 8 meeting. Wyant continues as chair of the Montreal-based Public Television Association of Quebec, a Canadian nonprofit that supports VPT.

Programs/Content

NPR drives forward with dashboard delivery

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Having faced the disruptive threats posed by cassette tapes, CDs, satellite radio and even the iPod, public radio strategists are increasingly looking for a beachhead into the emerging “connected car” and its Internet-powered suite of entertainment options. Gains in auto technology were a highlight of last week’s 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: Carmakers, including General Motors, Jaguar, Tesla and Audi, unveiled new or beefed-up versions of dashboards that use broadband Internet to power apps offering news, music, weather and other services to motorists. Both NPR and American Public Media announced new partnerships that will get their content into these “connected cars.”

“This is huge, and it’s essential for radio broadcasters to be players in this space,” said Fred Jacobs, longtime radio researcher and analyst who’s now in the business of developing apps for the digital dashboard. He has followed the development of connected car technologies and documented its growth through his research projects, including the Public Radio Technology Survey. For decades, radio operators could throw up a tower and launch a broadcast service confident that listeners would be tuning in from their cars.

Quick Takes

Brand’s new KCRW show has name, launch date

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Former KPCC host Madeleine Brand’s new show on competitor KCRW in Los Angeles now has a name and launch date, according to the blog LA Observed. The blog reported that Brand’s new show, Press Play, will debut Jan. 27. It will air from noon to 1 p.m., which means that it will not air opposite Take Two, the successor to Brand’s former KPCC show. Brand left KPCC in September 2012 and started developing her new KCRW show in September 2013.

Programs/Content

Supreme Court to decide fate of Aereo’s Internet broadcasting service

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Television broadcasters, commercial and noncommercial, succeeded in securing a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court in their bid to strike down Aereo, the startup service that allows subscribers to view and record television broadcast programs via the Internet. The court will hear the case later this year after granting a writ of certiorari Friday in the case of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., et al., v. Aereo, Inc. To date, broadcasters have been unable to secure an injunction against the company that uses banks of dime-sized antennas to capture broadcast signals and convert them into streaming video distributed over the Internet. Subscribers “rent” the antennas and have the option to watch TV programs live or on demand via a device similar to a digital video recorder. Broadcasters appealed to the Supreme Court after the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request in July 2013 to revisit its earlier decision not to impose an injunction on Aereo. In April 2013, the 2nd Circuit upheld a lower court’s July 2012 decision to allow Aereo to continue operating despite the pending litigation.

Programs/Content

Stations’ concerns prompt Metropolitan Opera to sanitize airing of Die Fledermaus

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The Metropolitan Opera agreed to tone down indecent language in its Jan. 11 broadcast after radio station leaders warned that they would not risk airing a performance that would violate FCC standards. Met staffers informed stations in a Jan. 7 email that Saturday’s broadcast of Die Fledermaus would contain profanity. An off-stage tenor, singing in his jail cell, would prompt a jailer to answer, “No opera!

Quick Takes

Complaint alleges Vermont PTV ignored open-meeting rule

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The CPB Inspector General’s office is investigating an anonymous complaint that Vermont Public Television violated CPB’s open-meeting requirements, reports WPTZ, the local NBC affiliate. VPT’s board will conduct an internal audit of the allegation, said board member Tom Pelletier. The governing body discussed the situation at a meeting Wednesday night. Following the meeting “and without an explanation,” WPTZ reported, James Wyant, a 12-year veteran of the board and a major VPT donor, resigned his post. “As a public institution, we’re committed to openness,” said VPT President John King in a statement online.