PBS

Stations fear exclusion from show production as PBS shifts strategy

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When PBS unveiled its fall slate of primetime programs during its recent conference in Miami Beach, Fla., in May, many of the featured titles were notably missing one thing: presenting or producing stations that typically help shepherd series through the PBS editorial process.

Tech

Master-control alliance in Florida gets $7 million from CPB

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The Digital Convergence Alliance, a single master-control facility in Florida ramping up to serve public television stations in four states with customized programming streams, has received $7 million in support that CPB initially announced last April. Over the past year, the DCA has grown from six stations to 11 as it worked to secure vendor contracts for a network operating center in Jacksonville. Alliance founding members now include Florida stations WJCT, Jacksonville; WFSU, Tallahassee; WEDU, Tampa; WUCF, Orlando; WBCC, Cocoa Beach; WFSG, Panama City; and WPBT, Miami.  Also, from three other states, WPBA, Atlanta; WTTW, Chicago; WILL, Urbana, Ill.; and KERA, Dallas. Each founding member station has a representative on the nonprofit’s board of directors. JCT Services, a for-profit entity of WJCT, will run the operation.

Programs/Content

NewsHour closing two offices, dropping 10 positions, according to internal memo

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PBS NewsHour is shutting offices in Denver and San Francisco and eliminating several positions at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., Executive Producer Linda Winslow and Bo Jones, president of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, told staff in a memo Monday. In all, 10 workers are affected, in addition to several jobs that will remain unfilled, NewsHour spokesperson Anne Bell told Current. The program is also planning future changes in technical production processes, in cooperation with co-producer WETA, “in order to streamline and further digitize operations,” the memo said. NewsHour’s fiscal year begins July 1, and all changes will roll out over the next six months, Bell said. “We believe the staff restructuring and production changes, along with continuing web investment, will make us stronger and enable us to be more effective and nimble,” the memo said.

Programs/Content

Fresh Air returning to daytime in Mississippi

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Fresh Air will air during daytime hours on MPB’s Think Radio network for the first time since 2010, when the network’s then–Executive Director Judith Lewis took the interview show off the air, citing concerns about host Terry Gross’s discussion of sex with her guests.