System/Policy

Texas’s KEDT builds on alliance with local college

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One of the smallest independent public broadcasting operations in the country will move into new facilities this fall under its expanding partnership with a local community college. For more than 40 years, KEDT-TV/FM in Corpus Christi, Texas, has been housed in a strip mall in what was originally meant to be a temporary location. Its unusual agreement with the city’s Del Mar College preserves its independence as a community pubcasting licensee while allowing the two institutions to share content and a state-of-the art broadcast and production facility, the new KEDT Center for Educational Broadcasting. Under construction after a ceremonial groundbreaking last fall, the center will be located on a prime site adjacent and connected to Del Mar College’s Center for Economic Development, and offer amenities such as an outdoor performance plaza wired for live broadcasts. The two institutions have plans to work closely together on content going forward, in addition to sharing the space and digital television equipment.

Programs/Content

Pipeline addendum: more public TV productions in the works for 2015

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This list supplements Current’s Pipeline 2015, published in November 2014 and based on responses to our annual survey of public TV producers. Programs appearing in this update, three of which are offered for national broadcast this winter season, went to contract late last year or were submitted after the deadline for the earlier list. Winter ’15
Mia, A Dancer’s Journey
Producing organizations: Slavenska Dance Preservation Inc., PBS SoCaL. Distributor: NETA. Length: 1 x 60.

How to set boundaries at work — and save your sanity

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Mike and Kim had worked together for many years at a large public broadcasting organization. He was a manager, and she was a senior attorney; they often collaborated but reported to different bosses. One day, during what seemed to be a routine conversation in Kim’s office, she cursed and berated Mike about his work. Afterwards, Mike faced a tough choice: risk escalating the conflict by speaking up about Kim’s inappropriate behavior or remain silent in hopes that that the outburst would be an isolated incident. Although this scenario may seem extreme, it’s a situation that many people encounter in the workplace, where too often people do not speak up for themselves and find that they’re treated with disrespect.

Programs/Content

Pacifica Radio Archives unearths missing 1964 London speech by Martin Luther King Jr.

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Fifty years ago, Pacifica Radio correspondent Saul Bernstein recorded a 62-minute speech delivered in London by Martin Luther King Jr., in which the civil rights leader spoke about apartheid and the then-recent sentencing of Nelson Mandela. The recording, believed to be the only full record of King’s speech, was thought to be lost to time. But a half-century later, Pacifica Archives Director Brian DeShazor uncovered Bernstein’s recording in a dusty box while working on a Saturday, researching another project, “American Women Making History & Culture, 1963-1982,” a two-year effort funded by the National Archives to preserve hundreds of recordings. Now listeners to Democracy Now!, which airs on Pacifica’s five stations around the country, will hear the speech on the show’s Martin Luther King Day edition, and donors to the financially struggling network can receive a copy as a premium. DeShazor said he found the tape due to a lucky break.

People

Last Days lands Oscar nom; CPI, ProPublica recognized for data projects

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Last Days in Vietnam scored PBS’s American Experience its ninth Academy Award nomination. Rory Kennedy produced and directed the film for AmEx, a documentary series that has run since 1995. CPB provided support for the film. Last Days in Vietnam was nominated in the Best Documentary category, marking Kennedy’s first nomination. “When we conceived of this film three years ago, we knew it was a powerful story of individual acts of courage set against a background of chaos,” said American Experience Executive Producer Mark Samels on the show’s blog.

Programs/Content

‘Sonic Logos’ and partnerships provide new branding opportunities for Boston’s WCRB

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Boston classical music station WCRB has leveraged a partnership with the Boston Conservatory to compose a new branding tool: a musical logo. The station opened a contest for Conservatory students in the spring of 2014. Out of 18 entries, WCRB staff chose a 6-second sonic logo, or “sounder,” submitted by Paul Fake to be its new trademark sound. Fake, 27, lives in the Boston area and composes concert music. “What you look for in a sounder is something that won’t become annoying or repetitive,” said WCRB Station Manager Tony Rudel, who initiated the project.