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.”
How PBS can revive its pioneering spirit by embracing grassroots programming
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“As traditional broadcast gives way to new media, public television needs to dust off its early spirit of scrappy, decentralized innovation.”
SPONSORED
Project Core: A vision for scale and growth
Over the past three years, CentralCast has been hard at work implementing critical upgrades that lay the foundation for a more resilient and advanced future. And now, the culmination of these efforts is taking shape in our most ambitious initiative yet: Project Core.
Development
Expanded budget buoys plans for PBS’s revamped development division
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Betsy Gerdeman, who took over as senior vice president of PBS Development in February, is busy rebuilding that staff while focusing on three priorities for stations: planned giving, local corporate support and on-air fundraising. “I still have my station hat firmly on my head, and I hope I always will,” said Gerdeman, who has worked at KLRU and KLRN in San Antonio and WETA in Arlington, Va. “The success in this department comes from walking in the shoes of the stations we serve.”
PBS trimmed its fundraising staff in June 2010, eliminating four staffers who specialized in station fundraising. Director of Station Development Services Valerie Pletcher joined in November 2010 to focus on informational and training needs and best practices; she left in April 2014. But development is now on an upswing.
Quick Takes
Sesame Street to add half-hour show for afternoons
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PBS will also offer the half-hour show for mobile devices.
People
Valerie Gunderson, WGBH budget director, dies at 59
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Gunderson worked for WGBH for more than 25 years.
People
Mike Foti, engineering exec at WGBH and OPB, dies at 63
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Foti was WGBH’s director of engineering for 14 years before joining OPB in 2013.
Jim Lehrer
WETA to create subsidiary for transfer of PBS NewsHour ownership
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WETA’s board of trustees unanimously authorized the transfer, which does not involve any cash, at a June 17 meeting in Arlington, Va.
Programs/Content
Web videos from WVPB connect careers and education for middle-schoolers
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WVPB-TV is returning to its roots as the Educational Broadcasting Authority of West Virginia as it shifts production priorities from local programming to digital content for teachers. When Scott Finn took over as executive director in February 2013, the board gave him a mandate to “specifically help pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade educators, parents and students,” he said. “That was clear when I was hired.” Finn has an educational background himself, having worked as a sixth-grade social studies and English teacher. So the Charleston-based station is cutting back longtime weekly shows Doctors on Call and The Law Works to occasional productions and focusing instead on new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) interactive videos to help middle-schoolers think about future careers. Educators specifically asked for the content, Finn said.
People
Paula Sulinski, DPTV communications manager, dies at 59
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Sulinski worked for the station’s public-affairs division from 1976 to 1993.
Programs/Content
Five New York pubcasters team up for CPB-backed regional newsroom
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Five public media stations in New York will create a regional newsroom with a $375,000 grant from CPB, announced today. The two-year backing will support Upstate Insight, which CPB called “an innovative model for covering news across a large geographic area.” Principal partners are WXXI, Rochester; WSKG, Binghamton; WRVO, Oswego; and WMHT, Troy. WBFO in Buffalo is an associate partner. In the announcement, CPB said the stations “will develop news data capability and adopt content sharing and communications systems to support connectivity between organizations.”
System/Policy
Pew grant supports new zydeco project from Philadelphia’s WXPN
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Philadelphia’s WXPN-FM has received a $360,000 grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage for Zydeco Crossroads, a 15-month project that will include concerts, educational events and a documentary film. WXPN will also use grant funds to launch a zydeco-themed website in September. “The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage has made it possible for us to bring leading Zydeco artists to Philadelphia and expose them to a wider audience, which will help foster a broader understanding and appreciation of this unique American music,” said WXPN General Manager Roger LaMay in a statement. “Our project partnerships with Allons Danser, Philly’s home for Zydeco/Cajun music and dance, the Philadelphia Folksong Society, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia will also access additional audiences who connect to Zydeco in distinct ways.”
The documentary will be created by filmmaker Robert Mugge and screened at a culminating weekend festival in fall 2015, according to a Pew release.
System/Policy
Washington’s WAMU aims to buy signal south of D.C.
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WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C., will enter the Fredericksburg, Va., market with the pending purchase of 8,000-watt WWED 89.5-FM. WAMU has proposed to buy WWED from the Educational Media Corp., a nonprofit Christian ministry based in Spotsylvania, Va. According to an asset purchase agreement filed with the FCC, WAMU licensee American University will pay $375,000 for WWED and a booster signal in Fredericksburg. WWED and sister station WWEM-FM in Lynchburg, Va., went dark as of Aug. 1, 2013, according to fredericksburg.com.