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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.

Quick Takes

FCC extends reply period for comments on AM radio to March 20

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The FCC is giving interested parties another 30 days to weigh in on comments already made regarding proposed rule changes that would benefit AM radio stations. For the first time since 1987, the FCC is taking a comprehensive look at AM radio to review possible policy changes. A window for filing comments closed Jan. 24, and the deadline for responses to those comments was set to close Feb. 18.

Quick Takes

Free Speech Radio News mounts comeback with new site

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After going off the air last fall, Free Speech Radio News is resuming production, but on a relaunched version of its website. Beginning Feb. 11, FSRN producers will post audio, photos and articles online as the progressive news operation charts a path back to ongoing radio production. The FSRN board drew on support from major donors and other contributors for the web-based relaunch, wrote Sang Hea Kil, FSRN’s president, in a Feb. 2 post on FSRN’s website.

Quick Takes

Afternoon roundup: Ombud complaints down, filmmaker knocks WETA

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• In his annual review of objectivity and balance in CPB-funded programming, CPB Ombudsman Joel Kaplan noted “far fewer complaints directed at public media,” continuing a trend of the past few years. “Whether that is because public media has improved in this area; people have grown tired of complaining about a lack of balance; or there were just not that many controversial stories this year is not clear,” he noted. Looking back over 2013’s controversies, Kaplan also criticized NPR’s reaction to a lengthy report by its own ombudsman that found fault with an award-winning NPR investigation. As Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos reviewed the three-part series about South Dakota’s foster-care system for Native American children, he “took the unusual step of re-reporting the story,” Kaplan wrote. NPR execs called the ombud’s report “deeply flawed”and said little would be gained “from a point-by-point response to his claims.”

Quick Takes

Local group to fight potential loss of PBS content in Rio Grande Valley

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A grassroots group will push to keep PBS content available over the air in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, reports the Rio Grande Guardian. The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville announced in January that it would sell KMBH-TV in Harlingen. The licensee is pursuing a local management agreement (LMA) with a commercial entity as a first step. But the station advisory board is concerned about the impact the loss of the station could have on children in lower-income colonias communities. “If KMBH is sold, it would be a great loss for our Hispanic community,” said Lupe Saenz, a member of the KMBH community advisory board. “A lot of our young kids in the colonias are learning their ABCs, their numbers, shapes and forms from public broadcasting.”

Quick Takes

NPR’s Chow leaves for FiveThirtyEight, Bross for The Atlantic

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Two NPR staffers are leaving public broadcasting for prominent positions with other media outlets. Lisa Chow, a reporter for NPR’s Planet Money economics unit, is heading to FiveThirtyEight, the new data-journalism website from Nate Silver. Chow will serve as senior features editor at the ESPN-owned website and host and develop a podcast, according to a series of tweets by Silver. Before joining Planet Money, Chow covered economics for New York’s WNYC and worked as an assistant editor for NPR’s Morning Edition. Also, Anna Bross, NPR’s media relations director, is leaving to become senior director of communications for The Atlantic. Bross will oversee media and public relations for the magazine, website and subsidiary sites, according to Wednesday’s press release from The Atlantic.