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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.

Houston Public Media

Houston Public Media eliminates eight full-time positions

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Houston Public Media announced Nov. 7 the layoffs of eight staffers as part of a reorganization to create more multiplatform arts coverage. Four of the eliminated staffers hosted locally programmed classical music on KUHA-FM, one of the broadcaster’s two radio stations. HPM will replace the local shows with American Public Media’s Classical 24 service, though it will continue to air weekly broadcasts from the Houston Symphony. HPM also laid off two technical staff and two membership assistants.

American Graduate

American Grad survey details support and challenges

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A new survey of more than 460 community partners in CPB’s American Graduate project found enthusiasm for the station-based dropout-prevention initiative as well as challenges to overcome. The 66-page report, produced by the Civic Enterprises public-policy consulting firm and the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, found that 74 percent of 145 responding partner organizations indicated their belief that public media “provided opportunities that will have a lasting effect on youth” through the initiative. Eighty-five percent said that public media will help tackle the problem in their community in the future by building “knowledge, capacity and engagement.”

The online survey was developed by the Hopkins center, CPB and Nine Network of Public Media, a lead station in the multi-year initiative. Participating stations located in high-need communities where dropout rates are critical identified partners to be included in the survey sample. The research concluded in August.

Quick Takes

Politico supplies back story on Muppets’ partnership with White House

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Curious about how the Muppets ended up partnering with the White House to promote healthy foods? “The back story,” according to Politico, “involves a series of connections between a White House chef turned policy adviser, a best-selling book and a former Coca-Cola executive who used the marketing skills he learned selling sugar-sweetened beverages to instead promote carrots.”

Quick Takes

Pennsylvania pubstations to study urban decline as latest Local Journalism Center

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Armed with a two-year CPB grant, five Pennsylvania pubcasters are collaborating to explore issues facing cities in the Keystone State. CPB spokesperson Kelly Broadway confirmed that the grant supports the specialized reporting unit as one of two new Local Journalism Centers, multi-station news operations that produce multimedia reporting on topics of statewide or regional interest. “Once we have received signed contracts from all the stations involved, CPB will issue a press release” with details on both, she said. The Pennsylvania center will focus on the causes and cures of the financial distress of urban communities throughout the state, according to an online report published by WITF in Harrisburg, one of five participating stations. “The data-driven, multimedia approach will aim to sustain a connected, contextualized, statewide reporting on urban challenges,” the report said.

System/Policy

FCC hears from APTS, CPB, PBS on spectrum repacking expenses

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The Association of Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS on Monday filed comments with the FCC regarding issues related to the spectrum repacking that will follow incentive auctions clearing bandwidth for mobile devices. Responding to the commission’s request for comment on the process for assisting stations with the costs of spectrum repacking, the three organizations “strongly encourage the Commission to adopt reimbursement policies and procedures that ensure noncommercial educational television stations are made whole and held fully harmless in the repacking,” they said in the filing (complete document here). Broadcasters are concerned that costs of the transition may exceed the $1.75 billion Congress has set aside to reimburse them. The FCC requested comments in September on its Catalog of Eligible Expenses for spectrum repacking. The three pubcasting organizations said it’s too early to anticipate all of the costs that broadcasters will take on during the repacking.

People

Iowa Public Radio names new executive director

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Myrna Johnson, a former government relations associate for NPR who now directs a Boston nonprofit, has been named the next executive director of Iowa Public Radio. The Iowa Public Radio Board of Directors  announced Johnson’s appointment Nov. 5,  ending a  seven-month nationwide search for successor to Mary Grace Herrington, who was dismissed in February.  Herrington contested the firing and both parties agreed to a $197,000 settlement in May. Johnson departs the Boston Schoolyard Initiative, a public-private partnership that oversees renovation of  schoolyards in Boston’s urban neighborhoods, where she has worked as executive director since 2009.

Programs/Content

TPT rebrands youth initiative as ReWire

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Twin Cities Public Television has adopted the name ReWire for the statewide network’s youth programming and engagement initiative. TPT settled on the name after its previous branding, Open Air, attracted a trademark infringement and violation suit from Colorado Public Radio. “Our vision is to rewire public media’s relationship to the world, and your relationship with public media,” Andi McDaniel, ReWire’s project manager, wrote in a re-introductory blog post Oct. 25. “[ReWire is] about connecting with our audience in new ways — through digital content, through collaborative approaches to storytelling, through interactive events, fresh takes on classic and new programming and much more.”

Quick Takes

Lab report finds some VPR Artists Series pledge mugs contain lead

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Vermont Public Radio said Monday that test results show that 11 of the 34 mugs in its Artist Mug Series, which the station gives as pledge premiums, contain lead — one at a level above the federal limit. Responding to safety concerns raised in September, VPR had mugs produced from 2002-13 tested by an independent lab. The lab found 10 had lead on the exterior of the mug that fell within FDA regulated levels. One, produced in 2005 with a design by Chris Varricchione, had “unacceptable” levels of lead. VPR is recommending the mug not be used.