Nice Above Fold - Page 393
Mississippi boosts state aid to pubcasting after half-decade of cuts
MPR credits successful legislative outreach and a state revenue increase for its nine-percent aid bump.University delays launch of GPB Radio service on Atlanta's WRAS-FM
A channel-sharing agreement between Georgia Public Broadcasting and Georgia State University’s student-run radio station WRAS-FM that had been set to start last week has been postponed to June 29. The station, also known as Album 88, has been entirely student-run for over 40 years. But in May, the university and GPB announced a partnership that would give GPB the station from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. The partnership, which originally had been scheduled to take effect June 1, was arranged without student input and met with opposition from Album 88 DJs, alumni and fans. The delay in implementing the partnership was announced after a May 30 meeting among members of the station’s student staff and GSU president Mark Becker.Target breach disrupts sustainer giving, cash flow at pubcasting stations
Public broadcasters continue to count their losses from last year’s massive consumer data hack of the retail giant Target as they scramble to reclaim donors.
Monday roundup: APTS, PBS, CPB criticize FCC auction rules; 'Bob Ross Bar Crawl' set
• Pubcasting is not happy with the FCC’s spectrum auction report, with three of the system’s major organizations saying June 6 that the new rules violate the Public Broadcasting Act. “We are obliged to express our profound disappointment that the Commission has rejected one of public television’s most important policy goals in the auction process — our request that the Commission ensure that no community find itself without free access to public television service in the aftermath of the auction,” read a joint statement from the presidents of the Association for Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS. • The second annual “Bob Ross Bar Crawl” will take place Sept.WYPR staffers petition to join SAG-AFTRA union
Editorial staffers at Baltimore’s WYPR are petitioning management for union representation, according to a June 6 release from broadcast union SAG-AFTRA, which seeks to represent them. A majority of editorial staff delivered a union petition to management June 3, and the National Labor Relations Board received a petition June 6, according to the release. Management has not yet acknowledged the petition. “We all believe in the value of public radio, as well as WYPR’s mission to produce high-quality journalism,” the release read. “We want to see the station improve and better serve listeners across the state. We believe that a unionized editorial staff, working with station management and its board is the best way to do that.”In radio appearance, 'Citizen Koch' filmmakers allege self-censorship in public TV
The filmmakers behind a new documentary briefly discussed their “deeply troubling” experience with public TV in an appearance on public radio’s On Point Wednesday. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal directed Citizen Koch, now hitting theaters after vying for grant funding and a broadcast commitment from PBS’s Independent Lens. The film examines the influence of wealthy conservatives such as David and Charles Koch on Republican politics. A May 2013 article by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer suggested that ITVS, Independent Lens’s producer, backed away from the film due to pressure from New York’s WNET, where David Koch sat on the board.
WPBT and WXEL in South Florida reveal merger talks
A proposed merger of two Florida public TV stations would serve a combined market area roughly equivalent to the country’s seventh-largest Nielsen market.CPB, RTL award $2.2 million for public TV school-readiness projects
CPB and Ready to Learn, a U.S. Department of Education program supporting preschool learning, will provide $2.2 million in grants to 21 public television stations to create new or expand existing school-readiness projects. One of the new grants, announced June 3, will establish an Illinois Ready to Learn transmedia network with pubTV partners WILL in Champaign-Urbana, WSIU in Carbondale and WTVP in Peoria, to reach 12,000 educators and 13,000 school children. Partnering with community coalitions in central and southern Illinois, the effort will provide educational programs to three low-income communities, as well as offer professional development for educators. The stations received just over $105,000 for that work.Friday roundup: CJR piece pins TMM demise on stations; Roadshow adopts ivory-free policy
Plus: Rockers tweet for #SaveWRAS.Kickstarter propels Reading Rainbow partnership into digital future
LeVar Burton’s Kickstarter campaign to fund a digital rebirth of Reading Rainbow promises to reconnect classrooms with the pubTV brand and may inspire a new version of the series from partner WNED-TV.A year in, NPR's Code Switch still figuring out commenting
In their efforts to foster a productive dialogue with readers, the race and culture blog's editors have turned their comments section into one of Code Switch's defining characteristics.Thursday roundup: Commercial classical wanes; Jane Seymour to host Detroit PTV show
Plus: radio from a tugboat, and a Reading Rainbow parody.Chuck Haynie, longtime WTTW cameraman, dies at 62
Haynie shot for the politics beat of Chicago Tonight.Pesca — and his opinions — find forum in Slate podcast
Mike Pesca has the next hit public radio show, and it’s not on public radio. That’s a problem.Engineers seek solution to varied volume of satellite-fed programs
A recent NPR study confirmed that what many have surmised for years is true: Public radio shows sent through the Public Radio Satellite System vary widely in loudness. An NPR working group that has been studying the issue found that roughly 53 percent of the content they examined deviated from standards PRSS recommends to keep volumes consistent. The group is looking at creating new best practices and implementing a software fix that could cheaply curb the problem. “It’s a big issue in the system,” said Paxton Durham, chief engineer at Virginia’s WVTF-FM and Radio IQ. “I’ve been here 24 years, and as long as I can remember there’s always been a problem.”
Featured Jobs