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.