Quick Takes

Thursday roundup: Netflix brings back Magic School Bus, John Moe’s new humor book

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• Netflix is reviving the ’90s PBS Kids cartoon The Magic School Bus, commissioning 26 episodes of an revamped series that will join its streaming lineup  in 2016. The Magic School Bus 360° will use computer-generated animation instead of following the original’s hand-drawn aesthetic, the New York Times reports. The on-demand TV service acquired rights to the program from Scholastic Media. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, told NYT that the original PBS show is the top educational offering on the streaming platform. He also hinted that Netflix may embark on future partnerships with Scholastic, the producer behind other popular PBS Kids shows such as Clifford the Big Red Dog and WordGirl. • John Moe, host of American Public Media’s Wits, released a humor book this week that imagines communications between famous pop-culture figures. Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth and Other Pop Culture Correspondences, published through Random House, follows the lead of Moe’s “Pop Song Correspondences” column for the online humor site McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies. • Florida Public Broadcasting Service, the nonprofit association of 26 public television and radio stations, is customizing more than 85,000 digital learning materials from the PBS LearningMedia library to meet mandatory state standards.

Programs/Content

CPB backs new episodes of Hinojosa’s America By The Numbers

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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded an $850,000 grant for eight new half-hour episodes of America By The Numbers, a series featuring journalist Maria Hinojosa that had a pilot run as a PBS election special. Programs in the series, which will air on PBS and the World Channel, will cover topics such as health disparities revealed by infant mortality rates, military service by residents of non-voting territories of the Pacific Islands and the effects of the domestic oil boom on Native American lands. “Consistent with the mission of public broadcasting – to give voice to the extraordinary diversity of this country – I am excited that PBS and the World Channel will premiere America by the Numbers,” said Maria Hinojosa, series host and project leader, in a statement. “This eight-part series is the first national TV program dedicated to documenting massive and historic demographic change in the US using hard data and powerful storytelling.”

America By The Numbers is a collaboration between Hinojosa’s Futuro Media Group and Boston’s WGBH. CPB backed the production through its Diversity and Innovation Fund, according to its June 5 grant announcement.

Programs/Content

Pubradio news stations join iTunes Radio lineup

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Expanding NPR’s footprint as the first news provider on Apple’s iTunes Radio, 42 member stations join the  lineup today. iTunes Radio, which is integrated into Apple’s iTunes software, already features a 24-hour stream of NPR content that includes national newscasts and stories from Morning Edition and All Things Considered. As of today, web streams of 42 stations are being offered to iTunes users, including: KPCC in Pasadena, Calif.; WBEZ, Chicago; KWMU, St. Louis; KUT in Austin, Texas; North Country Public Radio, Canton, N.Y.;  KQED, San Francisco; WNYC, New York; Minnesota Public Radio and Colorado’s Aspen Public Radio. The 42 stations on the inaugural launch make up about 55 percent of all member stations that provide online streams of their broadcasts, said Bob Kempf, NPR Digital Services general manager.

Programs/Content

This American Life departure highlights competitive challenge for pubradio satellite system

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The expanding portfolio of Public Radio Exchange, the Internet-based distribution platform, has prompted some public radio insiders to question whether NPR’s Public Radio Satellite System can adapt to stiffer competition for business from content producers. The latest program to move to PRX is the widely carried This American Life, whose producers announced May 28 that they would take over distribution of the show and rely on PRX to deliver weekly editions to stations. TAL will split from distributor Public Radio International July 1, ending a 17-year relationship. That announcement came on the heels of a May 7 decision by Chicago’s WFMT to move its 200 weekly hours of music and spoken-word programming to PRX. Other producers have told Steve Robinson, WFMT executive v.p., that they may be interested in following suit.

Programs/Content

University delays launch of GPB Radio service on Atlanta’s WRAS-FM

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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. In a statement on the WRAS Facebook page, Georgia State said it decided to delay the transition to address issues brought up by students.