Nice Above Fold - Page 662

  • Brand's new show from L.A. bows on Monday

    A new morning newsmagazine will debut on Pasadena’s KPCC on Monday (Sept. 20) —The Madeleine Brand Show, airing weekdays at 9 a.m. Brand, a former NPR correspondent and Day to Day co-host, will helm a one-hour program that covers news “using story-telling techniques familiar to radio listeners, but mixed together in a new way,” according to a news release. The show team includes Kristen Muller, who joined KPCC from CBS; Sanden Totten, previously a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio’s In the Loop; and, Steve Proffitt, who was senior producer on Day to Day, one of two Los Angeles-based programs that NPR canceled last year.
  • Phoenix pubTV debate clip gets nearly 2 million hits on YouTube

    The opening of a KAET gubernatorial debate earlier this month — in which current Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer repeatedly stumbles over her words and then simply stops speaking — is approaching 2 million hits on YouTube. KAET g.m. Kelly McCullough told Current that someone saw the debate, posted the minute-long portion on YouTube, local TV stations took note, then CNN, MSNBC and Fox followed. By that time the clip was the fourth most-watched on YouTube, and McCullough was hearing from folks as far away as London. “It’s a good example of the multimedia nature of the world,” as McCullough noted.
  • NewsHour helps amputee to dance again

    A PBS NewsHour producer has helped a Haitian amputee receive a prosthesis, says the TV Newser, a blog in the MediaBistro network. Dancer and choreographer George Exantus lost his right leg below the knee while trapped in rubble following January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti. After viewers saw his story on NewsHour, they wanted to assist. Producer Merrill Schwerin got Freedom Innovations to donate an artificial limb and now Exantus is dancing again.
  • Tower problems delay launch of new classical station

    Launch of Tampa’s new all-classical station WSMR has been delayed due to technical problems at its tower site, according to the Bradenton Herald. “We are very disappointed about this,” says Joanne Urofsky, general manager. WUSF Public Media, which acquired the license to broadcast on 89.1 MHz in Sarasota this summer, didn’t delay the format switch for its FM station in Tampa, which now devotes its daytime grids to news programs and nights to jazz. The classical service debuted today as an HD Radio channel of WUSF and as an Internet stream. Urofsky hopes that engineers will put WSMR-FM on the air within the next couple of days.
  • Pew paper explores how app-happy cell phone users are (hint: well, sorta)

    A new Pew research report reveals that while 35 percent of U.S. adults have apps on their cell phones, only 24 percent actually use them. “The Rise of Apps Culture” released Tuesday (Sept. 14) by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Nielsen also shows that app use scores at the bottom of a list of what people do with their phones, just 29 percent. Taking photos is atop that list, at 6 percent . Other cell-phone uses include texting, 72 percent; accessing the Internet, 38 percent; and sending or receiving e-mail, 34 percent. Games, news/weather, and mapping apps are most popular.
  • Revamp continues at KIXE in Redding, Calif.

    Big changes are under way at KIXE in Redding, Calif. Philip Smith, who came on as g.m. in July, is restructuring the station and has done away with the positions of corporate support, production manager and community affairs coordinator, reports the local Record Searchlight. Smith plans to immediately hire a development director to handle the corporate support and community affairs duties. The production manager’s position will be redefined to include work that is much broader than traditional TV production, Smith told the paper; that new hire is several months off. In a programming change in August, KIXE dropped Democracy Now!
  • FCC brings online its database of licensees

    The Federal Communications Commission is now offering a searchable online license database, the commission announced today (Sept. 15). FCC License View lets users peruse more than 3 million FCC licensees, around 2 million of which are active. Search by licensee name, call sign or FCC registration number to reveal interesting facts such as: WGBH holds 58 licenses.
  • ITVS film event on Capitol Hill draws attention to violence against women

    The Independent Television Service is bringing the PBS film “Pushing the Elephant” to Capitol Hill Thursday (Sept. 16) to raise awareness of violence against women and girls around the globe, according to ITVS. Speaking after the film will be its subject, Congolese refugee Rose Mapendo, who escaped from the genocidal war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in February 2000. PBS President Paula Kerger also will address the audience on the network’s role in bringing new and underserved voices to viewers. The event, at 8:30 a.m. in the Rayburn Office Building, is in cooperation with Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Rep.
  • Ex-NFCB president to receive Parker Award

    Carol Pierson, former president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, will receive the Everett C. Parker Award at the United Church of Christ’s 28th annual Parker Lecture in Ethics and Telecommunications on Sept. 29 in Washington, reports Broadcasting & Cable. The event was created in 1983 to recognize the media activist’s work as an advocate for public rights in broadcasting. Presenting the main lecture this year is FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Pierson is being honored for her 30-year career in public broadcasting and her work to help ensure that pubcasting serves people of color and other underserved communities.
  • Future of NJN now up for debate

    The first of three hearings to decide the fate of the New Jersey Network are under way today at the statehouse, reports the Bergen Record. Gov. Chris Christie (R) has proposed ending the state’s $11 million subsidy and transferring NJN’s operations, licenses and equipment to a nongovernmental entity, most likely an independent, nonprofit (Current, July 6, 2010). So far, Democrats are emphasizing the need for a statewide television network; Republicans agree but are stressing the state’s fiscal difficulties.
  • APM partners up for Carolinas Public Insight Network

    The Charlotte Observer, American Public Media and the Charlotte Viewpoint website last weekend (Sept. 11) launched its citizen-sourced Carolinas Public Insight Network. It’s a confidential database of volunteer news sources, according to the site. “You connect with our newsroom through the Web, and then agree on occasion to receive an e-mail asking for your insights and expertise,” explained Observer editor Rick Thames. Longtime Observer editor Cindy Montgomery is heading up the effort.
  • CPB's Bole to speak at FedTalks tech conference

    Rob Bole, CPB’s v.p. digital media strategy, is among the speakers at the Oct. 12 FedTalks 2010, a D.C. confab that bills itself as “a gathering of 500 of the most influential government leaders, industry executives, and media giants of our time, brought together to share their thoughts on how technology can change government.” Other speakers include Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post; Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; and Chris Kemp, chief technology officer of NASA.
  • Classical WSMR goes on the air Wednesday

    Sarasota’s WSMR debuts Wednesday (Sept. 15), bringing 24-hour classical music to South Florida, according to the Bradenton Herald. Renovations continue on its $150,000 studio at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. WUSF in Tampa recently purchased WSMR for $1.275 million on a 10-year loan from the University of South Florida Foundation, an affiliate of its licensee (Current, Aug. 9, 2010). WUSF-FM will be news in the daytime and remain jazz at night. The performance studio at USF is designed for television, video and radio production and live performances; work is expected to be done in late December.
  • East Tennessee adds PBS to name

    East Tennessee Public Television is now East Tennessee PBS, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel. “To cover our large viewing area of more than 925,000 households in East Tennessee, we’ve added two broadcast towers over the years, which is why we have two sets of call letters: WKOP in Knoxville and WETP in Sneedville,” said Teresa James, ETPBS g.m. The station had been using the former name for more than 40 years.
  • Getler, PBS ombudsman, wades deeper into Nova climate-change controversy

    “Warning: This Is a Long Column,” writes PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler. It’s his second piece on viewers raising questions about the financial support of billionaire David H. Koch for Nova’s “Becoming Human” series. The issue is a complicated one, with Nova raising the ire of several letter writers by using a Smithsonian scientist to address the issue of climate change, when the Smithsonian’s David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins was founded by Koch — who is a skeptic that global warming is occurring.