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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.

Quick Takes

FCC proposes $20,000 fine for Maryland licensee over multiple EEO violations

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The Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission is appealing a proposed FCC fine of $20,000 for multiple violations of its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules, reports Broadcasting & Cable. In a Notice of Apparent Liability, the FCC contends that the pubcasting commission, the licensee of Maryland Public Television, broke several rules between June 2008 and May 2010 by failing to provide notification of 11 full-time vacancies to an organization that had requested that information. The agency also said that those failures “reveal a continuing lack of self-assessment” and that the Maryland licensee “provided incorrect factual information” to the FCC regarding the situation. “We believe it was an overreaction to a minor clerical error, and we are appealing the notice,” said Andrew Levine, general counsel of Maryland Public Television.

Quick Takes

Pubmedia roundup: Downton gets Golden Globes nod, PBS Hawaii sells land

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As expected, PBS got a Golden Globe nomination early this morning for Downton Abbey. The Masterpiece megahit got its nod in the Best Television Series — Drama category. Its competition? Breaking Bad on AMC; The Good Wife, CBS; House of Cards, Netflix; and Masters of Sex, Showtime. It’s PBS’s only nomination in the annual awards, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Downton cast members and producers took part in a discussion moderated by arts reporter Bill Carter of the New York Times Tuesday night, which was recorded for use by PBS member stations.

Quick Takes

After 10 years on PBS, Smiley still weathering challenges

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Tavis Smiley may be celebrating 10 years on PBS, but that tenure hasn’t been easy. In a Los Angeles Times interview, the talk show host admits that getting hip, high-profile guests is tough. “As the handlers get younger and younger and as the artists crave more and more to be in the social media zeitgeist, it becomes harder and harder for my producers to get through to clients the value of being on PBS,” he said. “It’s not an easy sell.” And KCET’s decision in 2010 to drop PBS membership left Smiley without a production home.  “We go overnight to paying for office space, studio rental, parking stalls for my staff — we go overnight to paying full freight at a commercial outlet here in town,” Smiley said.

Quick Takes

Next goal for American Archive: 5,000 more hours of content

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The American Archive of Public Broadcasting is aiming to add another 5,000 hours of digitally native or previously digitized content to supplement the 40,000 hours currently slated for preservation. Casey Davis, the archive’s project manager, posted a call for interested stations on the archive’s blog Dec. 9. The archive hopes to collect the additional 5,000 hours over the next two years. Some of the materials may come from those digitized during the archive’s 2009 pilot project, Davis said.

System/Policy

CPB Board hears troubling predictions for spectrum auctions and repacking

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CPB Board members got an ominous preview Monday of the corporation’s upcoming white paper about spectrum issues in public broadcasting. At a meeting at CPB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., Harry Hawkes of Booz & Co.’s media and technology practice told board members that if the FCC goes ahead with plans to clear 120 MHz of spectrum for use by mobile devices, 110 to 130 pubcasting stations will need to shift due to repacking even if their operators don’t participate in the auction. “That means that one-third of the system could have to change channels,” noted Vincent Curren, CPB’s c.o.o. “This will likely be more disruptive than the digital transition. This will be a major undertaking for our industry over the next several years.”

CPB commissioned the white paper, due out early next year, to inform policy discussions within the system about spectrum issues. The FCC announced last week that spectrum auctions will be conducted in mid-2015; repacking of the remaining bandwidth is expected to occur soon after.

Quick Takes

Sloooooooooow TV coming soon to a screen near you

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Remember Norwegian Public Television’s marathon broadcasts of five straight hours of knitting and five days of the “action” on a cruise-ship journey? Well, an American production company has acquired the rights to the trend now officially called Slow TV, reports the New York Post. LMNO Productions bought rights to the camera-switching technology that allows for verrrry long stretches of television. Pubcasters can jump on the trend thanks to Executive Program Service. EPS offers a more manageable, one-hour version of the Norway cruise and has trimmed Norwegian Public Television’s 10-hour documentary on the longest train journey in the country into a new 60-minute program.

People

Phil Charles, former g.m. of Montana’s KGLT-FM, dies at 65

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Phil Charles, retired longtime g.m. of KGLT-FM in Bozeman, Mont., died Nov. 29 of heart failure at his home in Cape May Court House, N.J. He was 65. Charles joined KGLT in the 1980s and stayed for more than two decades before retiring in 2010. He introduced a freeform format on the station. A licensee of Montana State University, KGLT brands itself as “Alternative Public Radio” and airs music and several nationally distributed public radio programs.

Before arriving in Bozeman, Charles worked at a series of alternative stations throughout the 1970s, including KSAN in San Francisco and KSJO and KOME in San Jose, Calif.