System/Policy
California pubcasters escalate tower dispute
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KVIE and CapRadio have filed countering lawsuits laying claim to a transmission tower.
Texas Public Radio employees seek to unionize amid leadership transition
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The staffers say the union would “safeguard our organization’s future success.”
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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
PBS partners with UK producers for Nova special on Typhoon Haiyan
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PBS and United Kingdom–based Sky Vision Productions are collaborating on a pair of documentaries about Typhoon Haiyan, to air in both countries, RealScreen reports. Sky1 is collecting footage from the Philippines in the aftermath of one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, which the UK network will use for a documentary to air Dec. 11. PBS will repurpose the same footage for an episode of the science program Nova with the working title Monster Typhoon, to air Jan. 22, 2014.
Quick Takes
Guitar allegedly owned by Dylan sets new auction record, thanks to History Detectives
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A guitar played by Bob Dylan at his famous Newport Folk Festival appearance in 1965 sold for nearly $1 million Friday, two years after it was featured in an episode of PBS’s History Detectives. The 1964 Fender Stratocaster went for $965,000 at New York auction house Christie’s, setting a new auction record for a guitar. A Christie’s spokesperson told CNN that it was purchased by an unidentified buyer. In 2011, the daughter of a pilot who flew Dylan to performances in the ’60s submitted the guitar to History Detectives, claiming that it was the same instrument the musician played at Newport, then his first live electric performance. Dawn Peterson claimed that Dylan left the guitar on her father’s plane, and the PBS program confirmed that it was in fact the same guitar.
System/Policy
Ninth Circuit sides with FCC, upholds ban on political advertising for pubcasters
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A federal appeals court last week upheld a ban on political and public-issue commercials on pubcasting stations, ruling that its removal would compromise their educational mission. The split 9–2 decision was handed down Dec. 2 by a panel of judges on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Writing for the majority, Judge M. Margaret McKeown said that the restrictions Congress imposed on advertising were intended to shield noncommercial broadcasters from the competitive pressures of commercial media, not to limit constitutionally protected free speech. “The hallmark of public broadcasting has been a longstanding restriction on paid advertising to minimize commercialization,” McKeown wrote.
Quick Takes
Break out the biscuits, it’s nearly Downton Abbey time
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The publicity onslaught preceding the Jan. 5 premiere of Downton Abbey arrives in New York next week in the form of a tea truck. Variety reports that costumed servers will hand out free tea and biscuits to fans of the hit Masterpiece costume drama. And, this being 2013, the tea truck will be closely tracked on PBS’s Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram. Following appearances by stars of the show on various network TV shows, the week culminates Dec.
People
Bruce Franchini, veteran pubTV producer and director, dies at 69
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Bruce Franchini, a producer and director for San Francisco’s KQED-TV, died Nov. 13 of cancer. He was 69.
Quick Takes
FCC to delay broadcast spectrum auctions to mid-2015
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FCC Chair Tom Wheeler announced today that the agency is shifting broadcast spectrum auctions from 2014 to 2015. In a blog post, Wheeler said that the decision for the delay was based on the complexity of the undertaking. “Having spent most of the last decade helping technology-based companies from the ground up,” he wrote, “I know the incredible challenge of taking a cutting-edge product from concept to market on deadline.” Wheeler said he believes the FCC “can conduct a successful auction in the middle of 2015.” He said the agency’s Spectrum Task Force will provide more details about the timeline in a presentation at the January 2014 FCC meeting.
Quick Takes
SiriusXM picking up WGBH’s Innovation Hub
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Innovation Hub, WGBH-FM’s weekly hourlong dive into big ideas and innovative technologies, goes national Saturday on SiriusXM’s public-radio content channel, XMPR. The program, distributed by Public Radio International, will air at 10 p.m. Eastern time Saturdays, featuring interviews with thought leaders on cutting-edge news in medicine, education, transportation and more. XMPR is Channel 121 on XM and Channel 205 on Sirius. PRI, which already offers streaming and podcast versions of the program, will make it available next spring for pubradio broadcast. Innovation Hub currently has more than 500,000 followers on SoundCloud.
Development
With crowdfunding, rethink your expectations for engaging public media’s supporters
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As a growing number of public media organizations turn to Kickstarter to raise funding for new projects — with mixed success — development professionals and others in nonprofit media have begun evaluating both the potential and limitations of this new fundraising method.
Quick Takes
Late WVTF music director’s family sues over his 2011 death
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The children of Seth Williamson, a longtime music director and host at pubradio WVTF in Roanoke, Va., have filed a lawsuit against a medical manufacturing company over his 2011 death, reports the Roanoke Times. The complaint says that following hernia surgery, Williamson received more than five times the prescribed amount of an analgesic medication and died a short time later of a “massive” overdose. The family contends a medication pump was faulty. They are suing Hospira Inc., which made the pump, and Abbott Laboratories Inc., which once owned Hospira. Both are based in the Chicago suburbs.
Quick Takes
Dotcom entrepreneur invests $250K in Swell app
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Jason Calacanis is betting big on Swell, the five-month-old app that curates podcasts and news reports. The angel investor, who co-founded the blog network Weblogs Inc., the search engine Mahalo.com and the podcast network ThisWeekIn, announced Dec. 3 that he would invest $250,000 in the app. In a blog post on his tech website Launch, Calacanis cited the app’s pedigree, mission, design and focus on podcasting as reasons for his investment. He had been interested in the similar apps Stitcher and TuneIn, he said, but wasn’t able to invest in them in time.