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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

Localore “fires up local networks,” AIR’s Schardt says in CJR

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The Columbia Journalism Review calls Localore “an innovative financing model may change the face of public radio” in an article out today. The project, which pairs independent producers with stations and began rolling out in September 2011, is the brainchild of the Association of Independents in Radio. AIR recently partnered with the Independent Television Service for a new round of funding for initiatives including Black Gold Boom. In the CJR piece, AIR Executive Director Sue Schardt said the project is working to transform the funding model for the pubradio system. “Most stations are really hermetically sealed,” she told the magazine.

Quick Takes

Real Orange ends production next month at PBS SoCal

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PBS SoCal is canceling its longtime magazine show, Real Orange, reports the Orange County Business Journal. The positions for hosts Ed Arnold and Ann Pulice will be eliminated, as will one full-time production job and two part-time positions. Other production staffers will be reassigned. The program has aired on the Los Angeles station since 1997. Production ends in December.

Quick Takes

ITVS chooses eight documentaries for Diversity Development Fund grants

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The Independent Television Service today announced grants to eight documentaries from its Diversity Development Fund. The annual call for submissions resulted in 114 applications to the initiative, which provides research and development funding to producers of color to develop single documentary programs for public television. Selections include “The G-Force” by Pamela Sherrod Anderson, about grandparents raising grandchildren; “Africa Town” by Kathy Huang, on the migration of Africans into China; and “Metal Road” by Sarah Del Seronde, exploring the historical links between Navajos, traders and the railroads. A full list of films is here.

People

Texas Public Radio selects NPR’s Slocum to lead station

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Joyce Slocum, chief administrative officer at NPR, takes over as president and c.e.o. of Texas Public Radio Jan. 6, the San Antonio-based station announced today. Slocum, a Dallas native, will be only the third leader in the station’s 30-year history. During her five years at NPR headquarters, Slocum also served as general counsel and, for nine months in 2011, as interim president and c.e.o. “We will certainly miss her at NPR,” said Paul Haaga, NPR acting president, “but are thrilled she is staying in the public radio family.”

Prior to joining NPR, Slocum served as general counsel at HIT Entertainment, a producer of children’s television programming, and as supervising attorney at Dallas-based 7-Eleven.

Programs/Content

St. Louis culinary magazine hits pubmedia airwaves on Feast TV

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Nine Network in St. Louis is partnering with the local Feast Magazine on Feast TV, a unique culinary show. Filmed in Producer Catherine Neville’s home kitchen, each program links segments on regional food news with a cooking demonstration that progresses through the half-hour magazine. “This medium lets viewers meet the farmers, the chefs, the brewers and winemakers who make up our culinary industry,” said Neville, also Feast Magazine publisher. Feast TV had been airing on the local Fox affiliate, said Terri Gates, Nine Network spokesperson.

Quick Takes

Pittsburgh airport, subway travelers to hear local classical musicians via WQED

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WQED and the Allegheny County Airport Authority today announced a partnership to re-launch classical music programming by local artists for the Pittsburgh International Airport and Port Authority subway stations. Content on “Q the Music: Pittsburgh Classical Network” will be provided digitally from WQED’s Oakland studios. It’s an update of the former “Classics on the Move” music programming, which had been funded by PPG Industries through 2010. The Airport Authority will sponsor content for one year, with WQED working to secure additional underwriting later. Similar music programs are rare among airports nationwide, the announcement noted, due to broadcasting rights and other issues.

Development

Growth in aid to media foundations aimed mostly at web-based efforts

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Foundation support for media-related activities increased 21 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to a study that examined how private philanthropies responded to the increased fragmentation of the media landscape. Grants for traditional public media organizations grew at a slightly slower rate than other categories of media grantmaking, from $100 million in 2009 to $118 million in 2011, an increase of 18 percent. Yet major stations such as New York’s WNET and Minnesota Public Radio are among the top recipients of philanthropic aid. “Growth in Foundation Support for Media in the United States,” released Nov. 12 by the Foundation Center, is a comprehensive look at the scope and size of foundations’ investments in media.