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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.

People

Pat Fitzgerald, longtime WBGU g.m., dies at 69

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Pat Fitzgerald, g.m. of WBGU-TV in Bowling Green, Ohio, for more than two decades, died Oct. 30 of a stroke in his home. He was 69. Fitzgerald was known among colleagues as a strong advocate for educational television and community service. “He was in essence my mentor, my education,” said Tony Short, g.m. of production, engineering and educational services at WBGU and one of two managers who took over Fitzgerald’s duties at the station after his 2010 retirement.

Quick Takes

KACV-TV rebrands as Panhandle PBS to honor anniversary

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KACV in Amarillo, Texas, is marking 25th anniversary by changing its name to Panhandle PBS, the station announced Sunday, to reflect its location in the Texas Panhandle. “Market research tells us that ‘Panhandle PBS’ is really what viewers think of when they think of KACV,” said Linda Pitner, the station’s general manager. Pitner told Current that no one in the region equates the word with its alternate definition of asking strangers for money — which PBS member stations are known to do from time to time. “We completed a market research project before changing our name and feel that the new name better identifies the product we are providing and the place we are serving,” Pitner added. “We have had nothing but glowing feedback on the rebranding.”

People

Ray Suarez lands at AJA’s D.C.-based newsmag Inside Story

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Veteran public broadcasting newsman Ray Suarez, who resigned from PBS NewsHour Oct. 25 after nearly 15 years, will host Inside Story on satellite news channel Al Jazeera America starting Nov. 11. The program, an interview-driven newsmag airing at 5 p.m. Eastern time weekdays, covers the major stories of the week from AJA’s Washington, D.C., bureau. Suarez interviewed Al Jazeera EP Bob Wheelock in January, when the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Network bought Al Gore’s Current TV.

Quick Takes

Marcotte calls for “concerted look” at pubmedia’s long-range plans for news

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Longtime pubcasting consultant Michael Marcotte is weighing in on the new Knight Foundation report on nonprofit journalism sustainability, which examines 18 news organizations nationwide, several of which partner with public broadcasters. Marcotte notes that CPB “has not been open about sharing comparative data like Knight is doing here. Nor does it seem as concerted in its effort to grow public media through a national conversation about the future of news, as Knight is so good at doing.” He adds: “I suggest public media leaders borrow a page from the Knight Foundation and initiate a concerted look at our long range plans for growth and sustainability, especially as it relates to the future of journalism in America. A systematic and open study would help.”

People

Latino advocacy group criticizes PBS treatment of newsman Ray Suarez

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A grass-roots organization that protested Ken Burns’s exclusion of World War II Latino soldiers’ experiences from his 2007 documentary The War is speaking out in the wake of PBS NewsHour Chief National Correspondent Ray Suarez’s resignation from the program. Defend the Honor, headed by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, sent an Oct. 31 email to its 5,000-member database saying it is “distressed that PBS has treated veteran journalist Ray Suarez so disrespectfully.” Suarez left the show Oct. 25 after nearly 15 years and subsequently told Fox News Latino in an Oct. 28 interview that he felt his contributions to the program had been minimized during his tenure.

Quick Takes

PBS to host first international broadcasting conference since 1997

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Next week PBS will host the annual conference for Public Broadcasters International (PBI), expected to draw hundreds of broadcasters from around the world. This year’s event will be Nov. 6-8 at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. PBS last hosted in 1997. The agenda includes panels on “Public Media in Times of Public Challenge,” children’s programming, digital-content opportunities, historical and cultural documentaries, and financial sustainability. The audience will hear from broadcasters such as PBS President Paula Kerger; Noel Curran, director general of Ireland’s RTÉ; Masayuki Matsumoto, president of Japan’s NHK; Jane Vizard, legal director of the European Broadcasting Union; and Ralph Rivera, the BBC’s director of future media.

Quick Takes

Upcoming Maryland PTV kids’ series gets help from NASA

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Space agency NASA helped develop segments for a children’s show heading to public TV in spring 2014 from presenting station Maryland Public Television, reports Entertainment Weekly. NASA reps worked with Space Racers creator and E.P. Richard Schweiger and his team on 50 segments, 11 minutes each, for the show’s first season. Each half-hour episode includes two of the NASA shorts. Directing is Mark Risley, who won an Emmy in 2003 for the Nickelodeon series Rugrats. Schweiger raised $2.2 million from 27 investors for the series, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this year.