Programs/Content

Tri States Public Radio to operate student-run WVKC

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Illinois-based Tri States Public Radio has negotiated an agreement to operate Knox College’s student-run WVKC-FM as a full-time NPR station. Broadcasting at 1000 watts from the college’s campus in Galesburg, Ill., WVKC already carries NPR’s Morning Edition under a programming agreement with Tri States, which is licensed to Western Illinois University in Macomb, about 50 miles southwest of the small college town. When the deal takes effect in mid-September, TSPR’s mixed-format NPR news and music programming will be broadcast on WVKC’s 90.7 FM around the clock. Under the 20-year management contract announced this month, Knox College retains its license to WVKC. Student programming will be distributed as an Internet-only stream and HD Radio channel.

Programs/Content

QED Cooks celebrates 20th anniversary with ‘Return of the Zucchinis’

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Commemorating the accidental abundance of zucchinis in 1993 that spawned the creation of WQED’s hit series QED Cooks with Chris Fennimore, the Pittsburgh pubcaster will honor the prolific late-summer veggie for the program’s 20th anniversary. Back then, Fennimore, WQED-TV p.d. and an enthusiastic cook, was helping tend a community garden plot that exploded with the green squash. “So I asked Nancy Polinsky, director of continuity at the time, if she’d make a promo asking people for zucchini recipes,” Fennimore said. He had no idea that first recipe for zucchini cheesecake would be the beginning of more than 50 live cooking marathons ranging from “A is for Appetizers” to “S is for Seafood,” a growing line of cookbooks that proved to be popular pledge premiums and a hit show that passed its 100th-episode milestone in March 2012. Polinsky also became his co-host.

Quick Takes

Pacifica Radio Archives gets $128,000 grant to preserve voices of American feminists

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Pacifica Radio will dedicate Tuesday’s broadcasting day to raising funds for its “American Women Making History and Culture, 1963-1982” preservation and access project. Pacifica Radio Archives just received a $128,000 matching grant for the initiative from  the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives — the largest grant ever made to pubradio for preservation of historic recordings, Pacifica said. The collection includes recordings from Pacifica stations pertaining to the period known as second-wave feminism. Interviews feature activists Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis; members of Congress Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug; and authors Rita Mae Brown and Anaïs Nin, among many other voices. “It is gratifying to know these fragile reel-to-reel tapes, silent [for] decades, will be rescued from deterioration and treated with the highest standards our National Archives demands,” said Brian DeShazor, Pacifica Radio Archives director.

Quick Takes

Gary Knell leaving NPR to become CEO of National Geographic

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This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. NPR President Gary Knell has taken a new job as the chief executive of the National Geographic Society. Knell will succeed the society’s current president, John Fahey, when his term at NPR ends in late fall. Knell has served as CEO of NPR since December 2011. He came to the position after heading Sesame Workshop.

Quick Takes

Fourth season of Downton brings influx of themed merchandise

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Downton Abbey merchandise will accompany the Edwardian drama’s fourth-season premiere on British television next month and on PBS in January 2014, reports The Associated Press. There’ll be a board game, housewares, clothes, beauty products and even Downton wine. The Downton beauty line includes soap, nail polish, lip gloss, lotion and scented candles, “whimsically packaged and adorned with quotations from the series,” according to AP. Knockout Licensing in New York City, handling Downton merchandising for the United States and Canada, has deals for jewelry from Danbury Mint and Christmas ornaments from Kurt Adler, both going on sale later this year. “We are businesspeople,” Gareth Neame, e.p., told AP.

Development

Donors call for measurements that go beyond audience ratings

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Foundations and major donors are increasingly asking public broadcasters to demonstrate the impact of their work on their communities, prompting pubcasters to consider new metrics that go beyond traditional audience measurement. The new emphasis by funders has prompted a flurry of activity and discussion as some pubcasters work to identify best practices and standardize measurements, and others debate whether the impact of nonprofit journalism should be quantified at all. “We do have to talk about these things and think about them in our role as public broadcasters in the 21st century,” said Jack Galmiche, c.e.o. of the Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis. “It’s a conversation we need to have in public media about the service we provide to the community.