Quick Takes

NPR and Threadless launch T-shirt challenge

By |

Threadless, a online company that sells T-shirts with designs voted on by users, is calling for artists to submit designs inspired by NPR and public radio. “We’re all huge fans of NPR and the content they bring to the ears of so many people,” said Threadless CEO Jake Nickell in an NPR press release. “With all of the avid NPR listeners over here at Threadless, the idea of a collaboration between NPR and the Threadless community just made so much sense.”

Artists have until August 26 to submit creations for the “My Sound World” challenge, one of several themed challenges that the website hosts. Once submissions close, users will have one week to vote on the designs. The winner will receive a $2,000 cash prize, a limited-edition alarm clock with an NPR-inspired design by pop artist Peter Max, an autographed copy of the book This is NPR, a $500 Threadless gift code and a private tour of NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The design that the community chooses will be sold online and at the NPR Store.

Quick Takes

WBUR sells AM repeater on Cape Cod to Portuguese language broadcaster

By |

WBUR licensee Boston University agreed Monday to sell its AM repeater in Yarmouth, Mass., to Langer Broadcasting Group LLC. WBUR entered into the agreement to sell WBUR-AM 1240 to Langer, which plans to flip the station from news to a Portuguese-language format to serve local Portuguese and Brazilian communities. The deal is pending FCC approval, and the sale price was not released. WBUR-AM was the first station on Cape Cod and has been transmitting since 1940. WBUR bought the signal in 1997.

Programs/Content

Grant to Frontline will create its first desk, to oversee news collaborations

By |

Frontline is spending $1.5 million to bolster its ability to manage its news collaborations, which are growing in number as well as importance. Raney Aronson, deputy executive producer, said the investigative showcase will establish a four-person collaboration desk through a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Philadelphia-based Wyncote Foundation. She tapped Frontline’s series budget for matching funds for the desk, which will also concentrate on transmedia efforts. “The way we do journalism has changed,” Aronson told Current. “Frontline is no longer simply a documentary series on a Tuesday night.” More than half of the films and online reports produced by Frontline are done in collaboration with kindred organizations such as the New York Times, NPR, the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica and, more recently, Spanish-language network Univision.

Quick Takes

PBS becoming more topical under programmer Hoppe, AP notes

By |

In anticipation of PBS’s appearance this week at the annual Television Critics Association Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., The Associated Press distributed a July 29 story looking at PBS Chief Programmer Beth Hoppe’s ongoing work to cast it as network instead of a public service. As writer David Bauder notes, “There’s a difference between waiting to see what work producers will offer you and actively going out with some of your own ideas.” Hoppe has done that, as well as “tried to make PBS more topical,” with an examination of guns in America that ran a month after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting; and programs on the Boston Marathon bombing, the meteorite that exploded over Russia in February and the devastation of Superstorm Sandy. PBS’s presentations at the TCA press tour take place today, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Quick Takes

Alabama network will drop Public Radio International shows

By |

Alabama Public Radio will eliminate Public Radio International shows from its schedule, dropping This American Life and The World, reports Tuscaloosanews.com. Director Elizabeth Brock said the decision was based in part on budget concerns. APR will fill the gaps left in its schedule by adding Radiolab and an additional hour of All Things Considered.

Programs/Content

Crowd at WPT kids’ event gets a welcome from the White House

By |

Michelle Obama is kicking off a special event hosted by Wisconsin Public Television this morning. Appearing in a pre-recorded video, the first lady is welcoming children and parents to the network’s 15th annual PBS Kids Get Up and Go! Day. The event promotes family-friendly ideas on how to stay active, healthy and enjoy the outdoors. “Hi everyone!

Programs/Content

New Orleans PDP station WLAE ends PBS membership

By |

WLAE in New Orleans dropped PBS programming as of Aug. 1. General Manager Ron Yager told Current that the decision to forego PBS membership saves the station around $130,000 annually, allowing it to invest in local productions. As an overlap station, WLAE’s lineup of network fare had been limited by its use of the PBS Program Differentiation Plan (PDP). The primary PBS station in the market, community-licensed WYES, continues to air the full national schedule, although for the next month fans of the PBS NewsHour may have trouble finding the weeknightly broadcast.

Quick Takes

Marketplace rebrands under new logo, tagline

By |

American Public Media’s Marketplace introduced a new brand identity aimed at building awareness of its programs among audiences across broadcast and digital platforms.

The July 29 roll-out coincided with relaunch of Marketplace.org as a fully responsive, mobile-friendly website. A logo resembling both a stock chart and the letter “M” establishes a shared visual identity for all of Marketplace’s program strands. The new tagline, “Between economics and life” is to be the centerpiece of a consumer-oriented advertising campaign aimed at readers of The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, LA Times and Fast Company. A second campaign will launch later this year. The ads will reach up to 9.8 million print readers and a digital audience of about 4.8 million, according to an APM news release.