People

Blazing her own path as a pubTV broadcast engineer

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The first television broadcast in China was transmitted in 1958. The first time that Ling Ling Sun watched a television program was 20 years later, when she was 18. Now she is engineering manager for television broadcast services at WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, and was recently appointed vice chair of the PBS Engineering Technology Advisory Committee.

Programs/Content

WFMT unveils new streaming archive of Exploring Music

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The WFMT Radio Network has unveiled a premium subscription service that provides access to hundreds of hours of archived programs from Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin. The internationally syndicated classical music series airs on 55 stations and draws a weekly audience of more than 400,000 listeners. “It’s a unique show and Bill is a great host,” said Steve Robinson, g.m. of the Chicago-based WFMT Radio Network and WFMT-FM. “Since the show started we’ve gotten something like 10,000 emails and this has been one of the things people have repeatedly asked us to do.”

At launch, the new streaming service offers 500 hours of content selected from the show’s 10-year archive. More programs will be added weekly until all 850 hours of Exploring Music are available.

People

George Walker, ATC anchor for West Virginia network, dies at 60

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George Walker, the host of local broadcasts of All Things Considered on West Virginia Public Radio for nearly 12 years, was found dead in his Charleston home over the weekend, local authorities announced May 6. Details of his death are awaiting an autopsy. He was 60. Walker joined WVPR in 2002 as a part-time announcer. In addition to  hosting ATC, he produced the station’s weekly program Music from the Mountains until host Joe Dobbs retired in 2008.

Programs/Content

APT, PBS partner to offer Moyers & Company for viewing on COVE

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Moyers & Company has become the first American Public Television-distributed program to be presented on the PBS COVE online video player and PBS mobile apps. The weekly public affairs show, hosted by veteran public TV journalist and independent producer Bill Moyers, has been offered on COVE on a test basis for several weeks, according to spokesperson Joel Schwartzberg. With today’s announcement, PBS and APT signaled their intention to collaborate to bring more APT titles to PBS’s online video player. The arrangement helps to make Moyers & Company more easily accessible for public TV viewers. The series, which launched in August 2010, is the first from Moyers to be distributed by APT.

Programs/Content

All-Star Orchestra to bring classical masterworks to WNET, APT

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The All-Star Orchestra, made up of top professional musicians from across the country, will produce eight pubTV programs of classical masterworks. The one-hour shows, titled All-Star Orchestra and set for broadcast on New York’s WNET over eight Sundays this fall, will feature performances of classics by American composers as well as guest interviews and commentary by the group’s Music Director Gerard Schwarz. American Public Television will distribute the programs nationally. In last month’s announcement, WNET programming exec Stephen Segaller said the project is “in the tradition of Leonard Bernstein’s celebrated programs that popularized classical music on television,” such as the critically acclaimed Omnibus, 1952–61, and Young People’s Concerts, which Bernstein led from 1958–72, the first series televised from Lincoln Center. The All-Star Orchestra’s performances were filmed in HD with 19 cameras last August at New York’s historic Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center.

Quick Takes

Oh, those NPR names

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The “particularly mellifluous” names of NPR correspondents have inspired songs as well as namesakes including a turtle, chihuahua, goat, cow — even a restaurant in Salem, Ore. The Atlantic takes a look at NPR’s interesting on-air nomenclature, and whether their names are more unusual than most. The answer: Not really. “It’s simply that you don’t hear the staff at Kinko’s saying their names over and over again, out loud,” says the ordinarily named Robert Smith of Planet Money. “Kinko’s was founded by Paul Orfalea.

System/Policy

Appropriation cuts lead to layoffs and furloughs throughout CPB

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CPB has laid off 12 employees and eliminated three vacant positions in a downsizing prompted by the federal budget sequestration and other cuts to its appropriation. The job cuts, announced today, extend across all departments and range from administrative to vice president levels, said Michael Levy, executive v.p. of corporate and public affairs. Taken together, the downsizing reduces CPB’s workforce by 11 percent. CPB will also trim its payroll by requiring all senior vice presidents and executive officers to take one-week furloughs before Sept. 30, the end of CPB’s fiscal year.

People

WMFE-FM hires WEAA’s LaFontaine Oliver as new president

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Orlando pubcaster WMFE-FM has hired LaFontaine Oliver as its new president and g.m., replacing José Fajardo who left in December 2012. Oliver comes to the station from WEAA-FM in Baltimore, a jazz and NPR news station licensed to Morgan State University. He joined WEAA in 2007 and, while there, created the nationally syndicated Michael Eric Dyson Show. Oliver has also held management positions with SiriusXM in Washington, D.C., and Radio One, an urban-oriented, multimedia company based in Silver Spring, Md. “We are very excited to bring LaFontaine into this very important role,” said Derek Blakeslee, chair of the Board of Trustees of Community Communications Inc. , WMFE’s license holder.