Quick Takes

Thursday roundup: Jackson lands in Cleveland; Kalish remembers Adler

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• Maxie Jackson, formerly president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, is now managing WCPN-FM in Cleveland, part of the ideastream public media network, the station announced Wednesday. The hire is part of an organizational restructuring at ideastream stations WVIZ/PBS, 90.3 WCPN and WCLV Classical 104.9. • Pubradio freelancer Jon Kalish wrote a remembrance of NPR reporter Margot Adler for the Jewish Daily Forward. Adler, who died Monday, was known for being a Wiccan priestess, but Kalish also saw her as “one of the many prominent Jews in the 1960’s counter-culture who, like Allen Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman, rebelled against the established order.” Kalish worked with Adler at New York’s WBAI.

System/Policy

In review of pubTV stations, CPB’s Krichels sees ‘energy in the system’

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Ted Krichels, CPB’s senior v.p. for system development and media strategy, recently talked to Current about the 50-page “Public Media Models of the Future” report he co-authored this fall with PBS Director of Strategy Stephen Holmes. Edited, rearranged and condensed excerpts from that conversation follow. Current: How did you start the process? Did you survey the entire system, or was it more word of mouth? Ted Krichels: Stephen and I initially were collecting stations, ones you would have heard about.

People

Betty Cope, WVIZ founding g.m., dies at 87

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Betty Cope, the founding general manager of Cleveland’s pubTV station and one of the first women to ascend into television broadcast management, died Sept. 14 at her home in Bainbridge, Ohio. She was 87.

People

Mhari Saito, award-winning reporter for Cleveland’s ideastream, dies at 41

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Mhari Saito, a reporter for Cleveland’s ideastream, died April 15 from a long battle with gastric cancer. She was 41. Saito began her career as an NPR stringer in Cambodia in the late ’90s before becoming an urban-affairs reporter for WHYY in Philadelphia. She moved to Cleveland with her family in 2003 and began working for ideastream in August 2005. While at ideastream, Saito reported on various topics, including the housing market, and contributed lighthearted local features.

People

Ideastream recognizes WCLV’s Robert Conrad for ‘innovative and generous acts.’

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Conrad, president and co-founder of the 50-year-old Cleveland-based classical music station, received ideastream’s “Great Idea Award” for his service as a leading classical musical broadcaster, producer and distributor of cultural programming. Ideastream praised Conrad and his colleagues for ensuring that WCLV remains a treasured resource by donating the commercial station to the nonprofit ideastream, operator of WVIZ-TV and WCPN-FM. The transfer takes effect Jan. 1, 2013. “This will complete the transition of WCLV into the ideastream family and will give listeners who appreciate classical music on the radio as well as businesses, foundations and other organizations, the opportunity to support this institution,” wrote Conrad on the WCLV website.