Programs/Content
With ‘Oldies Show,’ TJ Lubinsky aims to tell stories behind hit songs of yesteryear
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The multi-episode series, slated to launch in 2024, is designed to air in the run-up to public TV’s pledge season.
Current (https://current.org/tag/pledge-programming/)
The multi-episode series, slated to launch in 2024, is designed to air in the run-up to public TV’s pledge season.
“In working with musical artists, I learned that egos are enormous, and concerns are varied and unpredictable,” writes Larry Rifkin in his new memoir, “No Dead Air: Career Reflections From the TV Executive Who Saved Barney the Dinosaur From Extinction.”
With PBS rights to the drama expiring June 30, stations and viewers are making the most of the show’s fundraising farewell tour.
With cash prizes of $75,000 as completion funds, producers expect to release their shows for broadcast later this year.
“Launchpad to What’s Next” combines motivational talks with online tools and resources to “convert the inspiration into action,” says founder and host Marc Middleton.
The winners are a show aimed at 50-plus viewers and a program about self-improvement.
APT hopes to present the winners of the APT PitchFest to client stations in fall 2019 or spring 2020.
The upcoming “Next Doo Wop Star” aims to appeal to younger public TV viewers while bringing along older fans of Lubinsky’s nostalgic programs.
The 30-minute show, which discusses how racial relations of today are reflected in the civil rights movement, is part of a package that includes rebroadcast rights for Eyes on the Prize I and II.
As the creator, producer and host of specials that are virtually synonymous with public TV pledge drives, Lubinsky is among public TV’s most successful fundraising producers.
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, the famous 1983 special on which Michael Jackson debuted his signature moonwalk and Smokey Robinson reunited with the Miracles, is coming to public television via pledge producer and doo-wop showman TJ Lubinsky. The two-hour program has not aired since its initial broadcast on NBC due to complex rights issues, Lubinsky said. He negotiated a two-year exclusive contract for public television stations to run the entire show. The list of performers is a who’s who from Motown, the famous Detroit-based record label: Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, the Supremes, the Jackson 5, the Temptations, the Four Tops and more. Hosting is comedian Richard Pryor, then at the height of his career.
After 16 months on the air, WQED-TV’s all-pledge multicast Showcase channel is steadily bringing in donations of around $16,000 a month for the Pittsburgh station. That may not sound that impressive, considering WQED receives an average of $16,675 from airing just one day of pledge programming on its primary broadcast signal. But WQED officials say the revenues, and the benefits, are adding up.
Pledge results reported by public TV stations from recently concluded on-air fundraisers were down 20 percent to 25 percent from the March 2012 drive, according to Kristen Kuebler, director of station research for Arizona-based TRAC Media. For most stations, the March fund drive is typically the biggest of the year, and revenues generated from it influence budgeting for the next fiscal year. Stations reported to TRAC and PBS that audience response to the latest pledge shows was tepid at best. The top-performing show among TRAC’s client stations was Magic Moments: The Best of ’50s Pop, a program that was first released for public TV broadcasts in 2005. It brought in 8 percent of all pledges, below their strongest show from the March 2012 drive: a self-help special from motivational speaker Wayne Dyer, Wishes Fulfilled, that generated 11 percent of total dollars raised by TRAC stations.
Fans of Masterpiece’s hit Downton Abbey await arrival of the British drama’s third season, PBS and some 70 local stations hope to reel them into the public TV membership fold with a Nov. 25 pledge special.
PBS began mining national Nielsen data for pledge-drive audience insights in 2009, but it hasn’t learned what to do about declining pledge ratings.
Current’s Pledge Pipeline previews 17 shows heading to public TV on-air membership drives in December 2012 and March 2013.
I love standing on a stage — especially in the American heartland — and saying to 500 public television supporters, “Fear is for people who don’t get out much. When we travel, we get out. And, in the same way, when we watch public television, we get out.”
There’s a lot of fear being pushed in our society these days, and as I see it, the flip side of fear is understanding. And, like travel, public television promotes understanding. As much as I love to talk about Europe and the value of a journey that takes you outside your comfort zone, I also love to talk about the mission of public TV to challenge us with new ideas — especially if they get us out of our comfort zones.
Current’s first Pledge Pipeline previews 36 shows heading to public TV on-air membership drives in December 2011, March 2012 and beyond. Producers and distributors provided this information in response to Current’s questionnaire. December ’11
’60s Pop Rock: My Music
Producing organization: TJL Productions. Distributor: PBS. Length: 75 minutes in four acts (SD 4:3).
… This is our deepest embarrassment as public broadcasters. I have heard the arguments, and I understand the imperatives, but to think that, hucksters aside, we spend more of our energy and on-air promotional time, pushing programs that have nothing to do with our mission, is shameful….
The PBS Board tweaked its rules governing one of public TV’s touchiest ongoing internal disputes.