Elliott Mitchell III, who worked in public broadcasting in Florida, New York and Tennessee, died Feb. 1 in Nashville. He was 67.
His obituary in the Paducah (Ky.) Sun said that during his career he produced Today in the Legislature, a statewide program from Florida Public Broadcasting in Tallahassee, as well as At The Top and other music programs at WXXI television in Rochester, N.Y. He was a member of the WPLN-FM community advisory board in Nashville, and a national and regional board member of the Alliance for Community Media, which advocates for Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) channels. He was also a founding member of the Education Access Corporation, which programs Nashville public-access channels.
Survivors include his wife, Marie Fagen, and their son, William; brother Rick and his wife, Linda, and several nieces, nephews and cousins. There will be no service at Mitchell's request. The family suggests donations to WPLN, Nashville Public Radio, Dept. 22, P.O. Box 305172, Nashville, Tenn., 37230-5172.
Advertisement
Feb 8, 2012
Feb 6, 2012
In case you missed it ...
Here's a link to get you caught up on the posts thus far at "The Babes of NPR" on Tumblr, which the New York Observer calls "oddly funny, moderately creepy." Here's a typical post on the faces behind the voices: "Sure, Bob Edwards left NPR for XM Radio but how could you stay mad at someone with a hero chin and male model hair? HOT."
WFMT to offer annual Immersion Day as a live online stream for $20
Classical WFMT in Chicago is conducting an experiment with its third annual in-studio Immersion Day on Feb. 11, said Steve Robinson, e.v.p. for radio and project development. The popular event, where fans pay $150 to attend a daylong seminar on a specific aspect of classical music, mingle and share lunch, this time also will be streamed live. Henry Fogel, former president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a leading expert on opera singers, will discuss how those vocal performances have changed over the past 100 years.
Participants attending the seminar will receive full access to the stream, which will be archived online for a year, Robinson told Current. Fans elsewhere pay $20 to listen in that day, and also get archival access.
"This is an experiment in niche streaming," said Robinson, who got the idea when he heard about YouTube investing $100 million in targeted original content. The YouTube work, he said, "is being done on a macro scale — it signifies that streaming as we know it, what it can do and mean, is being reshaped."
On a local level, Robinson said, "this could be of significance for other public radio or public TV stations, any kind of small organization that feels it has content of value. If you pardon the pun, it could be a second revenue stream."
So far 50 participants have signed up for this weekend's event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Central time. "Our goal is 150 for this one," Robinson said. "We hope for the next one we'll have 500, and the next — 10,000."
Participants attending the seminar will receive full access to the stream, which will be archived online for a year, Robinson told Current. Fans elsewhere pay $20 to listen in that day, and also get archival access.
"This is an experiment in niche streaming," said Robinson, who got the idea when he heard about YouTube investing $100 million in targeted original content. The YouTube work, he said, "is being done on a macro scale — it signifies that streaming as we know it, what it can do and mean, is being reshaped."
On a local level, Robinson said, "this could be of significance for other public radio or public TV stations, any kind of small organization that feels it has content of value. If you pardon the pun, it could be a second revenue stream."
So far 50 participants have signed up for this weekend's event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Central time. "Our goal is 150 for this one," Robinson said. "We hope for the next one we'll have 500, and the next — 10,000."
Mike deGruy, cinematographer for several "Nature" docs, dies in crash
Mike deGruy, an acclaimed cinematographer with a love of the sea who created several Nature documentaries on PBS, was killed in a helicopter crash in Australia on Feb. 4. He was 60.
His employer, National Geographic, said that deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight crashed after takeoff near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney. Australia’s ABC News reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter.
Fred Kaufman, executive director of Nature at WNET in New York City, told Current that he still remembers his first meeting with deGruy. "Twenty years ago, when I became the executive producer of Nature, Mike’s film, Incredible Suckers was my first commission," he said, "and I learned something very valuable from my initial conversation with Mike — bring your ‘A’ game because Mike was smart, persuasive and quick. He had an answer for every question, he did his homework and if you had an opinion you’d better be prepared to defend it."
Kaufman met deGruy at the first Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in 1991 to discuss Incredible Suckers. "Mike never talked softly," Kaufman said, "and sitting in the lobby of the Snow King Resort he was all energy and optimism, a Mike deGruy trademark we would all come to know and admire. He was good-looking, charismatic, passionate and persuasive. It was no wonder that he went from marine biologist to award-winning filmmaker to successful on-camera presenter."
DeGruy worked on several films over the years for Nature, including Lost World of the Medusa, Hawaii: Island of the Fire Goddess, The Octopus Show and Live from the Abyss. "The one thing these films all had in common was Mike’s love of the deep and his passion to share it," Kaufman said. "In fact, remembering Mike, I cannot think of anyone else who so loved the life they were living. He had a wonderful wife and partner in Mimi. Their two terrific kids, Max and Frances, had the coolest dad ever. He got to travel the world and speak on behalf of the issues facing our oceans — and he piloted submersibles and explored the seas with a boyish enthusiasm that captured our hearts."
DeGruy, who lived with his family in Santa Barbara, Calif.., won multiple Emmy and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards for cinematography. He was an accomplished diver and submersible pilot, and director of undersea photography for James Cameron's 2005 documentary Last Mysteries of the Titanic.
"Mike was the bright light that pierced the inky darkness of the deep," Kaufman said. "He was our leader into the abyss. I will think of him often and remember him always."
His employer, National Geographic, said that deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight crashed after takeoff near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney. Australia’s ABC News reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter.
Fred Kaufman, executive director of Nature at WNET in New York City, told Current that he still remembers his first meeting with deGruy. "Twenty years ago, when I became the executive producer of Nature, Mike’s film, Incredible Suckers was my first commission," he said, "and I learned something very valuable from my initial conversation with Mike — bring your ‘A’ game because Mike was smart, persuasive and quick. He had an answer for every question, he did his homework and if you had an opinion you’d better be prepared to defend it."
Kaufman met deGruy at the first Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in 1991 to discuss Incredible Suckers. "Mike never talked softly," Kaufman said, "and sitting in the lobby of the Snow King Resort he was all energy and optimism, a Mike deGruy trademark we would all come to know and admire. He was good-looking, charismatic, passionate and persuasive. It was no wonder that he went from marine biologist to award-winning filmmaker to successful on-camera presenter."
DeGruy worked on several films over the years for Nature, including Lost World of the Medusa, Hawaii: Island of the Fire Goddess, The Octopus Show and Live from the Abyss. "The one thing these films all had in common was Mike’s love of the deep and his passion to share it," Kaufman said. "In fact, remembering Mike, I cannot think of anyone else who so loved the life they were living. He had a wonderful wife and partner in Mimi. Their two terrific kids, Max and Frances, had the coolest dad ever. He got to travel the world and speak on behalf of the issues facing our oceans — and he piloted submersibles and explored the seas with a boyish enthusiasm that captured our hearts."
DeGruy, who lived with his family in Santa Barbara, Calif.., won multiple Emmy and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards for cinematography. He was an accomplished diver and submersible pilot, and director of undersea photography for James Cameron's 2005 documentary Last Mysteries of the Titanic.
"Mike was the bright light that pierced the inky darkness of the deep," Kaufman said. "He was our leader into the abyss. I will think of him often and remember him always."
PBS Arts Festival supporter tops Chronicle of Philanthropy's 2011 largest donors list
The late Margaret Cargill, whose Anne Ray Charitable Trust backed last year's PBS Fall Arts Festival with an $800,000 donation, was the most generous philanthropic donor in America in 2011, according to this year's Philanthropy 50 list from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The top 50 donors gave a total of $10.4 billion in 2011, up from $3.3 billion the previous year, according to the Chronicle study. Cargill's $6 billion bequest created the surge; although she died in 2006, her foundations weren’t able to liquidate her assets until last year, the Chronicle noted. Here is the entire list, and information about how the 12th annual research project was conducted.
Here's a peek into the Crawley family's Superbowl party
Turns out the inhabitants of Downton Abbey watched the Superbowl on Sunday, too. Well, the Super-Proper Bowl, at least. Check it out on YouTube.
World Channel seeks long-form documentaries for upcoming series
The World Channel is announcing its first open call for content, in advance of a new long-form documentary series premiering later this year focusing on "stories of unique and diverse Americans," it said Monday (Feb. 6). Liz Cheng, World g.m., said the series will run films that "explore individuals, issues and ideas not often seen on mainstream television." Deadline is March 1; more information here.
Feb 4, 2012
WDSC-TV staffers must reapply for jobs
The 14 employees at WDSC-TV at Daytona State College must reapply for their positions, which are being eliminated June 30, reports the Daytona Beach, Fla., News Journal. A plan for the station that will be presented to the college's board of trustees this month contains only six or seven staff positions. "Employees are encouraged to apply not only there but to any other opening they may be interested in at the college," said Tomas LoBasso, s.v.p. of student development and institutional effectiveness.
College President Carol Eaton said state and federal budget cuts have prompted the restructuring, and that the station probably would cut back on local programs and instead acquire more shows. "We will probably let local programming wind down," Eaton said. "As we increase the focus of the facility for teaching and learning in the classroom, we will lessen the number of those programs we produce locally." The station currently lists 11 local programs.
The station dropped PBS membership last July.
College President Carol Eaton said state and federal budget cuts have prompted the restructuring, and that the station probably would cut back on local programs and instead acquire more shows. "We will probably let local programming wind down," Eaton said. "As we increase the focus of the facility for teaching and learning in the classroom, we will lessen the number of those programs we produce locally." The station currently lists 11 local programs.
The station dropped PBS membership last July.
KIXE-TV gets 32 applications for g.m. spot
KIXE-TV in Redding, Calif., received 32 applications for general manager and will interview eight candidates by phone, according to the local Record Searchlight newspaper, to select two or three for in-person interviews. Mike Quinn, station interim g.m. since last August, has applied for the job.
Feb 3, 2012
Philip Weinberg dies at 86; brought pubcasting to central Illinois
Philip Weinberg, "the man responsible for bringing public broadcasting to central Illinois," according to the Peoria Journal Star, died Thursday (Feb. 2) in Peoria, Ill. He was 86.
"Not only did he start public radio on the Bradley [University] campus," said Chet Tomczyk, g.m. of WTVP-TV, "but when he came across Sesame Street, produced by the Children's Television Workshop, he decided that here was a show that people in this community needed to be exposed to." So Weinberg arranged for the program to play on another local channel for six months before it could be carried on the pubTV station that Weinberg put on the air in June 1971, Tomczyk said.
Weinberg was also a former dean at Bradley University, and "a Renaissance man, one of those visionary transformational figures, not only for Bradley but the central Illinois community," said Jeff Huberman, dean of Bradley's Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts. "That was a college Weinberg not only created but ran for nine years," the paper noted, "after serving as chairman of the school's electrical engineering department for 20 years, a department he also created."
"Not only did he start public radio on the Bradley [University] campus," said Chet Tomczyk, g.m. of WTVP-TV, "but when he came across Sesame Street, produced by the Children's Television Workshop, he decided that here was a show that people in this community needed to be exposed to." So Weinberg arranged for the program to play on another local channel for six months before it could be carried on the pubTV station that Weinberg put on the air in June 1971, Tomczyk said.
Weinberg was also a former dean at Bradley University, and "a Renaissance man, one of those visionary transformational figures, not only for Bradley but the central Illinois community," said Jeff Huberman, dean of Bradley's Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts. "That was a college Weinberg not only created but ran for nine years," the paper noted, "after serving as chairman of the school's electrical engineering department for 20 years, a department he also created."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)