NPR's Kernis to return to TV

Jay Kernis, NPR's top program exec for seven years, will soon announce his return to TV, according to an NPR memo circulated today. He presided over an expansion of NPR News productions, adding Day to Day, Tell Me More, News & Notes and The Bryant Park Project, while contracting its music programming and overseeing Morning Edition's rocky transition to new hosts. Before NPR welcomed him back for his present stint at the radio network, Kernis was a CBS News producer for 60 Minutes and other programs. Before that he was a key figure in developing Morning Edition and Weekend Edition at NPR.

Make that two Illinois stations in dire straits

With no buyers interested in purchasing public TV station WQPT in Moline, Ill., trustees of station licensee Black Hawk College met to consider a plan to cut expenses by drastically reducing the amount of PBS programming broadcast to the community, according to the Quad City Times. The station is one of two Illinois outlets in dire financial circumstances: the other is WTVP in Peoria, which could be placed in federal receivership this week.

Going for your emotions, rather than your brain

"Documentaries are, in fact, defined by what’s left out," writes filmmaker David Grubin, describing the editorial choices he made in producing The Jewish Americans. "They are not meant to be encyclopedic." He tells a viewer disappointed by the show's limited treatment of Jewish Americans in the western United States that the strength of documentaries is in combining the "emotional power of music and imagery," which "can make you feel as if you are experiencing history rather than learning it." Grubin responded to questions from viewers of his PBS series in a two-part New York Times online Q&A.