Pubaccess stations run job-hunter videos

Unemployed folks in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire are producing and appearing in The New England Job Show on 26 public access channels in the two states. The half-hour program was created by "a group of people who didn’t even know each other a few weeks ago," according to its website. The current show is available on its blog, and the Elevator Pitch page features short videos from job seekers.

Bert and Ernie go human

An upcoming theatrical production will be the first time longtime Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie will be portrayed by humans instead of Muppets. Bert & Ernie, Goodnight! will have its world premiere in September at the Children's Theatre Co. in Minneapolis, according to a Sesame Workshop statement on the Animation World News website. Sesame Workshop spokeswoman Lauren J. Ostrow confirmed to Current that yes, this is indeed the duo's first performance as humans, "with the exception of one short, comical segment performed by actors from The Sopranos as part of a larger project." And yes, she's serious!

Pacifica hits six decades

Pacifica Radio went on the air 60 years ago today at KPFA in Berkeley. Founder Lewis Hill had been working toward that first day on the air since 1946, according to the station's website. The station says it is the first listener supported noncommercial radio broadcaster in America. But now KPFA is "bogged down by behind-the-scenes bickering," according to The San Francisco Chronicle. Pacifica recently announced severe financial problems.

Harvard fellow sees pubcasting as roots of new public media

"Public broadcasters need to get over themselves, [they're] as bad or even worse than many of the print journalists about the high-priesthood thing." So says Persephone Miel, head of the Media Re:Public and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. She was interviewed on the website of Reclaim the Media, a grassroots media reform group. Miel thinks that the public media movement should be led by the existing structures of CPB, PBS and NPR. One suggestion: "Maybe what we really need to do is expand the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's charter, so that they can fund online-only resources."