Ebert selects WTTW to record his latest series

The new Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies will be recorded at WTTW, "returning to the roots of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s original Sneak Previews program," the station announced today (Oct. 19). Production is expected to begin in January 2011 for the 26-episode season, which premieres Jan. 21. Series co-exec producers are Chaz and Roger Ebert. Former WBBM Assistant News Director Don Dupree returns to direct, after 15 years as a producer and director starting with Siskel & Ebert at the Movies.

Got a phone? Got NewsHour

Don't lose this number — 712-432-6610 — because that's yet another way to get PBS NewsHour. The show announced today (Oct. 19) that the audio is now available anytime via mobile or land line. AudioNow lets listeners hear the daily one-hour PBS NewsHour broadcast without downloads or data services.

LOL, it's the Pledgecats

Here's a quirky and hilarious pledge idea. By now you may be among the millions of fans of Lolcats, the silly "kittehs" captured in photographs, craving "cheezburgers" and speaking their own abbreviated language. You see this coming, right? Lolcats + pledge = Pledgecats. WYPR in Baltimore and Cheezburger Network have come up with kittehs asking for member support. As in, "You hasn't pledged? Srsly?"

FAIR examines pubcasting in latest issue; NewsHour, Need to Know lack diversity, it says

The November issue of Extra! from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Media) takes on public broadcasting. There are stories on how the system "is stacked against fulfilling PBS’s mandate," and "Charlie Rose's Elite-Meet-and-Greet." Also, it's the third time since 1995 it's looked at sources on NewHour by gender, nationality, ethnicity, occupation and partisan affiliation; it also examined story choice. This time there's also a look at the new Need to Know  from the program’s debut on May 7 through July 30. In general, FAIR cites a lack of diversity in both shows. Here are FAIR's NewsHour findings from 2006.

KCET "has a chance to redefine" local broadcast media, analysts say

Two high-profile public media analysts are enthusiastically in KCET's corner after its decision to depart PBS membership. "KCET now has the chance to redefine what it means to be a local broadcast station in a digitally networked world," they write in the Los Angeles Daily News today (Oct. 19). They continue: "The old hub-and-spoke, national-to-local distribution model is outdated. Digital networks create new possibilities for production and content sharing from local-to-national and even local-to-local. Wildly diverse communities also create new needs that a national program service can't hope to meet, especially in markets like L.A.'s, which trends more multiethnic and younger." 

But how? "Public policy makers will need to translate old commitments to public broadcasting infrastructure to new commitments to broadband infrastructure and distributed public media funding. If this happens, KCET's experiment will herald a new beginning."