TV organizations issue declaration from Shanghai on future of OTA broadcasting

PBS is a signatory to an international joint declaration, announced at 11 a.m. local time today (11/11) at the Future of Broadcast Television summit in Shanghai, calling for worldwide cooperation among over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasters to define requirements, unify standards and promote technology sharing, in order to benefit both developed and underdeveloped countries and conserve resources.

According to Advanced Television, a European media news site, the declaration stated in part, "We need to explore new ways of cooperation, seek the progressive unification of standards, and realize technology sharing so that the efficiency and convenience enabled by digitization will be realized — not reduced by system fragmentation. The 21st century is an era of integration of broadcasting, Internet, and communications, all of which have evolved in parallel. Consumers are calling for more convenient and user-friendly services. The development of digital technology opens the possibility of cooperation among all the different networks and transmission systems.”

PBS also is a founding organization of the summit, with others including the National Association of Broadcasters, Japan's NHK and the European Broadcast Union.

APM's Alvarado joins board of Center for Investigative Journalism

Joaquin Alvarado, senior vice president for digital innovation at American Public Media, is one of two new members on the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Board of Directors, the nation’s oldest independent nonprofit investigative reporting organization announced Thursday (Nov. 10) on its California Watch website. Alvarado and Gabriel Stricker, director of global communications and public affairs at Google, join the board "at a critical time," the organization said. Over the past three years CIR has grown from a staff of seven and budget of $1.7 million to a staff of 32 and budget of nearly $5 million. Its editorial output during that time has included more than 40 major investigations (most developed for multiple formats and published or broadcast in more than 300 outlets) and more than 1,400 blog entries and Daily Reports.

Charlie Rose to co-host CBS Early Show starting in January, New York Times says

The New York Times is reporting that longtime public broadcasting talk-show host Charlie Rose will co-host a new version of CBS's The Early Show. The new two-hour show, expected to be announced next Tuesday, "will defy the gauzy conventions of morning television," the newspaper predicted, emphasizing a hard-news and conversational approach like Morning Joe on MSNBC and The View on ABC. Rose will join another new co-host, Gayle King, who hosts a talk show on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network, and current hosts Erica Hill and Jeff Glor. CBS declined to comment on the record about the changes. Rose declined to comment for the latest story but previously said he would “not under any circumstances” end his PBS show because of added Early Show duties. Charlie Rose airs on more than 200 PBS member stations weeknights. The program premiered in September 1991 and has been nationally syndicated since January 1993.

BET veteran will lead Washington's WHUT

In Washington, D.C., Jennifer Lawson’s successor as g.m. of Howard University’s WHUT-TV is Jefferi K. Lee, a 30-year TV veteran with 17 years at the D.C.-based cable network Black Entertainment Television. Lawson, who was the top program exec at CPB and PBS in the 1980s and ’90s, returned to CPB as program chief early this year.

Lee served as BET’s executive v.p. of network operations and programming and in other roles while the cable network expanded to 24 hours, added new channels, built a corporate campus in D.C., and went public on the stock market.

Since leaving BET more than a dozen years ago, Lee headed his communications consulting firm, Lee Productions, and, during the homeland security rush, served as chief exec of Bio-Defense Research Group Inc., in Columbia, Md., a maker of anti-pathogen ventilation systems.

Lee started working on local productions at Washington’s Gannett-owned CBS affiliate WDVM in 1979, moved to PM Magazine and became its associate producer in 1981. He joined BET in 1982 as network operations manager, added programming duties, was promoted to executive v.p. of network operations in 1992 and became executive v.p. of operations and technology in 1998. Lee was instrumental in launching the new channels BET On Jazz, BET International and BET Gospel, the company said.