Variety reports that This American Life host Ira Glass — along with actor Owen Wilson and Veronica Mars showrunner Rob Thomas — is developing and executive-producing an HBO drama series. The project, tentatively titled Thrillsville, will be a fictionalized adaptation of "Midlife Cowboy," a TAL segment that originally aired March 12, 2010. That segment told the true story of James Spring, a meth smuggler turned advertising copywriter who, right before his 40th birthday, attempted to rescue two young girls kidnapped by Mexican drug traffickers and smuggled to Baja California.
Glass will be joined by Alissa Shipp, a producer who handles TV and film rights and development for TAL, as a fellow executive producer on the HBO show. Thomas is writing the script for the project.
Apr 5, 2012
Tacoma pubTV partnering with state's public affairs channel for book show
KBTC, public TV in Tacoma, Wash., is partnering with that state’s public affairs cable channel, TVW, on a weekly book discussion and author interview show, Well Read, that premiered this week. For each 30-minute episode, host Terry Tazioli, a former editor with the Seattle Times, talks to local writers and then chats with Mary Ann Gwinn, book editor at the Times. First up for its premiere April 3 was Kent Hartman of Portland, author of The Wrecking Crew, which tells the story of a group of Los Angeles musicians who weren’t credited for performances on hundreds of Top 40 hits in the 1960s and early ’70s. Following that interview was a discussion of other interesting rock ’n’ roll memoirs. The show airs Tuesday evenings on both stations, and streams live on their websites. KBTC also carries TVW, the Washington State Public Affairs Network, as a multicast channel.
FCC backs WHDD-FM over alleged violations of Communications Act
The FCC is siding with WHDD-FM — tiny Robin Hood Radio — in Sharon, Conn., in a complaint filed last year by a local assistant schools superintendent. Diane Goncalves wrote to the FCC that on multiple occasions station co-founder Marshall Miles broadcast endorsements of candidates and criticized specific members of the Region 1 Board of Education, actions that Goncalves contended were violations of the Communications Act of 1934. Miles answered that complaint with the FCC on Jan. 13, saying the statements were identified on the air as his personal opinion. Goncalves also filed an answer to that letter.
In a decision on March 30, the FCC agreed, saying that Miles "should take care in the future that your personal views over the air continue to be clearly labeled as such.”
Miles told the newspaper that the word "continue" confirms what he has been doing. “The FCC, with that one word, validated what we’ve been doing and said we’re following the rules,” he said.
In a decision on March 30, the FCC agreed, saying that Miles "should take care in the future that your personal views over the air continue to be clearly labeled as such.”
Miles told the newspaper that the word "continue" confirms what he has been doing. “The FCC, with that one word, validated what we’ve been doing and said we’re following the rules,” he said.
Washington News Council finds KUOW mishandled aspects of story
In a three-hour public hearing presided over by a former Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice, the 11-member Washington News Council mainly sided with the anti-abortion Vitae Foundation in its dispute with KUOW-FM over an April 2011 story, CPB Ombudsman Joel Kaplan reports. The reporter from the Seattle pubradio news station had a journalistic responsibility to contact representatives of the Foundation before the story ran, the Council said in a unanimous vote. Also, the Council decided the story contained errors that merited on-air correction. However, the Council sided 10-1 with the station that it did not have a responsibility to provide the Foundation additional on-air coverage after the original story.
A summary of the proceedings is here, which includes the six questions before the Council.
Kaplan noted that Washington is the last news council remaining in the United States, designed to hear complaints from citizens and organizations that feel they have been unfairly treated by the news media.
UPDATE: Members of the Council voted unanimously that the KUOW reporter had a journalistic responsibility to contact representatives of the Vitae Foundation before the story aired. There were no abstentions, as this blog post originally stated. It has been corrected.
A summary of the proceedings is here, which includes the six questions before the Council.
Kaplan noted that Washington is the last news council remaining in the United States, designed to hear complaints from citizens and organizations that feel they have been unfairly treated by the news media.
UPDATE: Members of the Council voted unanimously that the KUOW reporter had a journalistic responsibility to contact representatives of the Vitae Foundation before the story aired. There were no abstentions, as this blog post originally stated. It has been corrected.
Apr 4, 2012
PBS Needs Indies Steering Committee posts second open letter to PBS
Kartemquin Films has announced the initial 15 members of its PBS Needs Indies Steering Committee, which the Chicago doc house is establishing to serve as a liaison between independent filmmakers and PBS. Names include International Documentary Association Board Member Beth Bird, and Michael Winship, senior writer of Moyers & Company with Bill Moyers. The group also posted a second open letter to PBS; its first garnered more than 1,000 signatures after PBS shifted indie showcases Independent Lens and P.O.V. from Tuesdays to Thursdays, resulting in ratings and carriage drops (Current, March 12).
"This incident has renewed our community’s awareness of the critical value of PBS to the national media ecology," the group said in the latest letter. "We know that public broadcasting, uniquely funded by taxpayers, reaches people at every level of society, in virtually every locality in the country. And we will continue to foster dialogue among the community of independent filmmakers about the significance of public broadcasting, and their own role in it."
"This incident has renewed our community’s awareness of the critical value of PBS to the national media ecology," the group said in the latest letter. "We know that public broadcasting, uniquely funded by taxpayers, reaches people at every level of society, in virtually every locality in the country. And we will continue to foster dialogue among the community of independent filmmakers about the significance of public broadcasting, and their own role in it."
Attention RSSers: Integrating crowdfunding into pubmedia
So far, crowdfunding hasn’t been able to support full-time journalists, much less a beat, a substantial weekly program or a newsroom. But independent journalists, public media stations, newspapers and web startups all have had successes. Read more online at Current.org.
Arts group applies for new classical station in St. Louis
The Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis has applied to the FCC for a new classical station, according to the Post-Dispatch. The group had provided "considerable financial support," the newspaper said, to the former local favorite Classic 99, KFUO-FM, and had attempted to purchase that station from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 2009 before its sale to a Christian pop-music station in July 2010. The Foundation hopes to broadcast on analog radio and an HD-2 channel and stream live on the Internet. Plans also include live music performances from a new facility with two broadcast studios and a conference room that will double as a performance space. St. Louis classical fans currently have one option, an HD channel from St. Louis Public Radio.
Oklahoma pubcasting survives important Senate panel vote
Legislation to save the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority "narrowly squeaked out of a Senate panel" on Tuesday (April 4), reports the Tulsa World. With the crucial vote tied 4-4, Sen. Bill Brown changed his nay to a yay. "I did not realize this sunset bill means OETA could not even go out and raise private money," he said. "This is not an appropriations bill. It just keeps them operating. My stance changes on that because my deal is that I would love to see them go out and raise private money and operate as a private company. But if this bill doesn't pass, they don't even make that. So, I would like to change my vote from a no vote to a yes vote."
The bill reauthorizes OETA as a state agency until its next sunset review in 2016. If the measure had failed, it would no longer exist after July 1.
Brown also said he would vote against a state appropriation for OETA.
OETA receives about $3.8 million from the state and raises some $8 million each year.
The bill now goes to the full Senate.
The bill reauthorizes OETA as a state agency until its next sunset review in 2016. If the measure had failed, it would no longer exist after July 1.
Brown also said he would vote against a state appropriation for OETA.
OETA receives about $3.8 million from the state and raises some $8 million each year.
The bill now goes to the full Senate.
Nine Peabody Awards go to programs on PBS and NPR
Programming on PBS and NPR won nine honors in this year's Peabody Awards, announced on a webcast this morning (April 4).
Public television winners: American Experience, for what the judges called "three exceptional documentaries . . . under the banner of this grand American history anthology," Triangle Fire, Freedom Riders and Stonewall Uprising; indie showcases P.O.V. for My Perestroika and Independent Lens for Bhutto; and American Masters for Charles and Ray Eames – The Architect and the Painter.
Austin City Limits from KLRU-TV "receives a rare Institutional Peabody Award," the judges said. "Thirty-seven seasons on air make it the world’s longest running live music television program."
And ITVS and Loud Mouth Films won for Who Killed Chea Vichea?, an investigative documentary "produced on a shoestring budget," covering the 2004 assassination of a Cambodian trade-union leader.
On the radio side, NPR won for "Reflections on the Arab Spring from Egypt to Libya"; for "Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families," a three-part report on Native children being removed from their families; and StoryCorps, NPR and P.O.V. won for their September 11 memorial excerpts from interviews with survivors and victims’ relatives.
Honors will be presented at a May 21 luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, with actor Patrick Stewart as emcee.
A full list of winners is here.
Public television winners: American Experience, for what the judges called "three exceptional documentaries . . . under the banner of this grand American history anthology," Triangle Fire, Freedom Riders and Stonewall Uprising; indie showcases P.O.V. for My Perestroika and Independent Lens for Bhutto; and American Masters for Charles and Ray Eames – The Architect and the Painter.
Austin City Limits from KLRU-TV "receives a rare Institutional Peabody Award," the judges said. "Thirty-seven seasons on air make it the world’s longest running live music television program."
And ITVS and Loud Mouth Films won for Who Killed Chea Vichea?, an investigative documentary "produced on a shoestring budget," covering the 2004 assassination of a Cambodian trade-union leader.
On the radio side, NPR won for "Reflections on the Arab Spring from Egypt to Libya"; for "Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families," a three-part report on Native children being removed from their families; and StoryCorps, NPR and P.O.V. won for their September 11 memorial excerpts from interviews with survivors and victims’ relatives.
Honors will be presented at a May 21 luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, with actor Patrick Stewart as emcee.
A full list of winners is here.
Founding engineer of WUOG at University of Georgia dies
Wilbur Herrington, the founding station engineer of University of Georgia’s WUOG-FM, died March 29 of a malignant brain tumor. He had been involved with the station in Athens since its founding in October 1972.
“I can honestly say that Wilbur was, and very much will always continue to be, the heart and soul of WUOG,” Operations Director Akeeme Martin told the student newspaper, Red &Black.
“He was fiercely proud of his spotless professional record, and the fact that the FCC never had to inspect WUOG,” said Tommy McGahee, a 2009 Georgia grad who worked Herrington. "He kept that station up and running for over three decades.”
The lobby of the station's building, dedicated in February 2009, is named in honor of Herrington.
“I can honestly say that Wilbur was, and very much will always continue to be, the heart and soul of WUOG,” Operations Director Akeeme Martin told the student newspaper, Red &Black.
“He was fiercely proud of his spotless professional record, and the fact that the FCC never had to inspect WUOG,” said Tommy McGahee, a 2009 Georgia grad who worked Herrington. "He kept that station up and running for over three decades.”
The lobby of the station's building, dedicated in February 2009, is named in honor of Herrington.
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