Tucson pubstation considering sharing facilities with cable-access channels

Tucson's PBS station, KUAT, is considering sharing facilities with two cable-access media centers for budgetary and space reasons, according to a report in the Arizona Daily Star. Station rep Wendy Erica Werden told Current that talks are "only in the concept stage." Partners in the consolidation would be Access Tucson and the city-owned Tucson12.tv. The three would work together in a single production center in the city's downtown. Access Tucson had already shut down for the month of June to make it to the end of the fiscal year. KUAT g.m. Jack Gibson told the Arizona Daily Star that state funding is being cut and large donations are down. But Werden told Current that the station is in "sound financial condition," and underwriting revenues are on target. Sharing a facility is one option the station is considering, especially to alleviate space problems on the University of Arizona campus.

Viewers speak out on MPT programming decision

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun comments on a monthslong controversy he sparked with a column on Maryland Public Television's decision not to carry two docs: "It started in December when I complained on the blog about MPT not airing two extraordinary independent films from the celebrated PBS series Independent Lens and P.O.V. One was Doc, a revelatory biography of the post-World War II literary figure and founder of The Paris Review, Harold 'Doc'" Humes. The other was Inheritance, the searing account of a woman named Monika Hertwig and her journey to come to terms with the legacy of having a father who was a Nazi camp commandant." Zurawick writes he was "floored by the response to that post among area viewers who were clearly fans of public TV--not MPT."