While our audience stereotypes may be better informed than they were 40 years ago, they can blind us to our potential for growth and change, with equally dangerous consequences. Today there are many indicators that we have room for audience growth on radio if only we expand our view of the potential. Continue reading
With PBS under increasing budgetary pressure, President Paula Kerger recently turned to Smithsonian Institution fundraiser Brian Reddington for the important new post of senior v.p. of development and executive director of the PBS Foundation. In January, when she told the PBS Board of Reddington’s selection, she said he was a friend of hers. Kerger did not mention that she, her husband and Reddington owned a condominium together in New York City from September 2003 to September 2006. Continue reading
CPB and PBS are completing an agreement that may lead to the agency’s first annual grants for the PBS National Program Service based on measures of diversity and innovation in programming and related projects. Sources tell Current that this funding … Continue reading
The masterminds of efforts such as NPR’s Bryant Park Project and Chicago Public Radio’s Vocalo know well the difficulties of cultivating new, younger and more diverse audiences for public radio. Now imagine giving it a go in one of the … Continue reading
Loni Ding, 78, a filmmaker who brought issues of Asian American identity to the surface, and to PBS, and helped win legislation backing independent producers, died Feb. 20 in a hospital in Oakland, Calif. Continue reading
Chicago Public Radio’s board, staff and executives didn’t mince words in their latest strategic plan about their bold experiment known as Vocalo. “As a website Vocalo must be seen as unsuccessful so far.” Continue reading
Modeled on programs like Americorps and Teach for America, the Public Media Corps will hire local residents as “fellows” for yearlong residencies at public broadcasting institutions. Their job there will be to identify local issues and use multiple media platforms to spark vigorous community engagement on the issues. Continue reading
Two daily public radio programs for African American audiences have risen from the ashes of News and Notes, a talk show that NPR cancelled in March. But acrimony over plans, funding and personalities involved in the midday programs has split the African American Public Radio Consortium, a key station constituency for any broadcast aimed at black listeners. Continue reading
For public TV, the dialogue about its minority representation is going public again. It’s about how Latinos, African Americans and other ethnic groups are represented on the screen — and the related matter of how well they’re represented in decision-making. … Continue reading