CET Kicks Off 43rd Action Auction

Yep, they’re shifting into home shopping mode at CET for the 43rd annual Action Auction coming April 14-17. The station’s biggest fund raiser again needs donations of antiques, collectibles, vacation packages, concert and sports tickets, jewelry and gift certificates.

Action Auction chair Dr. O’dell Owens will be in the CET studio 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday for a kick-off party. Donors, sponsors and potential buyers can preview some of the items already rounded up for the April telecast, and drop off donations.

More information on sponsorship, donating items or volunteering is available at CETconnect. Or call the CET Events Line at 513-345-6549. CET, the nation’s first licensed public TV station, is a valuable community asset that needs you help. Think about how you could offer a unique item or volunteer your time to help at the fund-raiser. And if you’ve helped at the Auction before, post a comment to tell others about the experience.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/

CET Arts Channel Has Big Ambitions

Come Monday, Cincinnati’s CET will unveil what the Public Broadcasting System says is the first public television station to devote one of its new digital channels to 24/7 arts programming.
The immediate impact of CETarts — digital channel 48.3; Time Warner Cable Cincinnati channel 987 — will be to offer expanded broadcast of PBS shows CET already features on its primary channel. Those include Great Performances, American Masters, Masterpiece, Independent Lens, Austin City Limits and more. and it will allow room for some arts series CET now has no time slot for on channel 48, such as Sierra Center Stage, Jubilee, Classic Gospel, Theater Talk, Woodsongs (a Folk music show out of Lexington) and others.

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-19851-new-cet-arts-channel-has-ambitious-goals.html

KET Says Experience Counts in New Director

In choosing its new executive director, the leaders of Kentucky Educational Television decided against a national search and promoted an internal executive who dropped out of college before joining the network for a nearly 25-year career.

It's an educational background that might seem surprising, but it is not unprecedented, national observers say, and also comes at a time when many state networks are promoting staffers to save the costs and time-consuming nature of searches.

http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/1099661.html?storylink=omni_popular

KET to Broadcast "Thoroughbred" in March

Public television station KET will present “Thoroughbred,” directed by Academy Award winner Paul Wagner, on March 8 at 8 p.m. EST.

The film spans the globe highlighting Thoroughbred horses and those associated with them. The film explores the life of backstretch workers at Aqueduct, breeding at Three Chimneys Farm, the Dubai operation of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the Keeneland September yearling sale, and culminates with the 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/national-news/2010/January/15/KET-to-broadcast-Thoroughbred-on-March-8.aspx

Public Media Outlets Look to Fill Infrastructure Gaps

In a recent presentation at WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, John Proffitt, who blogs about public media, painted a gloomy picture. In slide after slide, the stats mounted. New gadgets, new social media habits, new channels for distribution and consumption all added up to one conclusion: public TV stations are rapidly losing both value and relevance.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/01/public-broadcasters-hustle-to-fill-infrastructure-gap007.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pbs%2Fmediashift-blog+%28mediashift-blog%29

Sesame Street's 'Olivia' Dies

Alaina Reed Hall, the actress who played Olivia on TV's "Sesame Street," has died of breast cancer in Los Angeles, her family said

http://www.timesoftheinternet.com/139999.html

KET Names New Executive Director

A 24-year veteran of KET has been named to lead the network after executive director Mac Wall retires at the end of the year.

Shae Hopkins, who is KET's deputy executive director for education, programming and production, will become KET's fourth leader since its founding more than 40 years ago. Hopkins also currently serves as senior executive for day-to-day operations, KET said in a news release.

http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/987041.html

WVUT Receives Grant for HD Transition

PBS member station WVUT-TV in Southwest Indiana is the third public station in recent weeks to receive federal monies for digital broadcasting. WVUT, owned by Vincennes University, received $596,000 from the Department of Agriculture’s public station DTV transition grant program, Inside Indiana Business reports.

The two-year grant will fund new studio cameras and other digital production equipment that allows the station to create local programming in hi-def.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/88832

WOUB Receives Grant for HD Upgrade

PBS member station WOUB-TV received a $255,283 federal grant for its high-definition upgrade. The matching-fund grant will be used by the WOUB Center for Public Media at Ohio University for digital television gear for producing local high-definition content for the primary HD channels of public television stations WOUB in Athens and WOUC-TV in Cambridge. WOUB obtained the other half of the money for the project from the state of Ohio’s eTech program. The federal funding came through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration Public Telecommunications Facilities Program.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/88632

Public Broadcasting Adapts in a Changing World

Last week, WNIN-PBS9 received a 2009 My Source Community Impact Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for its efforts to promote healthy lifestyles in the Tri-State. Vincent Curren, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the corporation, presented the award.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/oct/11/public-broadcasting-adapts-in-changing-world/

WNIN to Air the Indiana Channel

It looks like WNIN is the first of Indiana's eight PBS television stations to carry the new Indiana Channel.

In today's "News from WNIN" e-mail newsletter, WNIN's president and general manager, David Dial, said, "As envisioned, the Indiana Channel will effectively bring greater information about Hoosiers, our communities and our aspirations into homes throughout our great state." He added, "It will create opportunities for expanded public service, better education, more visibility for statewide leaders, and new partnerships among Indiana institutions."

http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/wnin-first-to-carry-indiana-channel.html

KET Executive Director to Retire

After just more than six years at the helm of Kentucky Educational Television, Mac Wall announced plans Thursday to retire at the end of the year.

Wall, 63, said a desire to spend more time with his family prompted the decision.

"My wife in early September went on our trip to Spain, and I say 'our trip' because I didn't go," said Wall, who was at a meeting of the Organization of State Broadcasting Executives at the time. "She came back and said that will never happen again."

The couple are expecting their first grandchild next spring and plan to spend their time in Florida and Oregon with family, he said.

Wall said the highlight of his time at KET was the 2005 launch of the network's EncycloMedia education service for schools and its expansion.

"It's free, it's robust, it's deep and it's invaluable. It's just been a rock star for us," he said of the program, which is a partnership with the state Department of Education. "When you get into these really rural poor school districts, and they have this and it's free, it's powerful."

Wall's time at KET also has seen its expansion of high-definition programming. But it also has been a difficult time financially.

http://www.kentucky.com/lexgo/tv/story/960175.html

WKYU to Premiere 'A Mammoth Cave'

On Sunday, October 4, thousands of southcentral Kentuckians will see Mammoth Cave National Park as they never have before, and they won’t have to leave home to do it. WKYU-PBS, Channel 24, will broadcast a virtual visit to the far reaches of the park in a one-hour high-definition documentary called Mammoth Cave: A Way to Wonder.

http://www.bgdailynews.com/articles/2009/09/17/the_amplifier/stage_and_screen/doc4ab296aa2dc74896717427.txt

KET Surprises Winners of Reading Rainbow Contest

Chloe Otterback and Cora Kirby have a few things in common. They like to read, they've both written books, and now they are winners of the 2009 Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090914/NEWS0105/909140320/Young+authors+win+Reading+Rainbow+contest

WOSU Goes Inside the Lives of Stefanie Spielman and Archie Griffin

Archie Griffin and Stephanie Spielman talk about paying it forward
Archie Griffin and Stephanie Spielman talk about paying it forward. This video was produced for Eye on Alumni, a studio-based interview show featuring some of Ohio State's most prominent alumnus.

WKRP's in Cincinnati, But It's Hard to Find

Many Enquiring Minds want to know: How can you see "WKRP" channel listed in our TV grids?
It's not easy. WKRP-TV is a low-power TV station based in Roselawn. It used to be analog WBQC-TV (Channel 38).
With the switch to digital, WKRP-TV's over-the air signal moved to digital Channel 25.2. It's part of the digital multicast channels of sister Block Broadcasting station WOTH-TV (Channel 25.1).

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090830/ENT/908300337/WKRP+s+in+Cincinnati++but+it+s+hard+to+find

Reading Rainbow to Disappear from PBS Stations

An era ends on PBS stations Friday, when the contract expires for Le Var Burton’s “Reading Rainbow.” After 26 years, and 24 national Emmys, the excellent children’s show will vanish from WPTD-TV (noon weekdays, Channel 16) and many other public TV stations.
The show premiered in 1983. It ceased production in 2006, when funding ran out. The PBS contract expires Friday, so it can no longer feed it to stations.
However, off-air educational rights remain in effect for a year following the last broadcast of each episode, says Darwin McPherson, communications director for Buffalo’s WNED-TV, which has produced the series since its debut in July, 1983. Says McPherson: “We ‘re confident that the Young Writers and Illustrators Contest will live on through PBS Kids.” No word on that yet.
Thanks, LeVar, for your fine work. And thanks from my kids too.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2009/08/25/reading-rainbow-soon-to-be-tv-history/

Time Warner to Drop and Move Channels

Time Warner's 640,000 cable TV customers from Cincinnati to Dayton will see radically different lineups starting Tuesday.
On the digital service level, channels will be clustered by themes - sports, family, news, entertainment, shopping, free on demand, HDTV and local digital programming - on channels 100 through 1700.
Basic and digital subscribers to Time Warner - the area's largest cable operator - also lose eight of 22 public TV channels, despite appeals by area public broadcasters since the changes were announced a month ago.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090823/ENT/908230336/1175/Time-Warner+to+drop+54++16++move+channels

WOSU Programming Off Time Warner Cable Southwest Area

Local fans of the Columbus-based WOSU PBS channel won't be able to view it on Time Warner Cable after Aug. 25, according to Michael Pedelty, vice president of communications for Time Warner's southwest Ohio region."We currently have it available through Dayton operations but we are making changes with some of our public broadcast stations to eliminate duplication of programming," he said Friday. "This was part of a national agreement and streamlining of services."

http://www.urbanacitizen.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=5&ArticleID=151794&TM=83105.32

Public Stations Plan Protest of Time Warner Cable's Plan

Cincinnati, Dayton and Oxford public TV stations launched a campaign Wednesday to protest Time Warner's plans to eliminate eight public TV channels Aug. 25.

"We want our stations to continue to be available to all Time Warner subscribers," said David Forgarty, president of Public Media Connect Inc., which manages CET (Channel 48), Dayton's WPTD-TV (Channel 16) and Oxford's WPTO-TV (Channel 14).

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090813/ENT/908130327/Public+stations+protest+cable+plan