Endeavor - Masterpiece Mystery! Season 7 Premiere - Sunday, August 9 at 9pm
Shaun Evans (pictured, left) charms audiences with his portrayal of the cerebral and solitary Detective Constable Morse in Endeavour, written by Inspector Lewis creator and Inspector Morse writer Russell Lewis. Alongside Evans, the series also stars stage and screen actor Roger Allam (pictured, right) as DI Fred Thursday, Anton Lesser as CS Reginald Bright, Sean Rigby as DS Jim Strange, James Bradshaw as Dr Max DeBryn, Sara Vickers as Joan Thursday, Abigail Thaw as Dorothea Frazil and Caroline O’Neill as Win Thursday.
From The GM's Desk
Happy August! I hope this newsletter finds you healthy, connected to loved ones and cool during this heat wave. We have been very busy with maintaining our broadcast operations, reporting on local activities, virtual and sports productions, Speaking Grief activities, maintaining and enhancing our educational activities and planning for the Fall that the time has flown by quickly. Thank you all for your individual contribution and all of your wonderful work. Stay well.
All my best,
Birthdays
8/5 ~ Jeremy Smith
WPSU Radio Highlights
BookMark 8/6 & 8/9 – “The End is Always Near” by Dan Carlin.
BookMark, the community book review show, WPSU listeners talk about the books they’ve recently enjoyed. This week — a book of historical disasters. The book is a history of apocalyptic moments. Brady Clemens is the district consultant librarian at Schlow Centre Region Library.
In Case You Missed It . . .
State Funding Aims to Help Businesses, Schools, Agencies Move To Cleaner Fuel Vehicles
WPSU’s Anne Danahy filed this story on the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority’s move to CNG trucks. It's one of 18 cleaner fuel vehicle projects in 13 counties getting a total of $2.1 million in funding from the Department of Environmental Protection to support cleaner fuel vehicle projects around the state.
Take Note: PSU Rock Ethics Institute Professors On Barriers To Police Reform
WPSU Emily Reddy hosts this conversation with Penn State professors Eleanor Brown and Ben Jones. Brown is a professor of law and international affairs and a senior scientist in the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State. Jones is the assistant director.
Proposed Constitutional Amendment Would Move Pa. To Regional Elections For Supreme, Appeals Courts
WPSU’s Anne Danahy reports on a Republican-backed proposed Constitutional Amendment, in which the state would be split into regions. Justices and appeals court judges would no longer be statewide, but instead would be selected by region.
WPSU Television Highlights
Reagan: American Experience - Tuesday, August 4 and Tuesday, August 11 at 8:00 pm
In 1989, after two terms in office, Ronald Wilson Reagan left the White House one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century - and one of the most controversial. When his Hollywood career began to wane, Reagan turned to politics. One by one, his opponents underestimated him; one by one, Reagan surprised them, rising to become a president who always preferred to see America as a "shining city on a hill."
The Investment 2020 - Wednesday, August 5 at 10:00 pm
Penn State student entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of judges and compete for part of a $30,000 prize pool to earn funds for their startup companies. Great Performances “In The Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams - Friday, August 7 at 9:00 pm
Follows the cast and creative team from the musical's small start to its Tony Award-winning status.
The National Parks: America’s Best Idea - Series starts Sunday, August 9 at 6:00 pm
A six-episode series produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan and written by Dayton Duncan. Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska.
Endeavour Season 7 on Masterpiece - Season Premiere! - Sunday, August 9 at 8:00 pm
A new season of Endeavour brings murder and Morse back to Oxford.
Daring Women Doctors: Physicians in the 19th Century - Monday, August 10 at 9:00 pm
Highlights the intrepid, pioneering and diverse women who faced hostility and resistance in their pursuit of medical educations.
Frontline “Love, Life & the Virus” - Tuesday, August 11 at 10:00 pm
A mother's fight to survive COVID and see her newborn baby. How the coronavirus hit one immigrant family, their struggle to be reunited, and the community that rallied around them.
Discover the Firebird - Wednesday, August 12 at 10:00 pm
The Discovery Orchestra helps both classical music novices and seasoned concertgoers to hear and appreciate new details in Igor Stravinsky's 1919 "Firebird Suite.”
Great Performances “Much Ado About Nothing” - Friday, August 14 at 9:00 pm
Recorded live at The Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park, this modern interpretation of Shakespeare's romantic classic with an all-black cast features Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman. Directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon.
Industry News
PBS Emmy Nominations
PBS programs received six nominations for the 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy® Awards. The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominees July 28 during a live virtual event hosted by Leslie Jones on Emmys.com.
Programs nominated include:
• American Masters |Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series
• Antiques Roadshow | Outstanding Structured Reality Program
• Chasing the Moon: American Experience | Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking
• One Child Nation: Independent Lens | Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking
• Dave Chappelle: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor | Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming. Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)
‘All Creatures’ Revival Expands Women’s Roles While Staying Faithful To Original TV Show.
Debuting in January, the “Masterpiece” revamp of the long-running classic features a more contemporary sensibility. For more than 40 years, starting with its premiere in 1978, public television viewers cherished the people and animals in the quaint Yorkshire Dales that made All Creatures Great and Small a sentimental favorite. Executive producer Colin Callender promised TV critics Wednesday that his Masterpiece revival, to premiere in January, will update the series with a more contemporary sensibility, though it will continue to be rooted in the 1930s. Full story here.
Filmmakers Join Kerger At Press Tour To Discuss Pandemic’s Effect On Forthcoming PBS Series
Two of PBS’ top filmmakers appeared with Paula Kerger in a virtual press conference Tuesday to reassure TV editors and critics that PBS and its producers have found ways to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, both financially and creatively. The PBS president, documentarian Ken Burns and historian/filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. described some of the ways they are keeping TV productions on track despite the ebb and flow of program budgets and the use of socially distant techniques for filming and editing. Kerger, who usually appears solo during executive sessions at TCA press tours, downplayed the impact of $6.4 million in cuts to PBS’ content and marketing budget for fiscal year 2021. “Our budget goes up and down depending on the work we have in production and our productions sort of travel over multiple years,” she said. “Last year, we had a very big production from our dear friend Mr. Burns in Country Music. So sometimes that pushes our budget a little bit.”
Kimmel To Host "Come As You Are" Virtual Emmys
Emmy award nominees won't get to walk the red carpet this year as the event goes virtual amid ongoing pandemic concerns. Host Jimmy Kimmel notified nominees of the move in a letter that also said black tie requirements would be relaxed for the online event. Full story here.
Governmental Relations
Federal News:
The Senate Republican draft of the next COVID-19 relief package (HEALS Act) contains $175 million in additional emergency relief for public broadcasting stations, the full amount requested by our lobbying group APTS.
This additional funding would go to the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) for distribution to public television and radio stations to help address the many challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, both in terms of lost revenue and the cost of new services. It is in addition to the $75 million in emergency funding secured for public broadcasting in the CARES Act in March. WPSU received a portion of that funding.
The inclusion of this funding in the Senate Republican bill demonstrates the growing bipartisan support for the work of stations and the essential role WPSU and all public media stations play in our communities.
The House and Senate are hoping to finalize this COVID-19 relief package over the next two weeks, before the beginning of the Senate recess on August 10, 2020. However, the timeline and process remains uncertain, and there are many substantial differences of opinion regarding what should be in the final package and not very much time to resolve them.
Many of us at WPSU are part of the “Protect My Public Media” grassroots movement and recently contacted our Members of Congress to reiterate the importance of this funding. Thank you! Your engagement is an essential part of our effort to secure additional emergency funding. Here is a link for you to get involved if you have not already signed up: https://protectmypublicmedia.org/
As you may recall, America's Public Television Stations (APTS) reported all of public television's requests for the next ongoing House funding process were fully funded, including:
• $515 million for CPB in FY 2023 - a $50 million increase.
• $20 million for Interconnection - level funding that matches our request.
• $30 million for Ready To Learn - a $1 million increase, matching our request.
Remember, while the FY 2021 appropriations bills are unlikely to be completed until after the November election, having such strong numbers NOW will be helpful when the House and Senate ultimately negotiate final funding levels. We have a good seat at the table!
State News
Remember, Pennsylvania passed a partial budget, and flat funded the 7 PA Public TV stations for 5/12ths of the $750K through DCED (Dept of Community and Economic Development). Both House and Senate are in recess now until September and Zoom meetings will be set up with state legislators in our service area to build that funding relationship.
WPSU is also continuing to work with the 6 other stations under the Pennsylvania PBS banner to request funding from the PA Dept. of Education (PDE) revolving around our “Summer Learning at Home” (LAH) initiatives and now Fall initiatives. To date, WPSU has been designated to receive nearly $143,000 from PDE for the LAH program.
Thanks to our portion of that PDE grant, WPSU bought and stuffed 3,600 WPSU Summer Learning "Grab and Go" Activity bags filled with 18 fun and engaging FREE items for the kids to have fun and learn and create at the same time!
In all, we’ve distributed using the Free Summer Lunch program sites in the State College, Altoona and Tyrone Area School Districts along with the many distribution sites of the YMCA of Centre County into rural parts of Centre and Clearfield counties. Their Anti-hunger program has this Travelin' Table bus (shown in photo) that goes their 31 sites on a daily basis delivering free summer lunches. We invited state elected officials and local educational leaders to come and help with handing out backpacks one hot summer day in early July! Here’s a look at who came:
Nose News?
Commuters in Berlin, Germany, are required to wear masks on public transportation, and are subject to fines if they don't. Despite that, reports Deutsche Welle, so many people wear their masks incorrectly (covering the mouth but not the nose) that Berlin's transport company, BVG, is now suggesting that riders skip deodorant when they're getting ready for the day, in hopes that the body odor on crowded trains will keep those masks in place. "Given that so many people think they can wear their masks under their noses, we're getting tough," read a bright yellow posting from July 1 on Twitter. "The BVG is calling for a general deodorant waiver. So now do you still want to have your nose out?" [DW, 7/3/2020]
Quotables
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” —Maya Angelou
Resources and Tips
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