Sanditon, the fan-favorite drama inspired by Jane Austen’s final, unfinished novel is back for Season 2, premiering Sunday, March 20, at 9pm on WPSU-TV. After the first season’s finale left viewers hanging in suspense, the story continues with its high-spirited heroine, Charlotte Heywood, returning to the picturesque coastal resort of Sanditon and the companionship of her friend Georgiana Lambe. Joining the Season 2 cast: Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Industry) as Alexander Colbourne, a handsome and enigmatic local recluse; Tom Weston-Jones (Shadow and Bone) as dynamic Colonel Francis Lennox; Rosie Graham (Outlander) as Charlotte’s hopeless romantic sister Alison; Frank Blake (Normal People) as diffident Captain Declan Fraser; Maxim Ays (Still So Awkward) as Captain William Carter; and Alexander Vlahos (Versailles) plays Sanditon’s Bohemian artist, Charles Lockhart.
Birthdays
3/19 Jessica Peters
3/19 Phil Carr
3/25 Byron Conrad
3/28 Craig Johnson
WPSU Radio Highlights
In Case You Missed It . . .
Poetry Moment: Sara Grossman and 'Disability Impact Statement (In the hospital)’
Today’s poem is “Disability Impact Statement” by Sara J. Grossman. Grossman is the author of the poetry collection, Let the House of Body Fall, from which today’s poem is drawn. Grossman lives in Philadelphia, where she is an Assistant Professor at Bryn Mawr College. Grossman describes her own work on Let the House of Body Fall as “an exploration of physical disability in post-September 11th America.” Listen here.
Democracy Works: Defending Democracy At Home And Abroad Jenna Spinelle hosts a conversation with Robert Kagan, a foreign policy expert who turned his focus to the United States last fall in a Washington Post column titled "Our constitutional crisis is already here" that became one of the Post's most-read pieces of 2021. We're lucky to have Kagan with us this week to discuss the ongoing crises of democracy at home and abroad as Russia's war on Ukraine continues to unfold.
In Performance at Penn State: February 2022
In Performance at Penn State is a monthly hour-long program that showcases performances from Penn State's School of Music. This month, hear the Penn State Glee Club sing a song about Harriet Tubman by Rollo Dilworth; violinist Max Zorin and pianist playing a Suite for Violin & Piano by William Grant Still; and the Penn State Chamber Orchestra in the Symphony No. 3 in D Major by Franz Schubert. Listen here.
WPSU Television Highlights
Conversations Live! “Legislative Redistricting” - Thursday, March 17 at 8:00 pm
This year is a legislative redistricting year in Pennsylvania for both the U.S. Congress and the PA General Assembly. How are districts being drawn? What changes are coming to Pennsylvania? We'll answer these questions and more with a panel of experts as we talk about the issues surrounding redistricting, and how it affects the state and the country as a whole.
Call The Midwife (Season 11 premiere) - Sundays at 8:00 pm starting March 20
It's Easter 1967 and preparations are underway for a colourful Easter Bonnet parade outside Nonnatus House. However, Trixie is left shocked when routine building work nearby uncovers a terrible secret.
Sanditon on Masterpiece (Season 2 premiere) - Sundays at 9:00 pm starting March 20
Explore Jane Austen’s last, fragmented work, where entrepreneurs, love interests, legacy hunters, hypochondriacs and medical mountebanks come together at a struggling resort aimed to be the next fashionable playground in early 1800s England.
Before We Die (UK Version Premiere) - Sundays at 10:00 pm starting March 20
Before We Die is a breathless crime thriller, full of heart-stopping jeopardy and unpredictable twists, adapted from the hit Swedish series of the same name.
Midsomer Murders (Season 20 Premiere) - Thursday, March 24 at 8:00 pm
Causton is abuzz when a new brewery opens on the site of a famously cursed Abbey, but excitement turns to fear when a man is found boiled to death in one of the vats. DCI Barnaby and DS Winter will need to work out the true motive. This story marks the first appearance of pathologist Dr. Fleur Perkins (Annete Badland, Ted Lasso).
Oliver Twist (Part 1 of 6) - Thursdays at 9:30 pm starting March 24
This gripping and emotionally powerful adaptation of Oliver Twist by one of British television’s most exciting writers, Sarah Phelps, breathes new life into Dickens’ much loved classic.
Frontline “Plot to Overturn the Election” - Tuesday, March 29 at 10:00 pm
How lies about election fraud have made their way to the center of American politics. With ProPublica, examining the hidden origins of disinformation about the 2020 election and the handful of people behind some of the core narratives of fraud.
Industry News
Multimedia Journalists Face Rising Safety Concerns
Experts are calling on news outlets to provide additional protections and safety training for multimedia journalists as they face increasing dangers while on the job. Journalists should feel empowered to leave a situation that makes them feel unsafe, ask about safety precautions and receive support after traumatic events, industry experts say. Full story.
Emilio Delgado, ‘Luis’ For 44 Years On ‘Sesame Street,’ Dies At 81
Emilio Delgado, the actor best known as Luis Rodriguez, the owner of the Fix-It Shop on Sesame Street, died Thursday of multiple myeloma. For 44 years, Luis fixed toasters, sang songs, mentored Muppets and spoke Spanish with his neighbors on Sesame Street. In doing so, Delgado made history, becoming the Mexican American actor with the longest run as the same character on U.S. television. In addition to being a professional actor, Delgado was a talented musician and lifelong advocate for social justice and Chicano cultural representation. In public broadcasting, he found a platform through which he could reach the whole nation with this work.
Reorganization At American Public Media Group Combines APM, MPR
American Public Media Group in St. Paul, Minn., is eliminating the division between two subsidiaries as part of a restructuring. As part of the reorganization, APMG EVP Dave Kansas, who is also president of APMG’s American Public Media, will leave his position. The reorganization eliminates the division between APM, which produces and distributes national programs including Marketplace and APM Reports, and Minnesota Public Radio, which provides regional news and music services. The new structure will accelerate APMG’s “Audiences First 2025” strategy, CEO Jean Taylor said in an internal memo.
Governmental Relations
Historic Federal Funding For CPB And Meetings With WPSU'S Elected Legislators
On Thursday, March 10, the Senate passed a $1.5 trillion omnibus government funding bill, which includes all 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2022. The bill was then signed into law by the President last Friday.
Public media’s lobbying group, America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) are very pleased that the spending package includes $525 million in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a $50 million increase. This increase ties the record for the largest single year increase in the history of CPB.
The bill also provides $40 million for the establishment of the Next Generation Warning System at FEMA to support public broadcasting’s infrastructure; $30.5 million for Ready To Learn, and $20 million for Interconnection.
WPSU receives approximately 11% of our budget in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) through a statutory funding formula for all CPB qualified stations.
This historic level of increased funding for public media happened the same week as representatives of WPSU – Greg Petersen, Chair, and Gary Miller, Vice Chair, of WPSU’s Community Advisory Board, along with General Manager Isabel Reinert and Community Engagement Manager Carolyn Donaldson met in virtual meetings Tuesday, March 8 with legislative aides for Congressmen John Joyce (R-13) and Congressman Fred Keller (R-12) and with Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-15).
All three offices were receptive to our funding requests and Thompson said he will support and sign on to the funding letters that will begin circulating for public media federal funding at the proposed levels for 2023-2024.
Fast Flap Jacks
LIBERAL — A woman from Liberal, Kansas, is this year’s champion of the traditional Pancake Day Race against women in Olney, England. Whitney Hay won the U.S. leg of the race in Liberal on Tuesday with a time of 1:07, KSNW-TV reported. That beat Katie Godof of Olney, England, who ran her race in 1:10. Contestants must carry a pancake in a frying pan and flip it at the beginning and end of the 415-yard (380 meter) race. The event began in Olney in the 15th century. In 1950, Liberal challenged Olney to an international competition. The crepe-like pancakes are traditionally eaten in the United Kingdom on Shrove Tuesday, the start of Lent. {AP - 3/2/22]
Thoughts
New invention for celebrating St. Patrick's Day outdoors - Paddy O'Furniture.
Resources and Tips
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