Impromp2, The Community Blog

NOVA - The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies

 
Orange-and-black wings fill the sky as Nova charts one of natures most remarkable phenomena: the epic migration of monarch butterflies across North America. Stockard Channing narrates a film of breathtaking beauty and beguiling mystery.  Watch a promo here

More Breaking News on DTV

The U.S. House of Representatives has defeated the Senate-approved bill to delay the DTV transition. Full story from the Associated Press after the jump.

The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; 1:08 PM

WASHINGTON -- The House has defeated a bill to postpone the upcoming
transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to
June 12.

House Republicans succeeded in scuttling a bill to delay the transition,
which is scheduled for Feb. 17, less than two days after the Senate
unanimously passed the plan.

The defeat is a setback for the Obama administration and Democrats on
Capitol Hill, who fear too many Americans are not ready for the switchover.

The Nielsen Co. estimates more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on
analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals could see
their TV sets go dark next month if the transition is not postponed.

(Note: The vote was 258 against and 168 for.)

Helen Ferre on NewsHour

If you missed WPBT2's own Helen Ferre, (host of ISSUES seen each Friday night at 7:30) last night on the NewsHour, you can watch her here:

Digital Update from the AP

Digital delay a relief to TV networks

NEW YORK (AP) -- The big broadcast networks, already suffering from terrible ratings, will catch a break if the planned transition to digital signals is put off until June.

Pushed by the Obama administration, the Senate approved the delay and the House is expected to follow suit. Instead of Feb. 17, the deadline will be June 12.

That means the transition -- expected to leave millions of households at least temporarily without TV pictures -- will take place after the TV season is over. With warmer weather and more reruns, fewer people are watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in June than in February, anyway.

There's also the expectation that more homes will be ready to receive the digital signals by then. The latest estimate by Nielsen Media Research is that 6.5 million American homes still aren't prepared for the switch.

"June is a much softer landing for both the networks and the viewers," one network executive said Tuesday.

While still trying to get viewers ready for the switch, the TV industry was preparing for the expected fallout. The traditional February "sweeps," when ratings are used to set local advertising prices, was put back to March. Networks made programming changes.

CBS and ABC, for example, scheduled more reruns than usual for late February to keep fresh episodes of series available for March. CBS made sure that its big events for February (the Grammys and starts of new "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" seasons) happened before Feb. 17.

PBS made certain to schedule its high-profile series "We Shall Remain" in April to keep it away from the transition deadline. Univision rescheduled its popular music awards show, "Premio lo Nuestro," for March instead of February.

The Feb. 17 date was chosen in part because the National Football League applied pressure to make sure the switch was after the Super Bowl, said Shari Anne Brill, senior vice president for the Carat media buying agency. ABC had hoped to put off the Oscars, scheduled for Feb. 22, to March, she said.

The digital transition would have been another blow for networks still trying to recover from the effects of last year's writers strike. Viewership is down at disturbing rates: 11 percent for ABC, 12 percent for NBC and 14 percent for Fox. Only CBS, with its strong dramas and new hit "The Mentalist," is up over last year (1 percent).

A Feb. 17 switch would have only worsened those numbers. An estimated 13 percent of viewers for the English-language broadcast networks get analog signals, Nielsen said. Many who are making the digital switch are doing it by ordering cable and satellite -- giving them many more networks to watch as an alternative to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

The change is expected to be particularly hard on Spanish-language networks, since a larger percentage of their audience gets over-the-air broadcast signals. The three local markets with populations least-prepared for the shift -- Albuquerque, Dallas and Houston -- have a large number of Spanish-speaking households.

The Spanish-language networks such as Univision have spent a great deal of money advertising the Feb. 17 cutoff to prepare its audience. It means the delay, while welcome in some respects, could cause more confusion.

A delay will also be expensive for many network affiliates, some of which will have extra power costs or have to make new arrangements to keep the analog signals working. PBS estimates that a delay to June 12 will cost its local stations $22 million.

The federal legislation allows local affiliates the flexibility to make the switch earlier than June if they want to. That flexibility helped the networks support the delay, along with a desire not to alienate a new administration, which had pushed for it.

Given that a new TV antenna is one way to help many homes continue to receive a signal without signing up for cable, there's another good reason for the delay, said Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.

"It's a lot easier to put an antenna on your roof in June than it is in February," he said.

Michy's Second Season - from Miami New Times

 

By Lee Klein for Miami New Times

Michelle Bernstein returns as host of WPBT-2's popular television show Check, Please! South Florida, and Season 2, which premieres Monday, March 9th, promises to contain almost as many new twists as the latest episodes of Lost. On second thought, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit; there are really only two changes. First difference viewers will notice is the refurbished set (pictured in photos), donated and designed by IKEA Sunrise. No one will dispute that it is much snazzier than the former backdrop.

Read the rest here.

Breaking DTV News

Senate Agrees To Move DTV Transition Date

Must be reconciled with House version of the bill

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/26/2009 5:00:16 PM MT

The Senate Monday night approved unanimously a compromise bill (S.328) that would move the DTV transition date from Feb. 17 to June 12, but it must now be reconciled with a House version of the bill, and quickly point out backers of the legislation.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and the bill's co-sponsor, sought a similar vote on his original bill, which would simply have moved the date from Feb. 17 to June 12. That bill was blocked by at least one Republican, which is all it takes.

Rockefeller then teamed with ranking Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson on a compromise bill that dealt with other issues, including unclogging the DTV-to-analog converter box backlog and access to reclaimed analog TV spectrum by industry and first responders. Most importantly, at least in terms of getting Republican support, the bill is revenue-neutral, meaning the cost of making the move will be underwritten by future FCC spectrum auctions.

It was that bill that made it past the Republican gauntlet.

The House is preparing Tuesday to mark up its own, similar, bill, but could conceivably engage in a game of legislative ping-pong with the Senate version that would preclude having to conference to reconcile the two. The bills are "virtually alike," says one Rockefeller aide. "The House bill actually contains funding number which we don't have in our bill." He said they may have to conference the bill, but it could also be a case of where "they amend it and pass it back over here and we amend it and send it back over there until we have a final bill."

The Obama administration three weeks ago asked Congress to delay the transition date, prompted primarily by a slow-down in converter-box coupon distribution due to the combination of a funding ceiling and an accounting problem that prevented more coupons from being sent out before expired ones were redeemed.

Miami Circle- National Historic Landmark

MIAMI CIRCLE DESIGNATED NEW NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK

Miami, FL - January 26, 2009 Watch exclusive video on the Miami Circle on uVu   Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne has designated the Miami Circle among nine new National Historic Landmarks.  This designation recognizes the site as a nationally significant historic place because it possesses exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States and "provides all Americans the opportunity to learn," said Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

Free Concert Webcast

Viennese Musical Traditions

New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Emanuel Ax, piano

Streaming Sunday, January 25, 2009

On Sunday, January 25 the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy, will webcast Viennese Musical Traditions, featuring artistic director and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and pianist Emanuel Ax.  This free, audio-visual webcast is part of the New World Symphony's ongoing efforts to make its presentations accessible to music lovers everywhere.  Plunge into the imaginations of two musical giants in this celebration of Viennese tradition.  Beethoven's menacing and magnificent Third Piano Concerto comes to life through the interpretation of world-renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, and Brahms' robust First Symphony serves as an apex of genius and craft.

Visit here for webcast times and additional details.  

Happy Birthday Nightly Business Report

Giving you the business for 30 years

Anchors Susie Gharib and Paul Kangas of PBS' Nightly Business Report 

PBS

BY GLENN GARVIN

GGARVIN@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Stocks may be falling, real estate crashing, corporations collapsing, but there's one number that just keeps rising: the viewers of PBS' Nightly Business Report, which celebrates its 30th anniversary Thursday.

''This has been a bull market for financial journalists,'' says NBR anchor Susie Gharib. ``It's not the way we want to get the recognition. But it's just a fact that in hard economic times, people want more business news that's more reliable.''

If there were a windfall-profits tax on Nielsen ratings, NBR would be paying in the top bracket right now. The show's audience has jumped 15 percent from the same time last year, and it now reaches 750,000 viewers over more than 250 public-TV stations.

Read the full article here.

Call for Artists

Artists and musicians have until Jan. 30 to submit applications for the coveted annual Cintas  fellowships in the visual arts and music administered by the Cintas Foundation and the Cintas Fellowship Program at FIU's Frost Art Museum. The fellowship competitions for the 2009 Emilio Sánchez Awardin the Visual Arts and the 2009 Brandon Fradd Fellowship in Music Compositionbegan  Dec. 9, 2008. Finalists will be announced in May 2009. Cintas fellows are awarded $15,000 and the opportunity to pursue an art project outlined in their applications.

The visual arts award is funded through the generous support of the Emilio Sánchez Foundation to recognize the achievements of the winner of the Cintas Fellowship in the visual arts. Based in New York City, the foundation is a nonprofit organization that preserves and promotes the legacy of the Cuban-born American artist Emilio Sánchez (1921-1999) through research, exhibitions and publications. Applicants must submit original images or film projects. Past visual arts fellows include Ernesto Oroza, Carlos Alfonzo, Teresita Fernández, Anthony Goicolea, Ernesto Oroza, photographers Andres Serrano and María Martínez-Caíñas, sculptor Maria Elena González and filmmaker Mari Rodríguez-Ichaso.