FY 2009 BY THE NUMBERS

posted to From the General Manager by Jack Gibson

Last month, I reported on the goals we needed to reach to successfully close our 2009 fiscal year. I’m pleased to follow this month with the good news that we exceeded our membership goal for the year. Membership increased 5% over 2008 thanks to more than 30,000 individual supporters, including more than 4,100 first-time supporters. We are now in a position to meet our financial obligations to NPR and PBS. Thank you for your continued support!

Arizona Public Media also smoothly transitioned into the digital age on June 12. KUAS Channel 27 concluded analog PBS program services and will continue with a 30-day “Nightlight” service broadcasting only programs on the digital transition in English and Spanish. On July 12 at 11:59:59 p.m., our analog broadcast service will terminate completely and we will continue to broadcast using digital-only technology on both Channels 6 and 27. With respect to digital service on Channel 6, repairs have been completed to the main digital antenna which was damaged by a severe ice storm on Mt. Bigelow last winter. We expect reinstallation of the antenna in the early part of August and a return to full signal strength shortly thereafter.

According to the Nielsen Media Research from May:

• Channel 6 prime time viewing is up 3.45%
  

• Full week viewing is up 9.1%

• Arizona Illustrated attracted 20% more viewers this May than last

• The Desert Speak, In-Tune and Wavelengths attracted good audiences

On radio, our own Arizona Spotlight which airs on KUAZ-AM/FM, celebrated its 200th show at the end of June. The NPR News section of our website has some features you might not have seen before. You still get links to NPR's hourly newscasts and the top stories, and if you go there or refresh the page when NPR is offering extra coverage of special events or breaking news, you'll find a link to a live stream.

The numbers have been good to us. But the rest of the news is that we start all over again with a new fiscal year beginning July 1, and there are many challenges ahead. We look forward to your continued support as we work to meet them on your behalf.

Sincerely,

Jack Gibson
Director and General Manager
Arizona Public Media®

P.S. Hopefully you had a chance to see Tucson Remembers: The Korean War. If not, info is still on our Web site, here.

AZ BUDGET PASSED

posted to Rappaport's Notebook by Robert Rappaport

State lawmakers worked through the night and passed a budget, but it is not yet signed into law as of this writing.

The Arizona Legislature has completed action on nine budget bills to implement most of a compromise $8.4 billion budget negotiated with Governor Jan Brewer. Lawmakers wrapped up work on the legislation a few hours after missing the midnight deadline set by the state Constitution for approval of a budget. It’s now up to governor brewer to sign or veto the package.

The proposed budget lacked a tax increase and cuts more than $600 million from state spending. Brewer always has maintained a temporary tax increase was key to her signing any budget. If Brewer vetoes the budget, the state could lose its spending authority and that could trigger a partial government shutdown. Parts of state government already have begun to shut down as Arizona's state parks system started closing and campers in some areas were ordered to leave late last night.

Stay tuned to this space for the latest.

NO TORTURE AT NPR

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

Alicia Shepard, National Public Radio’s apologist—er, ombudsman—wrote a column defending the news operation’s cowardly refusal to apply the word “torture” to the much-reviled interrogation practices authorized by the Bush administration. Salon.com contributor Glenn Greenwald wrote a column denouncing the NPR practice and Shepard’s defense of it, then invited her for an interview in which she could explain her position and NPR’s. Shepard cowers behind her desk, and refuses to participate in an interview—which is what usually happens when someone knows her position is indefensible. NPR continues to look like just another neocon mouthpiece, like most of the rest of the mainstream media, including the Washington Post and New York Times, let alone the usual suspects like the Wall Street Journal. The notion that NPR has a liberal bias is simply false, and this is further evidence. Start reading here, and follow the links.

CLOSER TO A BUDGET

posted to Rappaport's Notebook by Robert Rappaport

The deadline is midnight tonight for state lawmakers and the governor to have a budget in place to fund government for the next fiscal year, which begins at 12:01 a.m. If not, there could be a partial government shutdown. Here's the latest from the Associated Press.

PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona legislators face a midnight deadline to approve a new budget to close a big revenue shortfall and prevent a possible state government shutdown. The new fiscal year starts Wednesday, and Arizona has no mechanism to keep government going with a budget. Both legislative chambers convene Tuesday morning following relatively little action Monday on a budget proposal negotiated by Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Jan Brewer. The package would ask Arizona voters to decide whether to temporarily raise the sales tax. Also, the Legislature would approve outright an income tax reduction flattening five rates into one. The package also includes spending cuts and use of federal stimulus money to help close a projected $3.2 billion shortfall.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Stay with this blog for the latest.

SLABS OF COMEDY AND BEEF

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

Well, I’m sorry to get back into the blog with the sort of self-promoting post I hate to see from other bloggers, but at least this is really about things out in the community, not just me. I am referring to my contributions to the Tucson Weekly. This week, I review two new theater productions, beginning thus:

Summer is comedy season on Tucson stages, but comedy isn't necessarily frivolous. Well, sometimes it is, as in the entertaining Jewtopia, a send-up of all things Jewish, courtesy of Arizona Onstage Productions. (More information later.) But there are other kinds of comedy as well, including the fairy romance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, reviewed in this space last week, and an unavoidably serious comedy called Rum and Coke, presented by the UA's Arizona Repertory Theatre. I say unavoidably serious, because Keith Reddin's Rum and Coke is about the U.S.-masterminded invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, the first in a series of American military failures over the past 50 years.

You can find the full review here. While you’re at the site, you might also check out a couple of earlier reviews of shows that are still playing: the Studio Connections production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Live Theatre Workshop’s mounting of The Mystery of Irma Vep.

Then, for something completely different, I review a steakhouse:

Outposts usually move farther and farther away from civilization, but The Steak Out Restaurant and Saloon has established a satellite location that's actually closer to Tucson than the original. A little. The Steak Out has been a fixture in Sonoita for about a half-century. Its second location is more convenient for Tucsonans, but it's not exactly embedded in the metropolis. It's out by Dove Mountain, smartly located for the denizens of Marana and Oro Valley, as well as Dove Mountain golfers. The décor is as rustic as you'd expect from a Western steakhouse, but the prices are certainly not primitive; the steaks aren't as expensive as what you find at, for example, McMahon's, but you're not going to get a decent cut for less than $20. So the question is: Is it worth it? According to a group of discerning friends who accompanied me to the Steak Out last week, it mostly is.

Full explanation follows here.

TV DUMPING DAY

posted to Rappaport's Notebook by Robert Rappaport

If you have one of those now-classic analog TVs you haven't gotten rid of yet, this Saturday is your chance.

The digital transition has come and gone, but there's a lingering concern among environmentalists, who worry about the potentially toxic effects of just throwing away old television sets.

Tucson Clean and Beautiful and other organizations are holding an electronics collection this Saturday at Reid Park, from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.

Recycling Education Coordinator Becky Quintero of Tucson Clean and Beautiful says it's important the glass stays intact on TVs, or toxic lead can leak out. "When they're left on the curb and stuff, anything can happen," she says. "It's just safer to get them properly recycled."

The recycling event is not only for TVs, for which there is a $10.00 charge. You can also drop off old computers, cell phones and other electronics. Non-TV items will be accepted for free.

AZPM recently did a story on getting rid of old TVs and here it is: