HOLIDAY SPECIALS, MORE NEWS & A NEW CHANNEL

posted by Laura McKee

Arizona Public Media has a host of exciting specials to inspire your Thanksgiving holiday spirit. AZPM’s winter television membership campaign, “Home for the Holidays,” starts over the Thanksgiving weekend and includes some very special holiday programs; two Nature programs, Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air and Christmas in Yellowstone, Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli and David Foster: My Christmas and Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes just to name a few. Please tune in, enjoy the festive programs and consider a pledge to AZPM to show your support.

Local news on NPR 89.1 FM now begins one hour earlier on weekdays (5:00 a.m.) and coming in 2012, AZPM will add weekend newscasts on NPR 89.1. These changes are the result of a strategic initiative to produce more local news content for and about our community, and made possible through your generous membership support.

Arizona Public Media takes pride in our community programs. In partnership with the Pima County Library and Community Cinema, Now Showing at Your Library film series features screenings of films from the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. This month the featured film is We Still Live Here, the story of the revival of the language of the Wampanoag nation in southeastern Massachusetts. This is the first time a language with no Native speakers has been revived in this country. Click here for a list of Pima County Library locations and film schedules.

If you liked Create TV – you’ll love ReadyTV. ReadyTV is Southern Arizona’s new lifelong learning channel and another step in AZPM’s strategic plan to provide more original programming. Having made great strides with local news programs such as Arizona Week and Political Roundtable, ReadyTV, with its dedicated how-to and lifestyle programming, provides an entertaining and enriching destination for viewers in Southern Arizona who like to cook, build, travel, garden, craft, paint, do yoga, enjoy music, and so much more! ReadyTV includes your favorite programs such as master chef Julia Child, This Old House, Rick Steve’s Europe, and The Desert Speaks. Find it on Comcast channel 201, Cox channel 82 or Broadcast channel 6-3.

Other PBS-HD 6 programming highlights for November include:

The American in Primetime series continues with the final episode The Crusader on Sunday, the 20th at 7 p.m. The Crusader, delves into the increasingly grey area between right and wrong as television heroes confront internal demons while seeking their own forms of justice. Guests include the creators, writers and actors from the televisions series 4, Dexter, MASH, House, The Wire* and more. Go here for an advance video clip.

The final two episodes of the NOVA, Fabric of the Cosmos series air consecutively on Wednesday the 16th with a double header, Quantum Leap at 8 p.m. followed by Universe or Multiverseat 9 p.m. Join physicist and accomplished author Brian Greene on a mind-bending journey through space, time, and the universe with the final two episodes.

PBS Arts Fall Festival Series continues on Friday night, Nov. 18th at 9:30 p.m. with PBS Arts from Cleveland: Women Who Rock. Inspired by the "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, "Women Who Rock" reveals new insights into what it means to be female in the male-dominated world of rock and roll, while exploring how those dynamics between the sexes have changed with time. Hosted by Cyndi Lauper. Learn more here.

Woody Allen: American Masters premieres over two nights, Sunday the 20th and Monday the 21st at 9 p.m. This documentary provides unprecedented access to this notoriously private film legend’s life and creative process, from his childhood to his most recent film Midnight in Paris.

Saturday nights now feature our new commercial-free Hollywood at Home film series. On Nov. 19th PBS-HD 6 airs the Academy® Award winning romantic comedy, Moonstruck, starring Cher, Nicholas Cage and Olympia Dukakis. On Thanksgiving Day we present a movie marathon*. For film schedules and fun film trivia click here.

On behalf of all of us at AZPM, please accept our very best wishes to you and your family for a festive Thanksgiving. As always, thank you for your viewership, listenership and continued support of Arizona Public Media.

Jack Gibson

CAMPAIGN RESULTS, SIGNAL UPGRADES & ELECTIONS

posted by Laura McKee

Arizona Public Media just wrapped up the first radio campaign of the fiscal year, “It’s Up to Us”, on Classical 90.5FM and NPR 89.1FM. This campaign, featuring over 80 community voices, generated over 2,300 calls with support in dollars totaling more than $261,000. Many thanks to all of our new and renewing members of AZPM and to those that pledged an additional gift to help us achieve this ambition goal.

Late in the afternoon on October 27th PBS-HD 6 resumed broadcasting at full power from its transmission site at Mt. Bigelow after 9-months of operation at half-power. Last January, Channel 6’s HD antenna suffered catastrophic damage as the result of overheating, perhaps related to winter icing. This required that the antenna be dismounted and shipped back to the manufacturer in Maine for a complete overhaul -- with broadcast operations taking place at reduced power from our smaller auxiliary antenna on the same tower.

While the tower crew was on-site, we decided to upgrade the aging Classical 90.5 FM antenna also mounted on the Mt. Bigelow tower, proactively addressing the aging FM antenna, moving the new antenna to the top of the tower and maintaining the current antenna as a backup for Classical 90.5.

To give you a better sense of the scope of this project, the antenna sits atop a 219 foot tower at an elevation of 3582 feet above Tucson (which is at 2,500 feet) on Mt. Bigelow. The TV antenna is 27 ft. tall and weighs just under four tons! The radio antenna is actually five antennas in an array -- each antenna approximately 3 feet tall. Weather on the mountain can add a delay of hours or weeks to a project of this magnitude. While we had to wait until late spring to dismount the antenna, we were fortunate to have warmer than normal temps in October for the reinstallation. I am grateful for the dedication our technical staff -- who persevered through a lightning strike in 2007 which destroyed the original HD antenna, and now successfully addressed the replacement of two defective antennas in the span of five short years. I am also grateful for the patience of our many viewers and listeners, largely outside the Tucson basin, who watch Channel 6 over-the-air and have had TV and radio service interrupted as we worked to address these unfortunate losses. We are back and the signals look and sound great!

Beginning on Monday November 7th, local news will begin one hour earlier on weekdays (5 a.m.) on NPR 89.1. Early in 2012, we expect to add weekend newscasts on NPR 89.1. These changes are the result of a strategic initiative to produce more local news content for and about our community.

As the anniversary of the events of January 8, 2011 draws near, AZPM is preparing special programming focused on the healing that has taken place over the past year - the healing of individuals, and the community’s healing as a whole. How have you healed? How has your community come together to heal itself and its wounded? AZPM invites you to reflect on coping in the aftermath of violence. You are encouraged to post your story at azpm.org – January 8th.

AZPM presents a great line-up of programming during the first two weeks of November. The American in Primetime series, a four-part television series showcases the groundbreaking television shows of our past and current day, weaving between past and present. Each episode focuses on one television character archetype that has remained a staple of primetime through generations. I hope you caught the first episode which aired this past Sunday, Independent Woman. The Man of the House, on Nov. 6th, is followed by The Misfit, Nov. 13th with the fourth episode, The Crusader on Nov 20th. The finest television today has as its foundation the best television of yesterday. Click here to view a clip.

The PBS Arts Fall Festival on Friday nights at 9:30 p.m. invites you to a front row seat and a backstage pass to the world of music, theater, dance, art and cultural history. This month’s programs include PBS Arts from the Blue Ridge Mountains: Give Me The Banjo on Nov. 4th, narrated by Steve Martin, a banjoist himself, and hosted by Grammy-winner Rosanne Cash. The following Friday, Nov. 11th, take a dance journey with American Masters – Bill T. Jones: A Good Man, an original dance-theater piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial. For more information go to azpm.org.

Wednesdays, ‘the smartest night on TV’ – just got smarter! PBS-HD Channel 6 premieres the new NOVA series, The Fabric of the Cosmos, starting Wednesday, November 2nd at 9 p.m. Join physicist and accomplished author, Briane Greene on a mind-bending journey through space, time and the universe in this new four-hour NOVA special series. The Fabric of the Cosmos premieres on three consecutive Wednesday nights starting on Nov.2nd at 9pm: “What is Space?” (11/2); “The Illusion of Time” (11/9); “Quantum Leap” and “Universe or Multiverse?” (11/16 at 8 p.m.). Click here for a video link.

With the city and county elections on Tuesday, November 8th looming, Arizona Public Media offers in-depth, independent news election coverage. There is no better place to tune in than Political Roundtable with host Jim Nintzel, which airs on the Friday evening edition of Arizona Illustrated at 6:30 p.m. Michael Chihak’s Arizona Week continues its focus on the week’s top news in the state on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. (repeating on Sundays at 10:30pm).

In honor of Veteran’s Day, AZPM will air the locally produced and Emmy®-Award winning program Unforgettable: The Korean War on Thursday, Nov. 10th at 9 p.m. followed by a special POV: Where Soldiers Come From at 10 p.m.. This POV documentary follows the four-year journey of childhood friends who join the National Guard after high school and offers an intimate look at the young Americans who fight our wars and the families and towns they come from.

As always, thank you for your viewership, listenership and continued support of Arizona Public Media.

Jack Gibson