Arizona Public Media
Schedules
AZPM on Facebook AZPM on Twitter AZPM on YouTube AZPM on Google+ AZPM on Instagram

From the General Manager – January 2013

MILESTONES AND PHENOMENONS FOR THE NEW YEAR

Welcome to the New Year. 2013 will provide both exciting opportunities and challenges. Arizona Public Media’s primary objective remains unchanged: to serve audiences with distinctive, thought-provoking content on-air, online, and on-the-ground through educational community outreach activities.

Downton Abbey, the Emmy® Award winning Masterpiece Classic series, reigns as one of the most popular drama series on television world-wide. The much- anticipated Season Three premieres on Sunday, January 6th at 8 p.m. on PBS 6, and continues through February 17th. The all-star cast returns with a special guest, Academy Award®-winner Shirley MacLaine. Tune in for another thrilling season of one of the great melodramas of the modern television age. In December, we hosted a special Downton Abbey member event featuring an exclusive lecture given by UA’s Dr. Jerrold D. Hogle, Ph.D., at Crowder Hall. The evening featured a special screening of episode one of Series Three. Watch a recap of Seasons One and Two here and a trailer of Season Three here.

This month Arizona Public Media celebrates the 2nd anniversary of Arizona Week, our weekly Friday night public affairs program. The series recently reached a milestone, airing its 100th episode in December. Since the show’s inception in 2010, more than 326 journalists, scholars, and politicians have joined host Michael Chihak in bringing depth and perspective, both on-air and online, to the top state-wide issues of the week. The program airs on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. and repeats on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. It also airs in Phoenix on KAET Eight World on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. The 100th episode saluted the anniversary of Pearl Harbor with the stories of three World War II veterans and Arizona’s plan to create a World War II memorial on the Capitol Mall in Phoenix. Watch the 100th episode here.

Additional PBS-6 programming highlights include:

Sundays continues to be a great night for drama. Preceding Downton Abbey on Sundays at 7 p.m. is the premiere of the long-running BBC series Born & Bred. Set in the Lancashire village of Ormston in the 1950’s, this popular drama series centers on the relationship between city doctor Tom Gilder and his village General Practitioner father, Arthur Gilder.

Antiques Roadshow continues each Monday night at 8 p.m. with brand new shows from Corpus Christi and Boston followed by a new season of Market Warriors at 9 p.m. This season, Market Warriors features a new ‘picker,’ Bene Raia. The group continues their antiquing adventures, scouring flea markets across the country including Walnut, Indiana; Long Beach, California; Chantilly, Virginia; and Liberty, North Carolina.

On Tuesdays, American Experience presents “The Abolitionists,” a three-part program on January 8th, 15th and 22nd at 9 p.m. Vividly bringing to life the epic struggles of the men and women who fought to end slavery, “The Abolitionists” tells the intertwined stories of Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimké, Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Brown. Watch a preview here. Later this month, American Experience premieres a four-part series called Titans starting January 29th at 9 p.m. with “Henry Ford,” a fascinating portrait of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century. Included in the Titans series is “Andrew Carnegie,” “John D. Rockefeller,” and a new program, “Silicon Valley,” an absorbing look at the early mavericks of Silicon Valley.

Exploration Wednesdays resumes on January 2nd with a brand new six-part series, Life on Fire at 10 p.m. narrated by Jeremy Irons, which presents an in-depth look at the difficulties surrounding life around volcanoes. The first episode, “Icelandic Volcanoes,” reveals the country’s molten mountains as ticking time bombs which, when they blow, could have global consequences. The series continues throughout the month with “Volcano Doctors,” on the 9th, “The Surprise Salmon” on the 16th and “Phoenix Temple” on the 23rd. In honor of Sir David Attenborough’s 60th anniversary on television, NATURE presents Attenborough’s Life Stories, a special three-part series starting on January 23rd at 8 p.m. The first episode, “Life on Camera,” revisits key places and events in Attenborough’s wildlife filmmaking career.

Doc Martin, the popular comedy-drama on Thursdays at 9 p.m. continues in January with Season Five. To add a bit more British drama/comedy to the night, PBS 6 debuts Death in Paradise at 8 p.m., an 8-part series about a detective inspector who is assigned to investigate a murder on the paradise island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean - despite his hatred of sun, sea, and sand.

The popular Hollywood at Home film series continues at 9 p.m. on Saturday nights. This month’s features include “Top Hat” on January 5th, “Bedazzled,” January 12th, “No Way Out” on the 19th, and “Platoon” on the 26th.

Starting Wednesday evenings January 2nd at 8 p.m., Classical 90.5 presents Center Stage from Wolftrap, with hosts Rich Kleinfeldt and Bill McLaughlin. This 13-week, one-hour series showcases live performances from some of today’s finest chamber musicians.

Happy New Year! On behalf of all of us at AZPM, thank you for your viewership, listenership and continued support.

Jack Gibson

About From the General Manager

Thoughts and Letters from Jack Gibson.