PUBLIC AFFAIRS & ASIAN-PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH PROGRAMS

posted by Laura McKee

Arizona Public Media (AZPM) has just announced the launch of a new locally-focused, news and public affairs series, Metro Week, to be hosted and produced by Andrea Kelly. The weekly 30-minute program, debuting Friday, June 6 at 8:30 p.m. on PBS 6, reflects AZPM’s strategic decision to heighten the quality, depth and focus of our news and public affairs programming. Each week, Metro Week will delve into a key local news story from the week and feature a journalists’ roundtable discussion of the primary and other top stories. Arizona Week, previously scheduled at 8:30 p.m., will move to Fridays at 9 p.m.

The addition of the new show creates a complete block of public affairs programming on Friday evenings starting with national news and public affairs at 7 p.m. with the PBS NewsHour and Washington Week at 8 p.m., regional and local coverage with Metro Week at 8:30 p.m., and state coverage with Arizona Week, hosted by Lorraine Rivera, at 9 p.m.

Andrea Kelly, a graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona, a former news reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, and a member of the AZPM news team for the past three years, was the logical choice as producer and host of Metro Week. “We are looking forward to giving viewers more information about the big stories of the week. It can be hard to keep up with fast-changing news, so our discussion and analysis at the end of the week will help pull together what people need to know to make personal and political decisions," she said.

Metro Week will also join the Sunday morning public affairs programming block on PBS 6 at 11 a.m., following Arizona Week at 10:30 a.m. In addition, Metro Week will air on Fridays on WORLD (Channel 27-3, Cox 83, and Comcast 203) at 11:30 p.m., and on the UA Channel (Cox 116 and Comcast 76) at 11 p.m.

There is an additional change coming to the programming line-up on PBS 6. Effective the first week of June, AZ Illustrated, AZPM’s week-nightly public affairs and news magazine series, will go on a broadcast hiatus. In its place, the award-winning nature and travel series The Desert Speaks will air Monday through Friday at 6:30 p.m. beginning Monday, June 2.

AZPM’s production staff will work over the summer months to research, develop and produce stories for the re-launch of AZ Illustrated in the fall. The series is being redeveloped into a weekly 30-minute program that will showcase three to five character-driven “mini-documentaries” in each episode. The four to seven minute ‘mini-docs’ will combine lush, stunning photography; crisp, powerful editing; and sensitive character development to tell the best science, nature, arts, culture, and public affairs stories in Southern Arizona. A new scheduling strategy will be employed to offer multiple broadcasts of each episode in different time periods over the course of a week.

This month we honor Asian-Pacific Heritage Month with an extensive lineup of special programs on PBS 6, WORLD and the UA Channel. Highlights include the documentary film, “Calling Tokyo,” “E Haku Inoa: To Weave a Name,” “Mulberry Child,” and “The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma: Tanglewood,” a documentary about the Silk Road Ensemble’s 15th anniversary performance at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts in 2012. For a complete list of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month programs and airdates, visit here.

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

Sincerely,

Jack Gibson