Nashville Public Television recently promoted two staffers and welcomed another back to the city and station.
Shane Burkeen was promoted to Director of Brand & Digital Strategies at NPT. He joined the staff in 2016 and previously served as Brand and Digital Content Manager. During his time at NPT, Burkeen has implemented cross-departmental digital campaigns and has been responsible for refreshing NPT’s brand to better reflect the organization’s mission and core values.
Suzy Hence was promoted to Associate Producer/Senior Editor. Her new duties include producing NPT’s Arts Break interstitials about local arts organizations (she currently serves as host of the series) and A Word on Words interstitials focusing on authors and book-related topics. She will also be responsible for media management and editing workflow. Hence will continue to edit Volunteer Gardener and other NPT productions. She has edited documentaries in every NPT series during her 12 years at the station, including Aging Matters: Caregiving, Next Door Neighbors: Somali, and Children’s Health Crisis: Infant Mortality, for which she received Midsouth Regional Emmys.
NPT welcomed Bridget Kling back to Nashville and to the staff as Senior Director of Broadcast Content responsible for the broadcast schedule on NPT’s three on-air channels. She is also in charge of local content production for broadcast and digital platforms. During her previous tenure at NPT, Kling produced Beautiful Tennessee, Christmas at Belmont, The Fugitives, Arts Break and other long- and short-form programs. She held various positions, including Director of Program Development and Director of Special Projects. During her earlier nine years at the station, Kling received a Midsouth Regional Emmy, a national Gracie Allen award, and National Educational Telecommunications Association awards. She also received the inaugural Rising Star Award presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission.
MiChelle Jones, NPT’s Communications Manager, will become vice chair of NETA’s Communications Council Executive Committee in January 2019. She recently received a Richard E. Ottinger Scholarship to attend the 2019 NETA Conference and CPB Public Media Thought Leader Forum, January 21 ‒ 24 in Salt Lake City, Utah. A two-time National Endowment for the Arts writing fellow, Jones handles NPT’s publicity, advertising, promotions and social media.
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Let’s Go Luna! Courtesy of © LATW Productions Inc.
Let’s Go Luna!, a new PBS Kids series, premieres Wednesday, Nov. 21, on NPT with a one-hour special airing at 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. In the animated series, three friends – Mexican butterfly Carmen, Australian wombat Leo, and Andy, a frog from the U.S. – travel around the globe with “Circo Fabuloso,” their parents’ performance troupe. At each stop their friend Luna the Moon joins them as they learn about local customs. This season they’ll visit Mexico City (Carmen’s hometown), Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, London and London.
The regular half-hour airtimes will be weekdays at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on NPT and 4 p.m. and midnight seven days a week on NPT3.
Children’s programming is available around the clock on NPT3, our 24-hour PBS Kids Channel, available over-the-air at 8.3, on Comcast 242 and Charter 189 (or 192, depending on your viewing area). NPT3 PBS Kids is available for streaming at wnpt.org/npt3.
Here’s our updated weekday schedule of NPT children’s programs:
6:00 Ready Jet Go!
6:30 Wild Kratts
7:00 Nature Cat
7:30 Curious George
8:00 Let’s Go Luna!
8:30 Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
9:00 Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
9:30 Pinkalicious & Peterrific
10:00 Sesame Street
10:30 Splash and Bubbles
11:00 Dinosaur Train
11:30 Cat in the Hat
noon Sesame Street
12:30 Super Why!
1:00 Pinkalicious & Peterrific
1:30 Let’s Go Luna!
2:00 Nature Cat
2:30 Wild Kratts
3:00 Wild Kratts
3:30 Odd Squad
4:00 Odd Squad
4:30 Arthur
As of Nov. 24, our weekend schedule of children’s lineup will be:
5:00 Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood
5:30 Splash and Bubbles
6:00 Sesame Street
6:30 Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
7:00 Pinkalicious & Peterrific
7:30 Curious George
8:00 Let’s Go Luna!
8:30 Nature Cat
Posted in children's programming by .
NPT received five nominations at the 33rd Midsouth Regional Emmy Award announcement party on Nov. 15, 2018, at BMI on Nashville’s Music Row.
The following NPT productions and staff received nominations:
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
NPT Reports Aging Matters: Loneliness & Isolation
LaTonya Turner
DOCUMENTARY/CULTURAL
Music Row: Nashville’s Most Famous Neighborhood
Justin Harvey, Paul Mojonnier, Joe DelMerico, Shane Burkeen
INTERSTITIAL
A Word on Words
Linda Wei, J.T. Ellison, Mary Laura Philpott, Courtney Breslin, Jason Code, Shawn Anfinson, Paul Mojonnier
HISTORICAL/CULTURAL FEATURE/SEGMENT
Remembering World War II (Tennessee Crossroads)
Ed Jones, Shawn Anfinson
PROMO SPOT/PROGRAM
Reporting the Vietnam War
Shawn Anfinson
The 33rd Annual Midsouth Regional Emmy Awards will be held Feb. 16, 2019, at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Posted in EMMY Awards by .
Nashville Public Television’s 2018 Report to the Community, our annual report of the station’s activities and finances, is now available online and in hard copy. The document covers Fiscal Year 2018 – July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018 – and includes overviews of NPT’s original productions and events during the past year, as well as from many of the documentary and program screenings, special events and town-hall discussions we hosted during that time frame.
In the 2018 Report to the Community, you’ll find information on:
- The 2017 Christmas at Belmont production with host Sheryl Crow
- NPT’s documentary about Music Row (featured on the report’s cover)
- Tennessee Crossroads’ coverage of the August 2017 total solar eclipse
- New documentaries in NPT’s Aging Matters, Next Door Neighbors and Citizenship series.
View the 2018 Report to the Community online as either a flipbook or a downloadable PDF, or pick up a copy at an NPT event.
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Nashville Public Television has been named a finalist in five categories in the 2018 NETA Awards competition. Two other public television stations, Alabama Public Television and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, are also named in five categories. The winners will be announced during the National Educational Telecommunications Association annual conference in Salt Lake City in January 2019.
NPT is a finalist in the following categories:
News & Public Affairs
NPT Reports: Aging Matters: Aging & the Workplace
Promotion (Integrated Marketing Campaign)
Music Row: Nashville’s Most Famous Neighborhood
Promotion (Single Video)
Bird’s-Eye View/Cheekwood
Promotion (Special Event)
NPT3 PBS Kids Launch Party
Short Form
A Word on Words
The NETA Awards are an annual recognition of public broadcasting’s finest work, a tradition established in the 1960s by the pioneering Southern Educational Communications Association from which NETA was formed. NETA is a professional association organized in 1997 to serve and support public television licensees and affiliated educational organizations. The organization has member stations in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands.
Posted in awards Uncategorized by .
Nov 18
7
NPT3 PBS Kids channel receives underwriting from The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial
Nashville Public Television welcomes The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial as a major underwriter of NPT3 PBS Kids, NPT’s 24/7 children’s channel dedicated to quality educational programming from PBS Kids. NPT3 PBS Kids is available to all children and caregivers on a platform and at a time that works for them, including prime time, weekends and other out-of-school times.
“Nashville Public Television has been an integral part of the Middle Tennessee community for more than 50 years, delivering content and services that parents trust and that move the needle in early learning,” said NPT’s Kevin Crane. “NPT3 PBS Kids launched a year ago and is part of our service to area families, ensuring that our proven educational content is accessible anytime and anywhere to all kids – especially those who need it the most. We’re grateful to The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial for their generous support of this important educational resource.”
Decades of research confirms that PBS KIDS media content helps children acquire early literacy, math and social-emotional skills, critical that enable them to find success in school and life, while also helping parents increase their own engagement in their children’s learning.
NPT3 PBS Kids is available over-the-air at 8.3, on Comcast 242, on Charter Communications 189 (192 for Huntsville-Decatur), and on Google Fiber on 87. The program feed is also available for streaming via online platforms at wnpt.org/npt3.
NPT3 PBS Kids is part of Nashville Public Television’s commitment to the community in which it provides essential services for kids, parents and teachers. These include NPT’s Emmy-winning original series Children’s Health Crisis and ArtQuest, as well as the station’s ongoing family literacy workshops, and Mobile Learning Lab activities focusing on literary, math and science for children ages 3 to 8.
Posted in NPT3 PBS Kids by .
Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks, the 13th documentary in Nashville Public Television’s NPT Reports: Aging Matters series, premieres Thursday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. on NPT.
If you’re sick or hurt enough to go to the hospital, you expect to leave in better shape than when you arrived. But as we age, it becomes increasingly dangerous to be in the hospital. On the next edition of Aging Matters, we will explore the benefits and risks of hospital treatment for older adults. We’ll also look at a growing movement by hospitals to adapt to the unique needs of the aging baby boom population.
A free preview screening of the documentary will be offered on Monday, Nov. 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at FiftyForward’s Patricia Hart Building (174 Rains Ave., Nashville 37203). The event will include lunch and a panel discussion. The event is free, but RSVPs are required at hospitals-npt.eventbrite.com.
Additional broadcast times for Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks are below; the documentary will also be available for online viewing at wnpt.org/agingmatters/.
- Monday, Nov. 19, at 8 a.m. on NPT2
- Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 1p.m. on NPT2
- Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 5 a.m. on NPT2
Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks was produced by LaTonya Turner, whose previous documentaries in the series include Aging Matters: Loneliness & Isolation and Aging Matters: Caregiving, winner of a Midsouth Regional Emmy Award. Turner also produced NPT’s Emmy Award-winning documentary, The Early Black Press: Tennessee Voices United.
The NPT Reports: Aging Matters series is hosted by Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Kathy Mattea. Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks is made possible by the generous support of the West End Home Foundation, the Jeanette Travis Foundation, The HCA Foundation and Cigna-HealthSpring. Additional support was provided by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and Jackson National Life Insurance Company.
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Keep your little ones entertained this month with new Halloween-themed episodes of Wild Kratts, Odd Squad and other favorite PBS Kids shows! Here are some of the treats in store for them on NPT and NPT3 PBS Kids. NPT airtimes are below; check wnpt.org/schedule for NPT3 PBSKids airtimes. And don’t forget to check out the PBS Kids website for Halloween games and pumpkin-carving templates based on PBS Kids characters.
Odd Squad Two new episodes air this month. In “Saving Agent Orson/The Scientist,” the agents try to save baby Agent Orson’s place on the squad. Meanwhile, Oona finds herself in an alternate dimension. Airs on NPT Oct. 26 and Nov. 6 at 3:30 p.m. Then in “It Takes Goo to Make a Feud Go Right/Friends of Odd Squad,” Olympia and Otis deal with feuding guests when Ms. O leaves an unlikely crew in charge of the HQ. Airs on NPT Oct. 26 and Nov. 6 at 4 p.m.
Pinkalicious & Peterrific The first of two new episodes, “Pink or Treat,” features Pink-a-girl and Pirate Peter trying to save Halloween when a huge storms knocks out power lines in Pinkville. In “Berry Scary,” Pinkalicious, Peter, Rafael and Frida discover the birds have eaten all the berries at the community garden, leaving none for their homemade smoothies. The kids build a scarecrow to keep the birds away – but will it be scary enough? Airs on NPT Oct. 26, 29 and 31 at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and on Oct. 28 at 7 a.m.
Ready Jet Go! When the kids try to grow prize-winning pumpkins, Jet gets carried away and uses his Bortronian Grow-Lamp to grow a huge fruit in “That’s One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!” But how will the kids get this enormous pumpkin downtown to win the contest? Airs on NPT Oct. 23, 26, 30 and 31 at 6 a.m.
Wild Kratts In their first Halloween movie, the brothers decide to spend Halloween looking for new creatures in “Creepy Creatures.” Then, they learn that Zach and the other villains have come up with a plan to ruin the holiday. Can the Wild Kratts save the day and still have time to celebrate Halloween? Airs on NPT Oct. 24, 26, 29 and 31 at 2:30 p.m. and Oct. 26 and 31 at 7 a.m. This episode also airs at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 – 28 on NPT3 PBS Kids as part of the Halloween double feature with Arthur and the Haunted Tree House.
NPT3 PBS Kids is available over the air at 8.3, on Comcast 242, Charter 189 or 192 (depending on area) and Google Fiber 87.
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Follow the money. It’s one of the basic rules of investigative journalism, a catchphrase used throughout the Academy Award-winning film, All the President’s Men. The phrase also summarizes the methodology of a Montana journalist as he explores the proliferation of anonymous corporate contributions into American politics. Filmmaker Kimberly Reed in turn followed the story for six years while producing Dark Money, a political thriller with a touch of the Watergate movie’s intrigue, premiering on Nashville Public Television and PBS Monday, Oct. 1, on the POV independent documentary series.
Reed and Dark Money are the focus of NPT’s initial Another Perspective podcast. The podcast was recorded in front of a live audience on Sept. 12, 2018, following a free screening of Dark Money at the First Amendment Center on the Vanderbilt University campus. NPT’s Jessica Turk and the Nashville Film Festival’s Robin Robinson talked with Reed, who also answered questions from the audience.
Nashville Film Festival’s Robin Robin, NPT’s Jessica Turk and DARK MONEY filmmaker Kimberly Reed at the Another Perspective podcast recording, Sept. 12, 2018.
Dark Money was part of the May 2018 film festival, where Turk and Robinson each introduced a screening and follow-up discussion of the film.
“I saw that there was this huge community that loves documentary films and I enjoyed the conversations I was having not only with the filmmakers, but the people who were attending the film,” Turk said. “It made me feel like this was something we needed to explore. NPT had talked about having a digital first property and podcast seemed to lend itself to it.”
A grant from Our America: Documentary and Dialogue made NPT’s Another Perspective possible. “Our America focuses on communities within the Midwest, South and rural areas,” according to Erika Howard, POV’s senior director of Station Marketing and Audience Engagement. The project aims to create spaces for bipartisan discussion in the divisive climate borne out of the 2016 presidential election.
“I’ve seen that for quite some time that podcasting has a way of really engaging people who love documentary film,” Howard said. “It also helps to engage with audiences that are consuming content in different ways. There’s a lot that’s happening in the digital space, on your mobile, your laptop that I think those audiences would love to hear more about public media and should hear more. Maybe the only place they’re going to get it is through the podcast.”
NPT’s Another Perspective audience was not only riveted by Dark Money, but also motivated to act in their own communities. “We had a good turnout, we had a really engaged audience,” Robinson said. “I like a crowd that kind of talks back to the screen, I liked hearing the moans and reactions, the mutters and the gasps.”
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First, if you haven’t yet voted for your favorite novel in The Great American Read campaign, do it right now by clicking this link (we’ll wait…). Now that you’ve taken care of that, here are some NPT and A Word on Words tie-ins to the national program that you’ll want to mark on your calendar.
On TV
Episodes of The Great American Read continue weekly on NPT through Oct. 23. Upcoming shows cover literature’s “Villains & Monsters” (Tuesday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m.) and “Other Worlds” (Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m.) and other themes. In addition to that series, we’re showing two companion programs that explore literary traditions. What Makes a Great Book, airing Thursday, Sept. 27, at 9 p.m., delves into character, plot and style. This episode includes excerpts from NPT’s A Word on Words interviews with authors John Boyne, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Mohsin Hamid, as well as with poet Billy Collins.
Authors and Their Hometowns, airing Thursday, Sept. 27, at 9:30 p.m., visits the hometowns and stories of Harper Lee, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jane Austen and others. An excerpt from NPT’s A Word on Words interview with John Boyne is used in this episode.
Mary Laura Philpott, one of the A WORD ON WORDS hosts, with author John Boyne.
Southern Festival of Books
Stop by NPT’s Great American Read booth at the Southern Festival of Books, Oct. 12 – 14, at Legislative Plaza. You’ll be able to vote for your favorite novel, get a copy of the list of the top 100 books, pose for photos with various props, and collect posters, bookmarks and pins. You’ll also be able to register for a chance to win a Great American Read-themed gift basket from NPT.
On the final day of the festival, join NPT for “The Great American Read” panel discussion on Sunday, Oct. 14, noon to 1:30 p.m., in the Downtown Nashville Public Library auditorium. The session will include a brief screening of an episode of The Great American Read, followed by a discussion with Washington Post book editor Ron Charles; indie bookseller and author Joelle Herr; author Bernice L. McFadden; and bookseller and author James Mustich. We’ll give away another themed gift basket at the Sunday panel discussion.
Keep Reading!
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