Investor Updates

August 2008

Greetings!

We are pleased to report that KQED Public Television took home eight Northern California EMMY® Awards from the 37th Annual Northern California EMMY® Awards ceremony held in May of 2008!

The Northern California EMMY® Awards honored KQED for community service for its Immigration in Focus initiative, and the Board of Governors' Service Medallion was presented by chapter president Lynn R. Friedman to KQED producer/editor Peter Borg. Also honored were the KQED series Truly CA, documentaries about life in the Golden State; Spark, exploring the Bay Area arts scene; QUEST, highlighting science, nature and environment issues; and Check, Please! Bay Area, a local restaurant review show.

The EMMY® is awarded for outstanding achievement in television by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. San Francisco/Northern California is one of the twenty chapters awarding regional EMMYs®. The Northern California chapter is composed of television and cable stations from Visalia to the Oregon border and includes Hawaii and Reno, Nevada. All of the entries were aired during the 2007 calendar year.

KQED Public Television's 2008 Northern California EMMY® Awards are:

Community Service Jeff Clarke, President/CEO Immigration in Focus - a collection of thought-provoking programs, special reports and events about the complex issues surrounding immigration. http://www.kqed.org/immigration

Documentary Truly CA: Gumby Dharma Gumby Dharma is the story of Art Clokey, who in 1954 took a humble slab of clay and molded it into the cartoon legend Gumby. http://www.kqed.org/arts/truly

Arts/Entertainment - Feature/Segment Spark: Henry Wessel, The Physical Presence of Light Spark blazes a trail through the diverse and prolific Bay Area arts community, featuring in-depth profiles of hundreds of local artists and arts organizations. Find more art tips and resources online at www.kqed.org/spark.

Historic/Cultural - Program Feature/Segment Spark: Shuji Ikeda, Ceramics

Public/Current/Community Affairs - Feature/Segment QUEST: Nanotechnology Takes Off QUEST puts the Bay Area under a microscope, exploring the stories and people that impact science, nature, and environmental issues across Northern California. http://www.kqed.org/quest/

Public/Current/Community Affairs - Program/Special QUEST: Better Bees/Landslide Detectives/Young Science Authors

Interview/Discussion - Program/Special Check, Please! Bay Area Turning local diners into food critics, Bay Area residents eager to discover the latest in food trends, from the simplest café to the four-star destination, dish about their favorite dining destinations. Find a new restaurant or rediscover an old favorite on Check, Please! Bay Area. http://blogs.kqed.org/food/

Special Awards: Governors' Service Medallion: Peter Borg

NCPB (KQED, KTEH, KQET, KQEI) also recently received 12 awards from our peers at the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club, a professional journalism organization serving the greater Bay Area in the areas of Newspaper, TV, Radio, Internet, Magazines and Public Relations. First place awards were received for "Earth Day Special: Where We've Been, Where We're Headed" (KQED TV), "Riding the Storm: Landslide Danger in the San Francisco Bay Area" (KTEH), "Quest Press Kit" (KQED), "Jessica's Law" (KQED FM), "Writer, Calvin Trillin" (KQED FM), and "Sneak Out: One Community's Rebellion for Better Education" (KQED FM).

KQED Public Radio was also recognized as a leader in public broadcasting, as the rating book Arbitron credits the station with the highest cumulative audience ever reported for public radio. The Winter Book reports 837,400 listeners per week for the Bay Area station. KQED frequently trades places with WNYC in New York for the most public radio listeners, a significant achievement given the much larger population in the New York area. For the Arbitron Winter 2008 Book, WNYC is credited with 748,000 weekly listeners.

It is with great honor that we accept these awards on behalf of the Board and staff at NCPB, as well as for the foundations that generously fund our work. Thank you for supporting KQED.

Sincerely,

Jayme Burke Director,
Foundation and Government Support
415/553-3318
jburke@kqed.org

 

March 27, 2008

As you may know, QUEST, KQED's multimedia science and environment series, launched in February 2007 and quickly garnered attention for its diverse elements and clear aims: raising science literacy in the Bay Area with a combination of educational media and timely reporting. The project's integrated approach to media production--which for the first time brought radio, television, internet, and education staff to the same editorial table--was a breakthrough for KQED and many in our industry, including our peer broadcasters and media producers recognized it. As Mike Antonucci of the San Jose Mercury News put it, QUEST is "reinvigorating science and environment in the broadcast media." Eric Simons went a step further, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review that QUEST is "pioneering ways to use digital technology to smartly cover hard science for a mainstream audience."

The project's editorial framework aside, the broad collaborative of Bay Area science and research institutions contributing to QUEST made clear during the first season that we share a collective responsibility when seeking to affect change...and the project's diverse funding partnerships, from institutions such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to The Sierra Club Foundation, further illuminated that fact. With an impressive blend of partner organizations and foundation supporters, QUEST's coverage from Mendocino to Monterey, Sacramento to Santa Clara, is bringing renewed light to the region's scientific and environmental wonders. Focusing specifically on the content areas of astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, environment, geology, health, physics, and weather, QUEST's educational media, accompanying educator guides and teacher workshops are also helping to strengthen science education.

Besides producing new, cutting-edge, local science and environment stories, QUEST quickly became a national leader by employing new ways to distribute educational content online, from radio and television reports to the project's accompanying educator guides and curricular resources. Whether partnering with Apple to provide content to iTunesU, working with Bay Area publications to embed related video into online newspaper reports, or outreaching to the online community via blog posts and YouTube, QUEST is redefining public broadcasting's distribution model.

Now entering its second season, QUEST will continue its explorations and investigations into the innovative science happening in Northern California. Among the adventures planned for the project's second season are the hunt off California's coast for Humboldt squid, the search for extraterrestrial life, and a look at local research into cures for Alzheimer's disease. All this in addition to the next generation of green fuel alternatives, the world's largest laser beam, and the secrets of San Francisco Bay's least known predators--sharks.

QUEST television premieres Tuesday, April 1, 2008, at 7:30pm on KQED 9 and KQED HD (Comcast 709). Starting April 7, QUEST radio will be aired every Monday morning at 6:30am and 8:30am. Don't happen to watch television on Tuesday or catch KQED's airing of Morning Edition on a given Monday? All of QUEST's radio reports and television segments can also be caught at www.kqed.org/quest, whenever, wherever.

QUEST really is a unique production, not just for Bay Area fans of public broadcasting, but for the many educators, students, and science museum attendees coming into contact with QUEST through curriculum and community outreach. With 20 half-hour television segments, 48 radio reports, 20 educator guides, and 16 regional partners, QUEST's second season promises something for all of us. If you happen to have grantees that you think might benefit from the educational outreach or community engagement offered by QUEST, contact ScienceEd@kqed.org. And, as always, I hope you won't hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, or requests for more program information.

Here's hoping you enjoy Season Two of QUEST!

Best regards,

Jayme Burke
Director of Foundation Relations
(415) 553-3318
jburke@kqed.org