KCET's 'SoCal Connected' Wins Peabody Award
KCET's PBS Presentation of 'Inventing LA: The Chandlers & Their Times,' also Wins Peabody
LOS ANGELES -- March 31, 2010 -- Two KCET programs have won the prestigious Peabody Award, for the best in electronic media, it was announced today by the University of Georgia. KCET's six-time Emmy® Award-winning weekly news program SoCal Connected received the Peabody for "Up in Smoke," an investigation into the proliferation of medical marijuana facilities in the Los Angeles region, and "Cannabis Cowboys," an insider's view of a 36-hour sting operation to destroy marijuana crops run by drug cartels inside California national parks. The PBS broadcast of Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times, presented nationally by KCET, also earned a Peabody Award.
The 69th Annual Peabody Awards, which honored work produced and broadcast in 2009, cited SoCal Connected's reports as "lively, eye-opening coverage" that includes "a revelation that there are now more legal medical-marijuana dispensaries in [Los Angeles] than Starbucks franchises." (That was in October 2009. In follow-up report five months later, SoCal Connected reported there are now more medical marijuana dispensaries in the city than Starbucks, McDonald's and 7-11 franchises combined). The award committee also singled out SoCal Connected for its "rare look" at "an elite police team of pot-farm eradicators."
"Up in Smoke" is reported by Correspondent Judy Muller, produced by Karen Foshay and edited by Alberto Arce. "Cannabis Cowboys" is reported by Correspondent John Larson, produced by Rick Wilkinson and edited by Michael Bloecher. Associate producer is Alexandria Gales. Also winning are SoCal Connected's Executive Producer Bret Marcus and Senior Producer Justine Schmidt.
Of Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times, the award committee praised filmmaker Peter Jones for his work on "digging into the lives and machinations of the first family of Los Angeles newspapers...and [finding] drama enough for several feature films." Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times is written, directed and produced by Peter Jones.
About SoCal Connected
SoCal Connected, recent winner of six Emmys, eight Golden Mikes, including Best News Public Affairs Show, five LA Press Club awards for journalism, recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best News Documentary, and Los Angeles Magazine's "Best New Local TV Program" of 2009, airs Thursdays (8:00 - 8:30 p.m.), Fridays (8:30 - 9:00 p.m.), Saturdays (6:00 - 6:30 p.m.), and Sundays (6:30 - 7:00 p.m.) exclusively on KCET. Executive producer of SoCal Connected is Bret Marcus.
For more information, to view episodes online or to post comments, please visit www.kcet.org/socal.
SoCal Connected is made possible through the generous support of The Ahmanson Foundation, serving the Los Angeles community since 1952; Jim and Anne Rothenberg; Linda and Abbott Brown; The Elizabeth Hofert-Dailey Trust; The John Randolph Haynes & Dora Haynes Foundation; The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, UCLA and U.S. Bank.
About Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times
Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times, a documentary by Emmy-winning filmmaker Peter Jones, tells the story of the Los Angeles Times and the city's most powerful family. Narrated by Live Schreiber, with passages, read by Academy Award® nominee Hal Holbrook, the film made its television broadcast premiere on PBS. Presented nationally on PBS in association with KCET Los Angeles, Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times is written, directed and produced by Peter Jones. Supervising producer is Brian Tessier. Executive in Charge of Production for KCET is Bohdan Zachary. Executive Producer is Peter Jones. Music is by Earl Rose. Fiscal sponsor is International Documentary Association. Underwriting is provided by The Charles B. Thornton Family, The California Council for the Humanities' California Stories Initiative, The Skirball Foundation, The David Bohnett Foundation and PBS.
About KCET
On-air, online and in the community, KCET plays a vital role in the cultural and educational enrichment of Southern and Central California. More than four million viewers watch KCET in the average month. KCET is the most-watched PBS station in Southern California and the second most-watched public television station in the nation. KCET has the largest geographic reach of any PBS station in California. In addition to its far-reaching broadcast signal, KCET is carried on satellite systems and on nearly 150 cable systems in 11 counties. Viewers from San Luis Obispo to San Diego, from Palm Springs to the Pacific Coast can enjoy the station's high-quality programs.
National PBS series produced from the station's Hollywood studios include four-time NAACP Award winner Tavis Smiley and the Peabody Award-winning series A Place Of Our Own and Los Niños En Su Casa. The educational animated series Sid The Science Kid is co-produced for PBS by KCET and The Jim Henson Company. KCET also produces the Emmy® Award-winning SoCal Connected, a hard-hitting prime-time weekly television news program that examines the issues and people of Southern California.
Throughout its more than 40-year history, KCET has won hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions, its quality educational family and children's programs, its outreach and community services and its Web site, kcet.org.
KCET is a donor-supported community institution. More than half of the funds raised to support KCET's operating budget come from individual support. For additional information about KCET productions, Web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org.
