Public Broadcast System

"Life & Times," KCET-TV Channel 28's half-hour public affairs series, will go live five nights a week, beginning in January, station President and Chief Executive Officer Al Jerome said Wednesday. This will mark the first time in more than 20 years that KCET has had a live presence Monday through Friday nights. Only one of "Life & Time's" five weeknight editions currently airs live. The announcement came after the public television station's board on Tuesday adopted a $47.

"Life & Times," KCET-TV Channel 28's half-hour public affairs series, will go live five nights a week, beginning in January, station President and Chief Executive Officer Al Jerome said Wednesday. This will mark the first time in more than 20 years that KCET has had a live presence Monday through Friday nights. Only one of "Life & Time's" five weeknight editions currently airs live. The announcement came after the public television station's board on Tuesday adopted a $47.

It is not surprising that liberal Tom Shales would defend the left-leaning Public Broadcast System (TV Times, May 31). PBS has become a record of bias in favor of the liberal agenda in American politics. It is not therefore surprising that liberals like Shales want to maintain a medium that influences public opinion in favor of liberal beliefs. What is surprising is that Shales cannot understand why conservatives will not accept the liberal status quo in a tax-supported medium that supports the liberal agenda.

James Walden "Jim" Kennedy, a former producer and writer for television stations KCBS and KCET, where he started the news program "Life & Times," has died. He was 65. Kennedy died Oct. 5 at his home in Palo Alto of liver cancer brought on by hepatitis C, said his daughter, Laura Kennedy. Although he spent much of his life in Santa Monica, Kennedy moved to Palo Alto in 1995 and earned a second master's degree, in social work from San Jose State University.

Ending a yearlong dispute with Cardinal Roger M. Mahony over televising a documentary that assailed the Roman Catholic Church's response to AIDS, KCET Channel 28 has revised its broadcast guidelines and pledged to offer a "balance of views" in all future programming.

In a move expected to have major impact on the nation's television industry, the Federal Communications Commission Thursday required most U.S. cable-TV companies to continue carrying some local over-the-air TV stations and non-commercial TV signals for the next five years.

A state appeals court for the second time ruled Friday that an Orange County community college district should not have sold its public television station to a foundation instead of televangelists who offered more money. The 4th District Court of Appeal said the Coast Community College District can either keep KOCE-TV or put it up for sale again. The district already has transferred the station and broadcast license to the nonprofit KOCE-TV Foundation, and neither is sure what will happen next.

Deepak Chopra--New Age superstar, guru to the rich and famous and millions of others, praised and damned for his beliefs about the mind's dominion over the body--is about to settle into a couch in his intimate, soft-toned La Jolla office and explain his latest projects. His movie screenplays. (One is described as "Independence Day" meets Siddhartha.) His hip-hop CD from Time Warner's Tommy Boy Records division (and maybe a cameo in the video).