First, this made me sad: due to a loss of funding and broadcast rights, Reading Rainbow will leave broadcast schedules on 28 August 2009.
The Reading Rainbow series has not been in production for several years and PBS had taken it out of the weekday feed schedule last fall to make room for the new literacy-based shows. WTVP continued to air the series at that time.
Neither PBS nor producing station WNED, Buffalo were able to fund another cycle of renewals, nor were they able to identify a new corporate funder. The series will continue to be available to educators via non-broadcast distribution and off-air educational rights will remain in effect for a year following the last broadcast of each episode.
I never thought of LeVar Burton in reference to Star Trek or Roots – he was the “Reading Rainbow” guy. How sad.
In related news, on 4 August, heavy rains and flash flooding caused a buttload of damage in Louisville, Kentucky. Damages at the Louisville Free Public Library main branch are estimated at over $1 million.
Shiloh Walker, a local area resident, is putting together a bookdrive to help:
Everybody:
Donations of new books, all genres. Information about monetary donations can be found at WFPL.
Authors & Publishers:
Donations of both signed and unsigned books. All genres, from children’s books to romance to non-fiction, etc, etc.
Signed books can be used in fundraiser purposes. Unsigned books can be used to help replenish the books that were lost due to the flood.
I have spoken with somebody with the library and at this time, they have no place to store books. However, I’m close and I will keep the books at my house until they are able to take them.
For those wishing to donate books, there are two ways you can send them. I can either receive them my post box address or a friend will receive them at her home.
If you wish to mail them via the USPS, send to:
Shiloh Walker
PO Box 976
Jeffersonville, IN 47131
The romance community is truly amazing.
Reading Rainbow is leaving the air? That’s awful. 🙁 My kids enjoy watching it.
Thanks for posting the info about the book drive. The Courier Journal released new figures-they are estimating damages at a minimum of $5 million now. They lost 50,000 books, three of their book mobiles, a slew of electrical equipment and some of their passenger elevators are ruined. 🙁
Damn.
How many shows on TV have hunky black dudes talking about reading?
Not enough.
This is horrible! I grew up on Reading Rainbow. How could they???
That is like getting rid of Sesame Street.
That is just fucking awful. I grew up on Reading Rainbow (I also grew up in Buffalo, but I didn’t know WNED was the producing station).
Shiloh was a real mensch when I did the fundraiser earlier this year. I’ll be shipping out books on Monday.
I wonder if they could release Reading Rainbow on DVD—-I would love to give the set to my kids.
I’m not an author or a publisher, but I’m going to pass the hat around here at the library and see if I can get a donation together for Louisville—-I remember visiting that library whenI was a kid—we had family in Louisville.
Let’s all give to the Library and let’s all write to PBS!!!nwwsws 36…much more is needed!!!
OOPS needed36… Let’s all give!!!
What a shame, it was an excellent series. It’s a real loss for young children.
I am heartbroken that Reading Rainbow is leaving the air! I watched it religiously as a child, and most of my romance websites are like my adult version of it! I would see a book, think it looked good, and go acquire it for myself.
It was also the source of some of my childhood precocity. I was THAT sassy 10-year-old who, when my father offered to take me to Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, I calmly said, “That’s ok, Daddy, but if you don’t mind, I’d really rather see Cats.” I had seen it on Reading Rainbow!
Boo on that poor decision!
This news about Reading Rainbow makes me SO SAD. I, too, grew up watching it (and DESPERATELY wanting to be one of the kids reviewing book on it … I still would love to be one of those kids. Or one of the adults reading the featured book. *sigh*)
What is the world coming to?