Goodbye, Hello

I've been covering so many other things on this blog, I completely missed this noteworthy story regarding NJTV, the successor to the public New Jersey Network television service in the Garden State. NJTV, committed to providing a minimum of New Jersey-related content, has brought back Michael Aron, late of the old New Jersey Network, to provide content. The announcement was made three weeks ago.

Mr. Aron will host newly produced versions of his old NJN shows, "On The Record" and "Reporters Roundtable," with premiere dates to be announced. He is already filing reports for "NJ Today Summer Edition," the current weeknightly news show on NJN, and he will also contribute statehouse coverage to the all-new "NJ Today" show that premieres in the fall and replaces the summer edition program. More than a just reporter, he is also joining the Foundation for New Jersey Public Broadcasting (FNJBP) as Vice President of News and Public Affairs.

I should have suspected that Mr. Aron would not be out of work for long. He is too respected and too valuable a reporter to be sidelined for long. And this will certainly put more of a New Jersey stamp on NJTV, which is being run out of New York City by WNET. Much of the standard-fare PBS programming that has appeared on NJTV so far suggested that NJTV would become the television equivalent of the old Bamberger's department store, a New Jersey entity taken over by a New York institution (Macy's, in the case of Bamberger's) and having all the Jersey drained out of it. With Michael Aron serving as NJTV's news and public affairs vice president, that is now guaranteed not to happen. :-)