Two Milwaukee college students have been chosen to take part in a recreation of the 1961 Freedom Ride.
Milwaukee Public TV says Maricela Aguilar of Marquette University's Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, and Alicia Skeeter, a UW-Milwaukee education policy and community studies major, will be among the 40 students from around the country retracing the steps of the original campaign against segregation.
You'll be able to follow their journey via the Internet.
It's part of PBS' "outreach" program for its "American Experience" documentary, "Freedom Riders," which premieres May 16 at 8 p.m. on Channel 10. A local companion show, "Freedom Walkers for Milwaukee," will air at 6:30 that evening on Channel 10.
The Big Unit resurfaces: After leaving WTMJ-AM (620), sports talker Bill Michaels has resurfaced on-line at Bill Michaels Sports, where he's sharing his insights. You can also follow him on Twitter.
On TV: Channel 6 is using its 6.2 over-the-air sub-channel to air "Taking Action for the Tennessee Valley" at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The 90-minute telethon originates from sister station WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Ala. and is designed to help victims of the recent storms. That's Channel 986 on Time Warner Cable.
- Nielsen Media Research said the president's late-night Sunday speech announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden drew an audience of 56.5 million. That may Barack Obama's biggest TV audience since taking office, more remarkable because the speech started at about 10:35 p.m.
- With CBS passing on a Katie Couric daytime talk show, attention is focused on ABC to pick up the soon-to-be former anchor.
- CBS says Neil Patrick Harris will again host the Tony Awards, which air June 12 on the network.
- Comedy Central has ordered another season of "Workaholics."
- Jerry Seinfeld's new Web site -- which promises to be his "personal archives" -- launches Friday.
- ABC has pulled "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" from the schedule during the May sweeps period. The final four episodes will air next month.
- BBC America is launching a Saturday night "comedy block," starting at 9 p.m. with an hour of "The Graham Norton Show," and followed by various new Britcoms, including the third season of the teen comedy "The Inbetweeners." It starts June 18.
- If you're looking for a last-minute e-card to send to mom, ABC's "Modern Family" has some for you on its Facebook page.
Will Ferrell weighs in as George W. Bush: There hasn't been much call for Will Ferrell's George W. Bush imitation lately. But the comedian used the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden as a reason to resurrect the role in this Funny or Die video.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
