FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- Ready for a big January launch, credit union sponsors of the Biz Kid$ PBS show teaching young people about finances are now counting 130 TV stations with planned penetration in 31 states.
"Ideally, we'd like to have all 340 stations but we know that a project like this takes time to get out the message of its worthiness," said Roxanne Kruger, project coordinator and senior vice president of the Washington Credit Union Foundation.
The 26-episode series is underwritten by a national CU coalition spearheaded by the Washington Credit Union League and with $2 million in funding from the National Credit Union Foundation. The show, produced in Seattle by veterans of the successful "Bill Nye the Science Guy" show, will air on PBS outlets in the nation's top three markets: Los Angeles, on Jan. 9; Chicago, Jan. 13 and New York, Jan. 11.
Biz Kid$, which has been on the drawing boards since March 2006, is produced in association with Junior Achievement Worldwide and WXXI Public Broadcasting, a lead PBS station in Rochester, N.Y. which since August has actively been promoting the telecast to sister stations in the network and joined by a PBS entity, American Public TV.
As part of the marketing linkup with participating CUs, Kruger said materials including customized newsletter articles, lobby posters and statement stuffers will be mailed out over the holidays so CUs can use them to create local tie-in.
