Quick Takes - March 29, 2013

Undone ‘Connection’?

“SoCal Connected” might be going dark for good.

The award-winning nightly news show on KCET-TV has just wrapped its fifth season, but staffers fear the program won’t be coming back because of lack of funds.

“As happens every year, there are questions about the show’s future,” Bret Marcus, the show’s executive producer and a senior vice president at the station, wrote in a statement. “And the answer is always the same: ‘SoCal Connected’ depends on public funding and we don’t know at this time what that funding will be.”

The picture looks much darker than in years past, however.

KCET’s financial results have deteriorated since it left the PBS network several years ago and forged a path as the nation’s largest independent public TV station. For the fiscal year ending June 2012 — the most recent for which figures are available — the station posted a net loss of $7.4 million, according to audited financial statements. KCET had only about $80,000 cash on hand as opposed to $1.5 million the previous year

—Scott Collins

Charlie Daniels is on the mend

Country singer Charlie Daniels is recovering after having a pacemaker implanted Thursday, a representative said.

Daniels, 76, was diagnosed Monday with “a mild case of pneumonia.” Tests at a Nashville-area hospital revealed that he needed a pacemaker to regulate his heart rate.

He’s scheduled to be released Friday.

Daniels has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry for five years. His hits include “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

—Associated Press

Ex-Getty official gets S.F. arts post

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco have named Colin Bailey as director.

Bailey, who most recently served as the deputy director and chief curator at the Frick Collection in New York, will head the De Young Museum and the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

The Fine Arts Museums have been without a director since the death in 2011 of John Buchanan.

Born in Britain, Bailey has held positions at a number of leading art institutions, including the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

—David Ng

Taliban victim to publish book

Malala Yousafzai, the girl who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen while riding a bus to school in Pakistan last year, will publish a book in October.

“I Am Malala” will be published in English by Little, Brown in both the United States and England, where Malala was hospitalized after she was attacked for her bold and public stand on education, which contravened the Taliban’s policies.

The bullet passed through her head but she survived, undergoing skull reconstruction surgery in England last month. Earlier this month, she returned to school, this time in Birmingham, England.

In a release about the book, Malala, 15, said: “I hope the book will reach people around the world, so they realize how difficult it is for some children to get access to education. I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can’t get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right.”

—Jenny Hendrix

Finally

Staying put: Britney Spears and Antonio “L.A.” Reid have departed, but singer-songwriter Demi Lovato will return as a judge on Fox’s “The X Factor.”

Guest star: Taylor Swift will be a guest star on the May 14 season finale of the Fox sitcom “New Girl.”