California Connected was a television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 newsmagazine

Newsmagazine

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

 that broadcast stories about the state of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 to "increase civic engagement." The show was created by Marley Klaus and aired on twelve PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 member stations throughout California. In 2006, former NBC producer Bret Marcus took over as executive producer. The program was cancelled in 2007 due to a lack of funding.

The program debuted in 2002 with host David Brancaccio

David Brancaccio

David A. Brancaccio is an American radio and television journalist. He has been the host of the public radio business program Marketplace and the PBS newsmagazine NOW.-Early years:...

; he anchored the show from the Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 studios of then-PBS station KCET

KCET

KCET, channel 28, is an independent, non-commercial public television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KCET's studio is located on West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is atop Mount Wilson. Al Jerome is the current CEO and President, serving since 1996.KCET was...

. Lisa McRee

Lisa McRee

Lisa McRee is an American television journalist and former news anchor, born in Fort Worth, Texas.She was a news anchor for WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, from 1989 to 1991 before becoming one of the original anchors, along with Aaron Brown, of ABC News' World News Now when the show launched in 1992...

 replaced Brancaccio in 2004. Rather than anchor from a television studio

Television studio

A television studio is an installation in which a video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the...

, McRee hosted the show from a different Californian location each week. A total of 154 episodes were taped.

"California Connected" won more than 65 regional and national awards and, in 2007, the program won its first Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award

DuPont-Columbia Award

The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award is an American award that honors excellence in broadcast journalism. The awards, administered since 1968 by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, are considered a broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another...

 for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for a story titled, War Stories From Ward 7-D.

California Connected was co-produced by the following four PBS stations: KCET

KCET

KCET, channel 28, is an independent, non-commercial public television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KCET's studio is located on West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is atop Mount Wilson. Al Jerome is the current CEO and President, serving since 1996.KCET was...

 in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, KQED in San Francisco, KVIE

KVIE

KVIE is the local PBS Public television station in Sacramento, California, USA. Its transmitter is located near Walnut Grove, California. The station broadcasts from a 2000 foot tall tower owned by KTXL...

 in Sacramento

Sacramento

Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...

, and KPBS in San Diego. The theme music

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

 was written by Christopher Cross

Christopher Cross

Christopher Cross is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him five Grammys. He is perhaps best known for his Top Ten hit songs, "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind", and "Arthur's Theme ", the last of which he performed for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore...

 and Stephen Bray

Stephen Bray

Stephen Bray is an American songwriter, drummer, and record producer from Detroit. Bray is best known for his collaboration with Madonna.Bray began studying music through private instruction in Detroit, and continued his education at Berklee College of Music in Boston.Bray owns and operates Saturn...

. Major funding came from: The James Irvine Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The California Endowment, and the Annenberg Foundation.

California Connected will continue to provide access to its website, audio files, videos, blog, and RSS feed.