Current (https://current.org/2003/08/)
The FCC has released its notice of proposed rule making for the digital conversion of low-power TV stations, translators and booster stations. The commission announced the proposal at its Aug. 6 meeting (PDF). The agency also extended the filing deadline by a month for comments on an interference study of low-power FM. NPR and IAAIS had asked for 90 days.
The performing rights organization SESAC will use a new “digital fingerprinting technology” to keep tabs on which of its artists are being played on college and other noncommercial radio stations, reports Radio World.
Bill Moyers discusses the Bush administration’s environmental record in the online mag Grist: “You have to go all the way back to the crony capitalism of the Harding administration to find a president who invited such open and crass exploitation of the common wealth.”
Isothermal Community College in Spindale, N.C., will hold on to noncommercial station WNCW-FM, reports The Greenville News.
Members of the Association of Independents in Radio recently discussed the Public Radio Exchange at length with PRX’s executive director, Jake Shapiro.
The Pacifica Foundation adopted new bylaws Aug. 23, allowing for the election of a new national board and Local Advisory Boards.
Washington Week’s Gwen Ifill shares her favorite foods, books, music and so forth with the Washingtonian. (Second item.)
The folks at Public Radio Weekend have posted a new pilot episode of their show. This time they’re going for more substance and more of a “live” sound.
New Hampshire Public Radio is sharing its classical music library with a new low-power FM station in Concord devoted to classical, reports the Concord Monitor.
After an all-out legal and public-relations war for control of the five-station Pacifica Radio chain and its national network, the winning activists established one of the most complex and democratic governance systems in broadcasting. AMENDED AND RESTATED BYLAWS OF PACIFICA FOUNDATION
A California Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation
ARTICLE ONE IDENTITY AND PURPOSE
SECTION 1. NAME SECTION 1. NAME
The name of this corporation is the PACIFICA FOUNDATION, and it shall be referred to in these Bylaws as the “Foundation”. SECTION 2.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell says he’ll soon open a low-power FM settlement window as part of a new “Localism in Broadcasting” initiative. (Release in PDF, Word document.)
San Francisco Chronicle critic Jon Carroll calls NPR’s new Day to Day “regrettable” and says KQED’s TV lineup needs a boost. [Current coverage of Day to Day.]
Tavis Smiley will host a late-night talk show on PBS, starting Jan. 5. [Earlier Current coverage of Smiley’s NPR show.]
NPR and the International Association of Audio Information Services have asked the FCC for more time to reply to a study of low-power FM interference. They requested a 90-day extension of the deadline, originally set for Sept. 12.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bob Graham showed up on a recent (off-the-air) performance of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, reports the Concord Monitor.
Radio drama isn’t dead, notes the New York Times, but it’s not exactly thriving either.
Bob Edwards tells The Tennessean that union-management relations at NPR have been “a little testy” lately: “A nonprofit thinks it’s doing God’s work, whether it’s NPR, the Red Cross or NATO. They’re doing God’s work and how can you argue with God? — that’s their attitude. So sometimes you need a union to just cut through that.”
A decision on the fate of WNCW-FM in Spindale, N.C., has been postponed for two weeks, reports the Asheville Citizen-Times. [More coverage in the Rutherford County Daily Courier and the Hendersonville Times-News.]
iBiquity Digital Corp. says it has resolved problems with audio encoding at low bit rates by using HDC, a newly developed codec. Engineers who have heard tests back up iBiquity’s claims. iBiquity has also extended its licensing fee waiver to public stations until Aug. 29 and agreed to waive royalties on ancillary data services used for noncommercial programming.