Thursday roundup: Utah station threatened by CPB grant rules; Public Radio Capital rebrands

D-Day 360 will recreate the events of the invasion of Normandy using 3-D modeling. (Photo: PBS)

• Freeform community station KZMU-FM in Moab, Utah, may lose its $70,000 Community Service Grant from CPB if it can’t build a larger donor base to meet CPB’s new funding standards. The station relies on the grant for more than half its budget, according to the Moab Sun News. “This news isn’t a terminal diagnosis, it’s just a strong call to action,” station program manager Christy Williams said.

• The consulting company Public Radio Capital has rebranded itself as Public Media Company to reflect its expanding mission, the company announced Wednesday. Public Media Company will also expand its services with Channel X, an online marketplace for video content, and the Public Media Database, a platform to help stations measure their performance.

• The PBS special D-Day 360, premiering May 27, will use forensic laser-scanning data and three-dimensional modeling to digitally recreate the WWII invasion of Normandy. The special, produced by Windfall Films, is timed to the event’s 70th anniversary.

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s challenge to a company’s podcasting patent cleared a hurdle this week, as the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the foundation had a valid reason to challenge Personal Audio’s claims to the technology. The EFF filed the petition in October 2013 in response to Personal Audio, which has filed lawsuits against independent podcasters and sent threatening communications to public broadcasters. The PTAB’s ruling upholds EFF’s right to challenge Personal Audio and rejects a request filed by the company claiming otherwise.

Though Personal Audio has another chance to defend its patent before the board, “we are very pleased that our challenge will proceed and look forward to presenting the strongest possible case that Personal Audio did not invent podcasting,” writes EFF’s Daniel Nazer.