• Gastropods are causing problems for Hawaii Public Radio, which has been unable to broadcast to parts of the islands since a storm knocked out power to a relay facility. Endangered tree snails near the affected electrical lines forced the power company to coordinate with state agencies as it fixes the problem. The holdup prompted The Atlantic‘s Adrienne LaFrance to examine public radio’s efforts to adapt to the digital era: “[D]espite bright spots of exception, radio has been slow to adapt,” she writes. “If print media has its dinosaurs, perhaps broadcast has its snails.”
UPDATE (10:45 a.m.): Though endangered snails were in the area requiring attention from the power company, they weren’t mating, Hawaii Public Radio tells us — just doing routine snail stuff. We’ve corrected the item above and had to take down a photo of snails getting it on. Sorry, but you’ll have to get your snail porn elsewhere!
• The editorial page of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review takes aim at WQED and the high salary it pays to its chief executive. “Lavishing $259,878 in total 2012-13 compensation on CEO Deborah Acklin with one hand and incessantly outstretching the other to beg donations from its audience, all while receiving taxpayer dollars and repeatedly cutting lower-level positions, make WQED Multimedia Pittsburgh a fiscal failure,” the paper says.
• Podcaster and independent radio producer Yowei Shaw is one of three USA Knight Fellows for 2014. Selected by United States Artists, a national grantmaking and advocacy group, the fellows each receive $50,000 to use as they choose and an additional $5,000 for a community engagement project. Shaw created Philly Youth Radio and has contributed to This American Life, Studio 360 and NPR’s newsmagazines.
• Mashable takes an in-depth look at Curious City, the crowdsourced reporting project that launched at Chicago’s WBEZ in 2012. “Our colleague jokes that we do ‘joynalism.’ I totally feel that,” says founder Jennifer Brandel. “There’s a certain kind of magic to approaching a story when it comes from a genuine place of wonder, and not from an assignment.” The Curious City model is expanding to Seattle, Detroit and Boston, among other cities.