“What’s up with WYMS?” is a site devoted to the embattled Milwaukee radio station.

Raquel Welch (born Jo-Raquel Tejada) is “strutting her ethnicity” for the first time in the PBS drama American Family.

Public broadcasting is getting more corporate, says the Washington Times.

The proliferation of kids’ media and new thinking about how children watch TV have forced Sesame Street to catch up with the times, says a New York Times piece. (Related Current article, 11/19/01.)

The FCC will hold two open meetings June 27 to hear public comment about WFUV-FM‘s plans to shorten its broadcasting tower to keep it near the New York Botanical Garden. ‘FUV and the Garden have been fighting over the tower’s location for six years, according to ‘FUV’s website. Here’s the FCC’s announcement in PDF, text and Word formats.

The Yiddish Radio Project has started a “Gems from the Yiddish Radio Archive” feature on its website, a 26-week series of classic archived broadcasts. (Current‘s write-up of the Project, 2/11/02.)

Chicago’s WTTW-TV laid off fifteen employees last week, according to a Chicago Sun-Times report. The station faces a $3.4 million shortfall in next year’s budget, the story says.

Michigan Radio and Flint’s WFUM-TV have merged to become Michigan Public Media. Donovan Reynolds, former Michigan Radio g.m., will lead the operation. Five staffers (four in radio, one in TV) have lost their jobs.

The L. A. Times profiles Eva Georgia, new g.m. of L. A. Pacifica station KPFK.

On June 10, 2002, Sens. Christopher Dodd and James Jeffords introduced a bill (S. 2603) to authorize the investment of spectrum auction proceeds in public-service content for digital media, apparently inspired in part by the Digital Promise Project of 1991. Rep. Edward Markey earlier introduced a similar bill in the House. The Senate bill was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. A BILLTo establish the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the `Digital Opportunity Investment Trust Act’.

There’s new stuff up at WYMS.org, which, oddly enough, is registered to Milwaukee Public Schools.

An Oregonian report says Oregon Public Broadcasting cut about 24 jobs—15 percent of its staff—yesterday, in response to the weak economy. Several higher-ups were included. (More coverage in the Portland Tribune.)

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer couldn’t keep his NPR sweatshirt (and why was the network giving him one, anyway?). So who has it now? (Second item.)

CPB was a lead funder of the report on schools and the Internet, “Are We There Yet?,” released yesterday by the National School Boards Foundation. Primo soundbite on NPR jibed the schools for depending heavily on kids for computer setup and troubleshooting. Schools use the Web mostly for teachers’ research and lesson planning, very little for students’ work, report says.

Maryland PTV hires “media crisis manager,” who formerly repped for Linda Tripp. Baltimore Sun stopped taking his pitches after he passed the paper bad information in fall 2000.