Did NPR’s Tavis Smiley play hardball to get Bill Clinton on his show? (Next to last item.)

Bill McCarter, who headed Chicago’s WTTW for 27 years before retiring in 1998, died of complications from cancer April 21. He was 81. Newton Minow, a former FCC chair and WTTW trustee, recruited McCarter from WETA in Washington, D.C., to run WTTW in 1972. “I have a very high opinion and respect for Bill,” Minow once said. “He is everything you could want in a person, a broadcaster and leader. One of the keys to his success is his exquisite balance and judgment.” Minow said in a WTTW interview that McCarter had been offered the position of PBS president and turned it down on three occasions.

On May 2, 2002, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a bill 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. See also his remarks about the bill and Current coverage of the bill. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. A BILLTo allocate spectrum for the enhancement of wireless telecommunications, and to invest wireless spectrum auction proceeds for the military preparedness and educational preparedness of the United States for the digital era, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1.

Programmers at PBS and at a key group of stations put themselves on a collision course when they scheduled two different programs for the night of May 14, 2002.

The Baltimore Sun blasts Maryland Public Television for firing Rukeyser.

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Maryland Public Television and Fortune might bounce Louis Rukeyser from Wall Street Week.

NPR listeners have launched an Internet campaign to “Bring Back Linda” Wertheimer.

Hardball host Chris Matthews has apologized for dissing Jim Lehrer.

Glenn Heller, a devoted critic of Albany’s WAMC-FM, maintains an extensive collection of articles about the station at wamc.net. (Note: the enterprising Heller also owns the domains wgbh.net and wqed.net!)

The Berkshire Eagle has picked up Current‘s Feb. 25 story about the public TV series Visionaries.

Want to see how multi-channel digital terrestrial radio could work–if it ever becomes a reality? (As it stands, NPR is one of the few broadcasters pushing for the standard to include multicasting.) NPR commissioned Impulse Radio to create this demo to show how a listener could select either a music or talk stream on a digital radio. Clicking the link launches a download of the file.

Has NPR adequately addressed complaints over a report on anthrax investigations that mentioned the Traditional Values Coalition? NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin weighs in.

There’s now a website for the Public Radio Collaboration, formerly known as the Mega Project. This year’s collaboration will focus on the events and aftermath of September 11.

The latest Harper’s features an article by independent public radio producer Scott Carrier about post-Taliban Afghanistan, and Hearing Voices adds to it with pics and audio. (Warning: the first picture displayed depicts a dead man.)

Minnesota Public Radio responds to a snarky take on it in the Feb. 20 City Pages.