WVIA, the PBS member station for the Scranton, Pa., area, is a guest star in the final season of the hit NBC sitcom The Office. The series, based on a BBC show of the same name, follows the quirky lives of employees in the local branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Co., all subjects of an ongoing but unnamed documentary project. This season, the fictional film crew and their movie project are slowly becoming part of the plot as the real series winds down. And the documentary crew is revealed to be working for WVIA. In fact, “in the last couple shows the plot points revolve around us,” said Tom Curra, WVIA e.v.p.

Marita Rivero, vice president and general manager for radio and television at producing powerhouse WGBH, is stepping down after nearly 30 years at the Boston station. Effective in June, Rivero will be succeeded by Liz Cheng as g.m. for television and Phil Redo as g.m. for radio. Cheng is currently g.m. of WGBH’s national digital multicast channel World, which she will continue to oversee. Redo is managing director of 89.7 WGBH and WCAI. Rivero will remain of counsel to WGBH leadership, today’s announcement noted. “Marita’s leadership and commitment have exemplified the highest ideals of our public service mission,” WGBH President and CEO Jon Abbott said in the statement.

Rick Roberts, general manager of Houston’s KTSU until his retirement in 1995, died March 21 from complications from a stroke after he was reportedly assaulted in his home. He was 72.

The top station official at WJFF-FM, community radio in Jeffersonville, N.Y., has resigned following a public protest over his management style, reports the local Times Herald-Record. Winston Clark, who lead the station for four years, submitted his resignation Wednesday night at the board of directors’ meeting and leaves the station today. According to the newspaper, many longtime volunteers and others insisted that programming and personnel decisions were made behind closed doors instead of in consultation with a community advisory board. They contend the advisory board hasn’t had a full meeting in years, as required by CPB, “which has been reviewing the charges and monitoring the WJFF situation,” the report noted.

The licensee of KJZZ and KBAQ in Phoenix has asked the FCC for temporary permission to sidestep the agency’s rules governing language in underwriting announcements in a test of whether “enhanced” sponsor messages could boost income. In a March 18 letter to the FCC, the Maricopa County Community College District proposed a three-year trial window “to conduct a limited and controlled demonstration project to test a modified loosening of the Commission’s enhanced underwriting policies.” Under the looser rules, KBAQ and KJZZ would air announcements that include: “factually accurate information concerning interest rates available at underwriter banks, credit unions, automobile dealerships, and other local businesses”; notification of sales and special events such as discounts and promotions; and qualitative adjectives based on factual data, such as “certified,” “accredited,” “award-winning,” “experienced” or “long-established.”

The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH in Boston is permanently waiving license fees for its patented movie-theater captioning system, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its work to improve media for users with disabilities. Larry Goldberg, WGBH’s director of media access and head of NCAM, told Current that most theaters have made a one-time payment of around $2,000 for the license. The center hopes the waiver will encourage more theaters to offer Rear Window Captioning, one of several systems available for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. More than 400 theaters nationwide have installed the technology since it was first available in 1996, WGBH said in a statement.

Dylan Wrynn, a 1992 Antioch grad who chose Pete Tridish (from “petri dish”) as his nom de guerre, founded Prometheus Radio in 1998 to use radio as a force for social change in areas such as housing, environmentalism, health care, antiwar activism and criminal-justice reform. A trained radio engineer who has helped build stations across the U.S., Guatemala, Colombia, Nepal, Tanzania and Jordan, Tridish considers himself — according to Antioch’s website — a “freelance troublemaker.” In 2011, largely due to organizing efforts spearheaded by Tridish and Prometheus, the FCC granted licenses for up to 3,000 new low-power FM stations. “Needless to say, I am flattered, humbled, thrilled and embarrassed by the honor, and totally unworthy of the company I have been thrust into,” wrote Tridish in an announcement.

The new president and c.e.o. of dual licensee Lakeshore Public Media in Merrillville, Ind., is James Muhammad, currently director of radio services for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. He begins work in his new post May 20. “James is a well-rounded leader with experience in public media, programming and community outreach,” said Lakeshore Board of Directors Chair Bonita Neff. “For more than a decade, he built a team that worked collaboratively on radio and television projects, and engaged the community and its leaders. That’s why our board unanimously chose him.” James has been with WVPB since 2001. During his tenure,  the network won its first Gabriel Award, Peabody Award, Alfred I.

The Bay Area Video Coalition, the San Francisco-based group that seeks to inspire social change by empowering media makers, just released a new resource,  “Impact Playbook: Best Practices for Understanding the Impact of Media.” The free download contains best-practice ideas for developing engagement strategies as well as measuring and communicating the impact of media projects.

PBS’s year-to-date financial results show a net income of $22 million instead of the estimated $100,000 net loss anticipated in its fiscal year 2013 budget, the PBS Board of Directors heard at their meeting April 9 at headquarters in Arlington, Va. “I may never get to say this again, but that’s pretty impressive,” said Molly Corbett Broad, finance committee chair. Thanks to the influx, PBS’s FY14 budget contains an increase of $11 million for National Program Service content without a hike in dues for member stations. The draft budget, unanimously approved by the finance committee and full board, will arrive at public television stations in the coming weeks for comment.

Microsoft is considering ending its Sesame Street interactive videogame series, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. The newspaper’s Digits blog cites unnamed sources as saying demand for the Xbox-based games is lacking. Sesame Workshop and Microsoft declined to speak for the story. The Microsoft-Sesame partnership to use Xbox 360 consoles fitted with Kinect motion-sensor technology to create educational games was announced in October 2011.

The longtime NPR announcer and current co-host/judge for NPR’s Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! is a native of Goldsboro, N.C., who began his radio career in Goldsboro.  As a student, he helped found WUNC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Carl was an easy choice for many reasons,” said North Carolina Press Association President Hal Tanner III. “He is highly regarded by journalists everywhere for his integrity and commitment to fairness and honesty. We are proud of his North Carolina roots and his continuing connection to the Tar Heel state.” Kasell accepted the award March 21 at the NCPA Winter Institute and Annual Meeting, which featured a video tribute with cameos by Wait, Wait host Peter Sagal and former Kasell intern Katie Couric; watch it at tinyurl.com/NCPA-kassel.

The Association of Independents in Radio will launch a metasite April 22 that combines its 10 Localore multimedia projects on a single interactive platform, showcasing the results of a yearlong production to develop broadcast and web content in cities across the United States. The website uses a map of the country to direct users to content that public media audiences first discovered on local stations. Designer Drew Schorno chose the map “as a way of representing the U.S. experience” of Localore, he said. A half-hour documentary, This Is Localore, will accompany the launch of the metasite, which will be unveiled during an April 22 event at the Brattle Theater in Boston.

President Obama released his fiscal 2014 federal budget proposal April 10, and recommended $445 million in two-year advance funding for CPB. This is a level amount compared to previous federal funding levels for CPB.