DENVER, Colo. — For the first time since 2006, a “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. Senators requesting continued federal funding for pubcasting has Republican signatures, Pat Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, told attendees at the PBS Annual Meeting. The letter, addressed to the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), has 39 signatures including three Republicans. On the House side, a similar letter to the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee led by Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has 116 signatures that include six Republicans.

New York Public Radio (which comprises WNYC-FM and WQXR-FM), announced today a new partnership with New Jersey’s Montclair State University, whose broadcast studios and production facilites will be the new home of New Jersey Public Radio’s news division. The managing editor of NJPR News is Peabody Award-winning journalist Nancy Solomon, and the newsroom will cover New Jersey news, politics, and public affairs. NJPR (owned by NYPR) was created in 2011 when NYPR purchased four defunct NJN stations from the state after Gov. Chris Christie axed NJN. The MSU news bureau will produce content for NJPR, WYNC, and other outlets throughout New Jersey.

Susanne Reber, who had left her position as deputy managing editor of investigations at NPR last week, was hired by the California-based Center for Investigative Reporting, CIR announced today. Reber built and led pioneering investigative units at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2003-2009) and NPR (Jan. 2010 until last week). Reber will serve as the senior coordinating editor for multiplatform projects and investigations at CIR. Reber’s reporting team will produce work for all of CIR’s branded products, including The Bay Citizen and California Watch. Reber will start at her new position in June.

DENVER, Colo. — Jason Seiken, PBS Interactive chief, told a packed audience at the PBS Annual Meeting that “a magical opportunity will slip through our fingers if we don’t have the courage to change” and fully embrace the potential that video presents to public TV. “We are in the early stages of a two- to five-year land grab that will reshape the video industry in a way not seen since Hollywood in the early 20th century,” he said. “For media organizations, this video revolution will determine who wins, who merely survives, and who perishes.” Some 100 million Americans watch videos online daily; last year, YouTube had 1 trillion views, Seiken noted — and that number is doubling every two years.

DENVER, Colo. — At the PBS Annual Meeting today (May 15), Chief Programmer John Wilson answered a question many programmers had been asking lately: What are PBS’s plans for 8 p.m. Sundays? Beginning in September, that spot will go to a Brit hit, Call the Midwife, a BBC drama based on memoirs of a young midwife in London’s East End in the 1950s. Wilson noted that when the show premiered in Britain in January, it scored higher audience numbers than Downton Abbey. Wilson also had good news regarding overall pledge proceeds so far this year, up 2.7 percent systemwide over fiscal 2011.

Radio Ambulante, an ambitious monthly radio show and podcast which hopes to revolutionize Spanish-language radio, launched its pilot episode today. Radio Ambulante (which roughly translates to “radio on the move”) is the brainchild of acclaimed Peruvian-American writer Daniel Alarcón, whose novel Lost City Radio, was named Best Novel of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post, also claiming the 2009 International Literature Prize. Also on the Radio Ambulante team are Martina Castro (managing editor of KALW News), Mandalit del Barco (general assignment correspondent at NPR West), entrepreneur Carolina Guererro, and journalist Annie Correal, whose work has aired on NPR, WNYC and This American Life.

According to a report in Radio World, CBC Radio, Canada’s public broadcaster, has just launched a full slate of free online radio stations in an effort to diversify its online music offerings. The 40 stations are organized by genre (classical, jazz, hip hop, aboriginal) and are available to stream in both the U.S. and Canada 24/7 at music.cbc.ca. CBC Radio’s online music portal. Screenshot by Rhys Heyden. Though the music is predominantly Canadian, and the stations are aimed at the Canadian market, U.S. radio fans can also listen in. Steve Pratt, CBC’s director of digital music, told Radio World that the stations attracted more than 200,000 unique hits in their first week of existence, also racking up 1 million page views and 600,000 audio streams.

Nonprofit news outfits that have sprung up across the country to fill gaps left by commercial media have hit an unexpected barrier in establishing themselves as providers of local news and information: the Internal Revenue Service. As many as a dozen journalism startups, most of them run largely by volunteers and accepting no advertising, have had their requests to be recognized as tax-exempt organizations delayed for many months and, in some cases, years.

The Arizona man indicted on charges of embezzling federal funds that were given to start a Native radio station pleaded not guilty April 26 in the District of Arizona U.S. District Court, according to online court records. The attorney representing the defendant, John Bittner, said he may file a motion for Bittner to be mentally evaluated. A jury trial was set for June 5. As Current reported April 23, Bittner is alleged to have used $322,364 in Public Telecommunications Facilities Program funds on personal expenses, including a car, medical costs, child support payments and a trip to Las Vegas. After his indictment, Bittner attempted suicide and spent time in a hospital in Flagstaff, Ariz.,

Two years after its launch as a new online news organization covering the San Francisco region, the Bay Citizen is reconsidering its mission and editorial focus under new management. As of May 1, it merged operations with the Berkeley-based Center for Investigative Reporting, one of the granddaddies of the nonprofit news world, and ended its editorial partnership with the New York Times. The combined newsroom now marshals a staff of 70 and an annual budget of $11 million for news reporting from the San Francisco Bay Area. But differences between the news organizations’ editorial priorities and funding structures point to many challenges ahead, according to journalists from both the Bay Citizen and CIR.