Dick Batchelor, a former Florida state representative, has incorporated Orlando Community Television Corp. to partner with Independent Public Media in the purchase of WMFE-TV, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Batchelor declined to name other individuals involved because a deal has yet to be finalized. He owns the Dick Batchelor Management Group consulting firm, is a political analyst on local television and describes himself as “a very big fan of PBS.” IPM, formed to purchase struggling pubTV stations in order to save the noncom spectrum, has made a bid on WMFE-TV, which has been for sale for a year.

Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) are collecting signatures from colleagues on Capitol Hill on letters asking Congressional leaders to defund CPB, reports Broadcasting & Cable. Both have previously sponsored bills to end CPB support. “As you know, our country is more than $15 trillion in debt,” the letter says. “We simply cannot afford to continue funding all of the programs that we have in the past.” Despite his longtime opposition to federal pubcasting funding, Lamborn last year appeared in a fundraising video for Rocky Mountain PBS.

Independent Lens and POV, the PBS series at the center at a dispute about public TV’s commitment to independent film, are moving to Monday nights, PBS’s highest-rated evening. The schedule change, which takes effect Oct. 29, will be the second in a year for the documentary showcases. After PBS uprooted the indie film series from their longtime Tuesday timeslot last October, station carriage and viewing audiences dropped in the new Thursday-night slot  (Current, March 12). This latest move to Mondays at 10 p.m. (Eastern) will position the shows to begin winning viewers back. Ratings powerhouse Antiques Roadshow leads PBS primetime on Mondays, and PBS will be putting a lot of promotional power behind Market Warriors, a new series slated for 9 p.m.

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton? Mandalit del Barco? Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson? Douali Xaykaothao? Help decide the best name in public radio.

Eyetronics Media & Studios, which last year announced a $50 million production deal with KCET in Los Angeles, “has been reduced to a tiny operation that has been late on some of its bills,” the Los Angeles Times is reporting. Four people who worked for the Encino, Calif.-based firm told the newspaper that they and others had gone without pay for as long as six weeks during the last year. And a representative for the landlord said owner Dominique Bigle owes several months’ back rent. Bigle’s attorney denied some of the claims to the newspaper, saying that employees “have been fully compensated,” that Eyetronics is “unaware of any ongoing disputes or claims” and that any rent owed is due to the landlord’s failure to properly maintain the building and provide security.

Here’s a lyrical look at NPR Senior European Correspondent Silva Poggioli’s everyday life in Rome, from the Boston Globe: “In Rome, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli covers crises and eats well.” And what a life it is! “Campo de’ Fiori is still Poggioli’s favorite place to shop,” the Globe reports. “On a sunny spring day, a street musician tightens his bow, a small group of nuns floats by in their gray habits, and Poggioli, in a long cardigan in hues of garnet and orange, with a scarf casually wrapped around her neck, heads for a vendor she knows well. Claudio Zampa, co-owner with his brother, Massimo, of Da Claudio a Campo de’ Fiori, greets Poggioli with a warm ‘Carissima!’

WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, is marking quite the milestone this year: 90 years on the air, reports The Lantern, the college paper of licensee Ohio State University. Tom Rieland, g.m., said the former WEAO (Willing Eager Athletic Ohio) was one of only a few pioneering educational radio stations in the country. “The programming was almost all live and included broadcast of lessons by faculty at Ohio State, farm news and musical concerts,” Rieland said. Now there’s WOSU-TV, a PBS member station, and two radio stations, 89.7 NPR News and Classical 101. In 2010 the station moved its full-time news service to 89.7 after its all-news AM station failed to attract listeners (Current, Aug.

Connecticut Public Television is losing its broadcast rights to University of Connecticut women’s basketball, which has been a huge ratings winner for the station for the past 18 years (Current, Dec. 12, 2011). In a four-year, $4.5 million deal, the university selected SportsNet NY to show the games, according to NBC Connecticut. “This new agreement with SNY will bring UConn women’s basketball to more Husky fans than ever before throughout the region and the nation,” UConn President Susan Herbst said in a statement.  “Obviously we are devastated and disappointed that they went with a New York-based firm,” CPTV President Jerry Franklin told NBC.

Independent Public Media has made a bid for WMFE-TV in Orlando, the former PBS member station that has been on the market for more than a year. Ken Devine, IPM’s chief operating officer and former v.p. of media operations of WNET in New York, confirmed to Current that an offer has been made but declined to provide the figure or other details. WMFE-TV President Jose Fajardo could not be reached for comment. In March, WMFE withdrew from an initial $3 million sale agreement with Daystar Television after the FCC questioned whether the religious broadcaster met noncommercial criteria for localism and educational programming.

. . . for public radio’s corps of Triple A music programmers May 17-19 at the 12th annual NON-COMMvention at WXPN and World Café Live in Philadelphia. Music “blogger/instigator” Bob Lefsetz, as WXPN’s organizers describe him, will be interviewed the first day. Conference details are online. . . .

INPUT, the annual international conference for public television networks and producers, is under way this week in Sydney, Australia. Attending — and blogging — are South Carolina ETV’s Amy Shumaker, the U.S. INPUT national coordinator, and Betsy Newman, SCETV producer and assistant manager of U.S. INPUT. So far they’ve run into pubcasters including Moss Bresnahan, president of KCTS in Seattle; Ron Hull, special adviser to NET in Nebraska (“who has a new book about his life in public television coming out soon,” they note); and Judy Tam, e.v.p. and c.f.o.of ITVS, INPUT president. Here’s a look at the U.S. programming entries.

While multiple collaborative news efforts such as American Public Media’s Public Insight Network (PIN) are beginning to find success, more coordination among them is needed to increase their impact, notes Andrew Haeg, product manager for PIN, in a column on MediaShift. “A cacophony of instruments is tuning and testing separately,” he writes, “waiting for a conductor to tap the podium, and begin.” “The technology, networks and willingness to collaborate are in place to make this kind of coordinated journalistic project real,” he notes. “And if we’re really focused on public service, the only way to understand the dangers of an increasingly complex and interconnected world, is to become more complex and interconnected ourselves.”

A long line of enthusiastic fans waited to greet Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch (right) at a special screening May 2 in New York City of the Masterpiece Mystery! show that premiered Sunday (to double the average PBS primetime rating). The crowd got to see a sneak peek of the program and participate in a Q&A with Cumberbatch; Steven Moffat, co-creator; Sue Vertue, producer; and Series Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton. Hosting were WNET and PBS. Also in the audience was Beth Hoppe, PBS programming v.p., who told Current, “It was a really young crowd — like, 17 to 27 .

PBS is pleased with the progress of WUCF-TV in Orlando, created by University of Central Florida and Brevard Community College as a new primary member station after the announcement in April 2011 that WMFE-TV would be sold. PBS spokesperson Anne Bentley told the Orlando Sentinel that the station “accomplished a tremendous feat” by serving the community “with remarkable speed and agility.” “We did not take over a station. We created one from scratch,” University of Central Florida President John Hitt said recently. “We inherited no cameras, no equipment and no crew.” WUCF set a $225,000 goal for its most recent pledge drive and hit $215,000, according to Grant Heston, the UCF associate vice president who oversees the station.

This year the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio (AMPPR) will hold its annual conference in conjunction with the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Las Vegas, Sept. 11–14. “The idea of meeting with PRPD has been floated for several years,” wrote David Duff, AMPPR’s president, in a post on the group’s website. “The two organizations began exploring the possibilities last year, and have agreed to work together to develop a strong and robust music track for this year’s conference.” AMPPR will survey its members for feedback on which topics should be covered at the conference. Members of AMPPR will not need to become PRPD members to attend.