Two broadcasters who were part of the history of WHYY in Philadelphia have died. John B. Roberts, one of the founding directors of WHYY in 1957, died March 8 of a spinal infection at his home in the retirement community of Rydal Park in suburban Philadelphia. He was 94. Roberts also founded the Temple University public radio station, WRTI-FM, now classical and jazz, in 1953, and taught communications at Temple from 1946 to 1988. Paul Gluck, former WHYY-TV station manager and now on the Temple faculty, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “For people like me, who worked as practicing journalists and transitioned into the academic world, he is a near-perfect role model.”

ITVS is launching the Living Docs Project today (March 12) in partnership with Mozilla, the Tribeca Film Institute, BAVC, and the Center for Social Media. The online project “brings together documentary filmmakers, developers, funders, and the audience to make the case for a new kind of storytelling on the web,” ITVS said in the announcement. “The web has given documentary filmmakers a powerful mechanism to distribute their films, but we have only scratched the surface of how it can change storytelling. The Living Docs Project sees the web as a canvas on which new types of documentaries can be told.”

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem, is the latest recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award from CPB, which recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to public radio. CPB said in a statement that it selected Garcia-Navarro “for her in-depth coverage of world events, particularly from volatile regions — a hallmark of her reporting — and in honor of all international correspondents and journalists who undertake great risks to report on the people and cultures impacted by conflict.” “Covering foreign news has become more dangerous, expensive and complicated than ever but it has never been more vital,” said Garcia-Navarro.

Lou Morin, director of marketing and public relations for Maine Public Broadcasting, has left the network, reports Down East: The Magazine of Maine (second item). His departure came after Morin released to Down East proprietary Arbitron ratings estimates for radio stations in Portland and Bangor, according to the site, and suggested that the figures may not be accurate; Morin retracted that release in a comment here. Arbitron responded in a comment here.

Elsie Garner, president of WTVI, tells the Charlotte Observer that there’s a “dire possibility” the station may have to close down — perhaps as soon as June — if a planned takeover by Central Piedmont Community College can’t go forward. Under that plan, the college would use WTVI as a new base for journalism and videography courses, and to develop a digital media curriculum. But to do that, the college says, it needs $357,000 from Mecklenburg County to cover the merger and around $800,000 over the next four years to replace equipment. County Manager Harry Jones said in a memo to commissioners last week: “I consider this proposal to be a government-funded bailout of a failed business model, and believe county taxpayers should not pay.

Two years after selling WXEL-FM in Palm Beach, Fla., for $3.85 million, Barry University has agreed to sell its public-TV sister station for $1.44 million. The buyer is the WXEL Public Broadcasting Corp., a nonprofit set up by the TV station’s present executives. WXEL’s 15-year custody by the Catholic university in Miami Shores began in 1997 when the school rescued the Palm Beach FM/TV combo from perilous fiscal condition. The stations attracted unsuccessful sale contracts, bids or at least inquiries from New York’s WNET, the Palm Beach County school board, competing Miami station WPBT and a longtime suitor, Community Broadcast Foundation of Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast.

Broadcasting giant Barry Diller spoke up in defense of the new subscription streaming TV service Aereo, which his company is backing, during a panel at the SXSW Film Festival Sunday (March 11). He’s looking forward to battling several broadcasters including WNET in New York and PBS, who have filed a copyright infringement suit against the service, which says it uses “proprietary remote antenna and DVR” technology to enable subscribers, for $12 a month, to watch over-the-air broadcasts on their smart phones, tablets and computers. “It’s going to be a great fight,” Diller said in Austin. “This is not some evil thing,” Diller said of Aereo, which is set to launch in the New York Market on Thursday (March 14).

Daniel del Solar, 71, a Chilean-American media activist, poet and photographer who headed training for CPB in its early days and later managed countercultural stations in San Francisco and Philadelphia, died Jan. 13 in Oakland, Calif. He had prostate cancer. Del Solar served as director of training and development at CPB in the late 1970s, during a period of active recruitment and training of ethnic-minority professionals. He later became g.m. of San Francisco’s KALW-FM from 1985 to 1992 and of Philadelphia’s WYBE-TV from 1992 to 1995. “What he did at CPB was exceedingly important,” says Nina Serrano, a longtime friend and volunteer producer at Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley.

The shift of Independent Lens from Tuesdays to Thursdays this season has created ratings and carriage woes for the indie-doc showcase.

P.O.V.’s blog has an interesting analysis of the viral phenomenon of KONY 2012, the 30-minute film on Ugandan guerrilla group leader Joseph Kony that’s been viewed more than 80 million times since it was posted on YouTube and Vimeo on March 5, written by guest blogger Heather McIntosh of Documentary Site. Invisible Children, the advocacy organization that produced the film, “labels KONY 2012 a documentary, and it is one that falls squarely into the propaganda/persuasion traditions developed in the work of Frank Capra, Leni Riefenstahl, and Pare Lorentz,” McIntosh writes. “But KONY 2012 pushes the boundaries of these traditions.

NBC turned down Downton Abbey, which is produced by NBCUniversal’s Carnival Films in London, “believing that American audiences wouldn’t have the appetite for a very British historical drama set in a country manor in Edwardian England,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. An NBC official told the paper that the decision was made under previous NBC leadership, and it’s pleased that sister company NBCUniversal found success with the show, which was picked up by Masterpiece on PBS. But that exec acknowledged that even the current NBC brass could have overlooked Downton’s potential. “The official said it was hard to imagine any network — including PBS — thinking Downton would become a hit,” the paper said.

The Michael Eric Dyson Show will go off the public radio airwaves at the end of the month, and its host has already left the program, reports the Journal-isms blog. “There’s something else potentially in the works, but the show as it exists now is about to end,” Carla Wills, senior producer, told the blog. “The contract was over. We didn’t do another round of funding.” Wills said Dyson was increasing his appearances on MSNBC’s Martin Bashir Show as well as continuing his speaking engagements and teaching at Georgetown University. Guest hosts will fill in for the final shows. LaFontaine Oliver, Dyson’s producer and g.m.

A media-oversight nonprofit in Seattle will hold a hearing later this month to consider an antiabortion group’s allegation that KUOW-FM, the city’s all-news pubradio outlet, aired an inaccurate report about the group last year and fell short of correcting its missteps. The complaint by the Vitae Foundation centers on an April 2011 story by reporter Meghan Walker about the foundation’s billboard advertising campaign for a website, YourOptions.com, that discusses choices available to women with unplanned pregnancies. The story began with a Planned Parenthood representative discussing the YourOptions website but did not include comment from anyone with Vitae. Deborah Stokes, Vitae’s c.o.o.,