Michele Bachmann has lots of nice things to say about her fellow Anoka (Minn.) High School alum Garrison Keillor in her new book Core of Conviction, which hit bookstores Monday (Nov. 21), reports Politico. Of the Prairie Home Companion host, she writes, “His politics are very different from mine, but I love his gentle, knowing humor. Keillor understands Minnesota, from Lutherans to lutefisk, and his ability to squeeze laughs out of serious-minded midwesterners makes him a legend.” She also compliments his writing skills. But Keillor doesn’t feel the same about her. In a 2010 letter of support for her Bachmann’s Democratic opponent in Minnesota’s 6th District, Keillor wrote: “It’s embarrassing to me and a great many Minnesotans that Michele Bachmann, a politician who is so busy grandstanding and giving interviews on Fox News that she doesn’t have time to serve the people who elected her, represents the 6th District in Washington.”

Pat Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, expressed disappointment over the announcement today (Nov. 21) that the congressional deficit-reduction Super Committee could not reach agreement to avoid automatic budget cuts. All domestic discretionary spending, which includes the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, could now be subject to an 8 percent across-the-board cut effective Jan. 1, 2013, Butler said. For CPB, that equals about $35 million of its $445 million appropriation. “The Super Committee’s assignment was never going to be easy — that’s why there was a Super Committee — but I know from direct conversations with some of the committee members that serious, good-faith efforts were made to reach the $1.2 trillion deficit reduction goal and more,” Butler said in an email to Current.

Colorado Public Radio has found a new use for the spare AM frequency that it couldn’t sell. OpenAir 1340 took to the air last month, bringing the Denver area a Triple A–format station featuring rock, folk and indie music ranging from the present day to rootsy influences. The station signed on Oct. 31 with the song “Colorado” by Denver band Paper Bird, an early indicator of OpenAir’s commitment to showcasing local music. CPR has already recorded more than a dozen local bands in its studios for broadcast on OpenAir. CPR previously used OpenAir’s AM signal for its news/talk format.  After CPR doubled its program offerings by creating separate news/talk and classical music streams in 2001, the news/talk stream was heard in Denver only on the AM signal.

A dispute over state funding of Florida pubcasters has prompted Miami’s WLRN to create a new system for sharing news stories among pubradio stations. Eight stations serving the state’s largest markets have signed onto the Florida News Exchange, a digital network for content sharing that the Miami station launched in September. It’s modeled after the Northwest News Network, a reporting collaborative of stations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Its formation is a direct challenge to the Florida Public Radio Network operated by WFSU in Tallahassee, the state capital — the only Florida pubcaster to be spared from a complete loss of state funding this year.

StoryCorps chose a special theme for this year’s National Day of Listening, the four-year-old public radio tradition of encouraging Americans to take time out over the Thanksgiving holiday to recognize their loved ones through the simple art of intimate conversation. Instead of family members, participants are being asked to set aside some time on Friday, Nov. 25, to recognize favorite teachers. “National Day of Listening 2011 will send a powerful and necessary message to teachers across the nation: that they matter, and that we as a nation are grateful for the impact they have on our lives,” said David Isay, StoryCorps founder and radio documentarian.

Rick Ray considered purchasing public TV’s Nightly Business Report earlier this year but last week ended up as its new c.e.o. instead. Atalaya Capital Management, the New York venture-capital firm that ended up owning the show, was shopping it around in March, said Ray, a veteran media executive who built cable syndicator Raycom Sports. He took a look, was intrigued and spoke with Atalaya. But the timing for a deal wasn’t right at that point, Ray said; he was too busy with several other projects. “But I liked what I saw” in NBR, Ray said. He got back in touch with Atalaya within the past month to check on the status of the sale, “and they said, ‘Funny you should ask!

On the Nov. 20 edition of his KCRW broadcast le Show, host Harry Shearer delivers a sardonic reading of a Nov. 17 current.org blog post, “NPR test-drives personalized Infinite Player.” Shearer, who has many notable film and TV credits but is perhaps most famous for his voice work on The Simpsons, has been a frequent critic of NPR since 2010. That’s when the network declined to give airtime — even as paid underwriting spots — to his documentary about the failures of the federal levee system surrounding New Orleans, The Big Uneasy. Readings from trade periodicals are a regular feature of le Show.

When a candidate wins re-election but withdraws from service before taking office, does the electorate get another chance to vote? Given the irregular turnover after NPR Board elections this summer, station leaders in Western States Public Radio think so. After American Public Media President Jon McTaggart won re-election to a three-year term and resigned before taking the director’s seat, WSPR objected to the NPR Board’s decision to appoint a replacement rather than hold a new election. The resolution said its complaint involved procedure, not McTaggart or the board’s selection to succeed him, Marita Rivero, g.m. of television and radio at Boston’s WGBH.

PBS Hawaii was temporarily off the air after a studio fire Friday (Nov. 18) caused more than $250,000 damage, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reports. The fire department initially extinguished the blaze, caused by a burst lightbulb, but later returned when the blaze reignited. Power was restored early Saturday afternoon, the station said, and regular programming resumed on cable by 2 p.m. and over-the-air by 3 p.m. Some programming Monday could still be affected. UPDATE, Nov. 21: The station is back on the air, but parts of the studio set will have to be replaced or re-built, according to KHON2 in Honolulu.

CPB gave its top honor for individual service, the Ralph Lowell Award, to Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the bowtie-wearing, bike-riding Oregon Democrat who chaired and helped create the Public Broadcasting Caucus in Congress. “Rep. Blumenauer is dedicated in his support of public media,” said CPB President Patricia Harrison in the announcement Nov. 18, timed for an evening ceremony in Washington, D.C. “He understands the value delivered to every American citizen through public service media, on air, online and in the community, and the important role that each public television and radio station – locally owned and operated – plays in strengthening our civil society.”

Despite its recent announcement of a five-show, $50 million production deal, KCET in Los Angeles continues to struggle as the nation’s largest indie pubTV station, reports the Los Angeles Times. Viewership is down, and the station now averages just 20,000 tune-ins a night during primetime, it said. Also, “no question, going independent has affected viewer support,” said Gordon Bava, KCET board member, referring to the station’s departure from PBS in January (Current, Oct. 18, 2010). “Corporate support is down, but to some extent, that is a function of the lack of local programming.” The newspaper said a KCET spokesperson confirmed that individual membership is down but gifts from major donors are up.

The Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis today (Nov. 17) launched the public portion of $25 million funding campaign, “Igniting the Spirit of Possibility.” Gifts and commitments already total more than $13 million, including $1.5 million from Emerson, a global manufacturing and technology company headquartered in the city. The campaign has five components: The Annual Fund, Future Fund, Venture Fund, a Capital Improvement and Technical Capacity Fund and a Public Media Commons Fund. Jack Galmiche, president of Nine Network, said that the campaign has already received commitments from all members of the Nine Network Board of Directors, as well as members of the organization’s Legacy Nine planned giving society and from the network staff.

American Public Television just announced that it will now distribute Nightly Business Report once again. PBS had distributed the show for the past five years; it was in the NPS from March 2005 through June 2011 and on PBS Plus since this July. “NBR Worldwide Inc. has determined that for various business reasons, APT is a better fit for the distribution of their series,” PBS told stations in a memo. On Wednesday (Nov. 16), longtime commercial broadcaster Rick Ray took over as c.e.o. of NBR Worldwide, the show’s parent organization, a position formerly held by Mykalai Kontilai.