Rob Bole, CPB’s v.p. digital media strategy, is among the speakers at the Oct. 12 FedTalks 2010, a D.C. confab that bills itself as “a gathering of 500 of the most influential government leaders, industry executives, and media giants of our time, brought together to share their thoughts on how technology can change government.” Other speakers include Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post; Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; and Chris Kemp, chief technology officer of NASA.

Sarasota’s WSMR debuts Wednesday (Sept. 15), bringing 24-hour classical music to South Florida, according to the Bradenton Herald. Renovations continue on its $150,000 studio at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. WUSF in Tampa recently purchased WSMR for $1.275 million on a 10-year loan from the University of South Florida Foundation, an affiliate of its licensee (Current, Aug. 9, 2010). WUSF-FM will be news in the daytime and remain jazz at night. The performance studio at USF is designed for television, video and radio production and live performances; work is expected to be done in late December.

East Tennessee Public Television is now East Tennessee PBS, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel. “To cover our large viewing area of more than 925,000 households in East Tennessee, we’ve added two broadcast towers over the years, which is why we have two sets of call letters: WKOP in Knoxville and WETP in Sneedville,” said Teresa James, ETPBS g.m. The station had been using the former name for more than 40 years.

“Warning: This Is a Long Column,” writes PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler. It’s his second piece on viewers raising questions about the financial support of billionaire David H. Koch for Nova’s “Becoming Human” series. The issue is a complicated one, with Nova raising the ire of several letter writers by using a Smithsonian scientist to address the issue of climate change, when the Smithsonian’s David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins was founded by Koch — who is a skeptic that global warming is occurring.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today (Sept. 13) announced $3.14 million in matching grants for 19 more community-based projects as part of its five-year Knight Community Information Challenge. More than 75 other initiatives have been funded so far. Several public broadcasters are recipients or partners in this third round of funding, including: — Hiki No, PBS Hawaii, $240,500: To create a statewide student news network linking middle and high schools across the islands. Called Hiki No, Hawaiian for “can do,” the journalism network, in partnership with the PBS affiliate, will produce newscasts on air and online.

Instead of replacing their traditional news outlets, Americans are actually integrating new technologies into their media habits, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. More than 36 percent of Americans got news from both digital and traditional sources the day before they were surveyed, which is just under the number who relied solely on traditional sources, 39 percent. And news audiences are drawn to different sources for different reasons, the survey points out: Headlines, entertainment, in-depth reporting, views and opinions, or a combination. For regular NPR listeners, for instance, “no single reason stands out as to why people watch, read or listen,” the survey says.

The Seattle based ivi today (Sept. 13) launched an app that it claims will provide subscribers live access to more than 20 channels including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, the CW and PBS for $4.99 a month. One catch: Networks that are “involved” with this that were contacted by the Wrap entertainment and media news website knew nothing of their inclusion, much less had even heard of ivi. “Clearly, ivi is operating in a legal gray area,” the Wrap said. “It argues that its status as a cable company allows it to have servers set up in several markets — initially New York and Seattle — that receive transmissions of television signals that originated with other servers and then retransmit them through their app.

Supporters of the San Diego State University licensee will gather for a private gala Tuesday night (Sept. 14) to celebrate the Golden Anniversary, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff will speak, and the station will announce its KPBS Hall of Fame’s first 13 inductees, honoring station pioneers and key donors. And the paper reports that a $3.2 million renovation of the newsroom begins soon. (All that news generated several online comments, including one that said in part: “KPBS is a fistula of lies from the white upper middle class coupled with the moronic linkage to a failing community college that pretends to be a university.”

Frontline‘s authoritative baritone, that uber-narrator Will Lyman, is one of Rolling Stone magazine’s “Best Characters and Most Memorable Scene-Stealers” for the fall TV season. Rolling Stone dubbed him “The Voice.” As Frontline Executive Producer David Fanning told the mag, “Will Lyman could read the phone book and make it feel like it’s important to the country.” Other honorees include Leopold “Butters” Scotch from South Park and the awkward teenage vampire Jessica on True Blood.

Kentucky Educational Television last week (Sept. 9) laid off 13 employees, the Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting. Network spokesperson Tim Bischoff declined to identify the employees. The paper said KET’s full-time staff is now 152, down from 223 during fiscal 2008. “That’s clearly left some voids in very critical positions,” he said. Bischoff noted that KET operating revenue has declined from from $27.8 million in fiscal 2008 to a projected $23 million for fiscal 2011. In that same time, state general funds to KET have fallen from $15 million to $12 million.

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert returns to Chicago’s WTTW, original home of the pubcasting fave At the Movies, in January 2011 with Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. This time around, Ebert is producing. Co-hosting will be Christy Lemire, film critic of The Associated Press, and Elvis Mitchell of KCRW’s The Treatment. In addition to reviewing new releases, the two will comment on new media, classics, on-demand viewing and genres, and there’ll be more on the show’s website. The program will use the famous (and copyrighted) “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” format invented by Ebert and his longtime collaborator, Gene Siskel, who died in 1999.

Bill Kling will retire from Minnesota Public Radio and the American Public Media Group, the public radio network and national production company that he founded, built and ran for more than 40 years, APM announced today. Kling, whose commitment to improving public radio service for listeners extended beyond Minnesota and encompassed both news and music formats, plans to leave APM in June 2011 to develop a new initiative aimed at building public media’s regional news services. “Most c.e.o.s count their years in office on the fingers of one hand,” said Randall Hogan, MPR and APM board chair and c.e.o. of Minnesota-based Pentair, Inc.

Take a gander at a few of the best web sites in pubTV, as per pubmedia blogger Chris Beer, who’s also a developer with WGBH Interactive. Sites Beer liked the most had “a mix of good design aesthetic, highlighted local content, and some element of current-ness.”

Made-for-Internet programming is covered for the first time under a new collective bargaining agreement unanimously approved by the Writers Guild of America for public TV writers. A guild statement Wednesday (Sept. 8) also said the contract preserves payments for digital reuse. WGA employees working at WGBH, WNET and KCET will receive rate increases of 2 percent in the second year and 2.75 percent in the third and fourth years of the four-year agreement. Writers at “numerous other, smaller production companies that produce content for PBS” are also covered, according to the statement.

PBS NewsHour has posted a new web page, PBS NewsHour Politics, with stories, video and analysis on daily political developments. There’s a morning blog, top 25 political Twitter feeds and interactive calendar of political events. The program’s David Chalian, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff will also be there in a web-only Monday daybook previewing news of the week.