New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie put forth legislation today (Sept. 3) to end the state’s 40 years of financial support for the New Jersey Network by year’s end, reports the Star-Ledger newspaper in Newark. Under the plan, the state treasurer would take inventory of the network’s assets and determine how to sell or transfer them. This would be done by Nov. 1. It would also allow the treasurer to negotiate directly with an existing public broadcasting outlet and to accept proposals for the sale or transfer. Dudley Burdge, spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, the union representing most of NJN’s staff, told the paper that the plan “will be extremely destructive to the network and especially to its news and public affairs programs.”

Spanish network Vme, carried by many public TV stations, on Wednesday (Sept. 1) launched Vme Kids, the only around-the-clock channel for preschoolers who speak Spanish as the main language at home, according to a press release. It’ll run on AT&T’s U-verse channel 3058, with additional distributors to be announced.

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler is digging out from three weeks’ worth of letters and emails, and has come up for air to ask the eternal question, what does an article on the New Yorker on the billionaire Koch brothers have to do with Nova?

The City of Tucson is considering merging its government television station with Arizona Public Media, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The paper says that Arizona Public Media initiated the merger talks. The arrangement would call for the city to pay Arizona Public Media $600,000 yearly to produce content similar to what the city-owned Channel 12 produces now. The content could run both on Channel 12 and on any Arizona Public Media channel. Most equipment and all employees of Channel 12 would be transferred to Arizona Public Media, and the city would pay it for services. That would create a savings of $300,000 from Channel 12’s $900,000 annual budget.

The interim director of the New Jersey Network is departing as of Sept. 17, reports the Bergen (N.J.) Record. State lawmakers are considering the state’s relationship with the network and its nonprofit foundation (Current, July 6, 2010). Hearings are set for Sept. 14, 16 and 23. “I don’t know whether he’ll be appearing,” Ronnie Weyl, a spokeswoman for the network, told the paper. Janice Selinger, a now is acting chief operating officer, will assume Blumenthal’s duties. “Howard was hired for a six- to nine-month engagement, and we are deeply grateful to him that he gave us a full year of his time and talent,” Stephanie Hoopes Halpin, commissioner of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority, said in a statement.

Twenty episodes of Berenstain Bears cartoons will soon air on South Dakota Public Television — in the Lakota language. The Associated Press is reporting today (Aug. 30) that the shows begin running this fall. The AP says it’s the first time in the United States that a cartoon series has been translated to a Native language and widely distributed, according to Wilhelm Meya, executive director of Lakota Language Consortium, a nonprofit that partnered with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to co-produce the Lakota version of the series. (Click here to hear numbers spoken in the Lakota language.)

The Brownsville Herald is reporting that Harlingen, Texas, PBS affiliate KMBH did not run Frontline’s “Law & Disorder” last week (Aug. 25), which focused on questionable police shootings in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The paper cited “offensive language” as the problem. Diane Buxton, Frontline spokesperson, told Current the show provided an early feed to accommodate stations that wished to make the two minor language edits. John Ross, KMBH interim general manager, did not return a call from Current.

Indie rock college students aren’t the only Houston music lovers objecting to Rice University’s decision to sell KTRU, the Houston Chronicle reports. The 50,000-watt underground music station on 91.7 FM, operated by Rice students for four decades, will adopt an all-classical format once the University of Houston’s KUHF completes the purchase, but the station’s signal fades in Houston’s southern and western suburbs. “It seems odd that they would degrade their (classical music) signal and alienate a lot of their listeners,” a KUHF listener tells the Chronicle. Like many pubcasters undergoing signal expansion, KUHF also plans to simulcast its all-classical service as an HD Radio channel of its more powerful, legacy signal on 88.7 FM.

It’s election season (it’s it always?) and one New Hampshire candidate is taking on public broadcasting. Republican Congressional hopeful Frank Guinta is calling for the end CPB federal funding. “Quality programs like Sesame Street and Antiques Road Show [sic] don’t need taxpayer funds to stay on the air,” Guinta said on his website. “Let’s end taxpayer funding for PBS and NPR, and allow them to compete freely for viewers and listeners on the open market.” The New Hampshire Democratic Party issued a statement on his statement. Guinta and other Republican candidates’ “irresponsible pandering is reaching new lows,” said Press Secretary Harrell Kirstein.

Keith Brengle, former director of online personals for AOL, is the new director of online giving for PBS, Senior V.P. for Development Director Brian Reddington said in a posting on a development chat group. A note on the former AOL Personals site said that as of Aug. 31, 2010, “we no longer offer online dating services.” Brengle will join PBS Oct. 12. Reddington also said that he hopes a draft plan for PBS’s national online giving initiative will be ready for stations soon.

Public Radio International (PRI) this week (Aug. 23) announced its new “Innovator-in-Residence” program, inviting technology and social media start-ups with a public service mission to share PRI’s headquarters for three months or longer. The PRI Innovation Fellows will receive advice and business counsel from PRI executives, introductions to media and business leaders, and access to PRI facilities and expertise. In return, fellows will provide PRI with access to their ideas, software and content. The first Innovator-in-Residence is Instant Automatic, based in San Francisco and Minneapolis. It creates and develops new communication and content technologies for real-time interaction through the mobile web.

Sure, this article is full of interesting stuff on the new Nigerian Sesame Street. But we have to admit that we posted it for the headline.

Red Green (aka actor Steve Smith) continues to barnstorm across America, and has helped raise $560,000 for PBS stations so far, he tells the Lethbridge Herald in Alberta, Canada, where he played in a celebrity golf tourney this week (Aug. 26). Smith said by the time his Wit and Wisdom Tour is over later this fall, “we’ll be well over a million, probably $1.5 million or more.” Fans have been driving for miles and standing in line for hours to meet the duct tape-loving handyman.

In 1981, Congress significantly restricted the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s decision-making on spending, funneling fixed percentages of CPB’s federal appropriation to specific spending categories and types of grantees. Before then, CPB had faced repeated struggles, including a rift between TV and radio. In 1981, Congress imposed a formula proposed by Rep. Tim Wirth (D-Colo.), then chair of the House telecommunications subcommittee. The 75-25 split between TV and radio was based on experience. Robben Fleming, then president of CPB, complained that the formula “emasculates” CPB, and his successors periodically have objected to their loss of discretion over spending. Between 1996 and 2004, CPB attempted to evade the formula’s restrictions to undertake an ambitious R&D effort for public TV called the Future Fund and was reprimanded by a General Accounting Office report.

Revised and adopted Sept. 15, 2008 ARTICLE I. BASIC POLICY It is the basic policy of the corporation to be noncommercial, educational, nonsectarian and nonpartisan. The corporation shall operate for the mutual benefit of noncommercial radio stations, organizations and individuals serving the public radio community, and carry on activities as a business league exempt from federal income tax pursuant to Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended. ARTICLE II. MEMBERSHIP Section 1. Qualifications for Membership. Any noncommercial educational radio station, organization or any individual serving the public radio community may become a member of this corporation and may be admitted as a member upon application to the President.