Sesame Workshop is welcoming a new Muppet to the family at Sesame Square in Nigeria. On Monday (July 26) Zobi made his public appearance – the first Muppet to be named via a mobile phone vote, with callers from around the country. Sesame Square launches later this year in Nigeria. It will be hosted by Kami, an HIV-positive girl Muppet, and Zobi, a furry blue boy Muppet. In a statement from the Workshop, Zobi said: “I’m so excited about telling all of you all about my favorite things – and especially about my obsession with yams! Isn’t everyone obsessed with yams?”

Pubcasters on Maryland’s Delmarva Peninsula are not rolling out the welcome wagon for their newest neighbor, WRAU 88.3 in Ocean City, a station simulcasting NPR News and talk programming from WAMU in Washington, D.C. The region now has five public radio stations broadcasting NPR News shows, reports the Delmarva Daily Times, including a signal from Baltimore’s WYPR broadcasting on 106.9 FM. “If WAMU were to bring a different format, we’d welcome it with open arms,” says Gerry Weston, g.m. of Public Radio Delmarva. “Those stations [WRAU and Baltimore’s WYPO] have resources in big cities and they are deciding to come down here.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that on Nov. 3, Princeton University is ending its University Channel, which provides academic programming to schools and 121 pubTV stations. A statement from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs said the cancellation was due to financial reasons. The online audio and video service began in 2005 and supplies lectures by scholars on political affairs from 47 colleges both here and overseas. ” … We still believe that noncommercial, quality educational programming is an important part of the World Wide Web,” Wilson spokesperson Rebecca Anderson said in a statement. “Therefore, in the coming months, we will be pursuing options to ensure that many of the Woodrow Wilson School lectures and conferences are posted on our school’s Web site, and we hope that you will do the same at your institution.”

This Old House is looking for those new faces, according to the Hartford Courant. Yes, the perennial pubcasting fave is putting out a casting call for painters and electricians, particularly those in New England. Perhaps the show is bracing for the upcoming rebuilding efforts after the end of the world. Yes, tucked between stories on its home page including “How to Install a Solar Attic Fan” and “Lawn-Less Yard Solutions,” is this terrifying headline: “10 U.S. Cities That Could Disappear Tomorrow.” Egad. “We’re not talking about a couple of feet of water in your basement or a tree down in the yard,” it says.

CPB is looking for a social media guru. An RFP on its website says that stations tell CPB they want to improve social media skills, learn best practices and increase their use of the online services. The consulting contract is for six months.

Is a public TV station licensed to a state university system an agency of the state if a legislative committee says so? Attorneys and management at North Carolina’s UNC-TV network conceded that it is, and earlier this month obeyed a General Assembly committee’s demands that it turn over reporting materials from a journalist’s investigation into the licensing of hydroelectric dams by aluminum giant Alcoa.

Veteran newsman Daniel Schorr, a pioneer of broadcast journalism who was part of Edward R. Murrow’s legendary CBS team, died this morning (July 23) after a short illness at the age of 93, NPR announced. Since 1985, Schorr was a senior news analyst on Weekend Edition and All Things Considered; his last segment was July 10. Scott Simon, host of Weekend Edition, said in a statement, “I was privileged to know Dan Schorr for 25 years and cherish him as a fierce journalist, and a tender friend and father. We used to joke, ‘I’m not Dan’s son. But I play Dan’s son on the radio.’

The Senate Appropriations Committee late yesterday (July 22) okayed $20 million in federal funding for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program. “For over 40 years, PTFP has ensured that public broadcasters are able to provide the highest quality, reliable, universal service to their local communities, including underserved areas and communities devastated by disasters,” APTS Interim President and CEO Lonna Thompson said in a statement. “APTS looks forward to working with Congress to ensure that this funding remains in the final bill.” In June, Democratic Ohio Rep. Charles Wilson had introduced a bill to kill the funding, which helps pay for construction and infrastructure at stations.

WQED announced today (July 22) the appointment of Deborah Acklin as president and CEO of the Pittsburgh station. She’s currently executive v.p. and COO. She steps into the spot vacated by George Miles Jr., who was at the helm for more than 16 years. She’s won awards including a CINE Golden Eagle and seven Mid-Atlantic Emmys. Her first day is Sept. 23.

Citing an “urgent need” to make programming changes at Pacifica’s KPFK in Los Angeles, interim p.d. Alan Minsky asked programmers with afternoon, evening and weekend slots to either take steps to increase their audience and fundraising or make room for programs that will. “We have about eight to ten new hours of Mission-driven programming that we believe will dramatically improve our listenership and our fundraising in the coming year,” Minsky writes in a July 21 memo posted on LA Observed. “In order to make room for these new shows, we need some of the underperforming shows to step aside.”

Anne Bentley is joining PBS as vice president of corporate communications, the network announced today (July 21). Among other duties, she will be PBS’s chief corporate spokesperson. Bentley spent 13 years at AOL, most recently as the senior veep of corporate communications at the global Internet services and media company. Prior to AOL, Bentley worked in publishing, creating publicity campaigns for fiction and nonfiction titles including the Nan A. Talese imprint at Doubleday Publishing, Simon & Schuster, Levi Strauss & Co., Time-Life Books, and Viking/Penguin publishers. (Image: PBS)

There’s one more voice that’s off the air of Mississippi Public Broadcasting following the state network’s cancellation of Fresh Air. Carl Gibson, whose first job out of journalism school was covering the state capitol for MPB, was fired on Friday for leaking an internal memo about the state network’s decision to drop the NPR-distributed show. Gibson was just returning from an assignment covering the Gulf Coast oil spill, he said, when controversy over MPB’s cancellation erupted over the blogosphere on July 15. Friends at the Jackson Free Press, the state’s only alternative newspaper, approached Gibson as a source, and he wanted to help them get the story straight, he told Current.

Simon Marks has been named president of MacNeil Lehrer Productions, according to a statement from the program. He’s currently associate executive producer at the production company’s signature show, PBS NewsHour. Marks oversees daily production of the NewsHour broadcast and digital news. He also helped develop and spearheaded the recent integration of the show’s broadcast and online operations (Current, Jan. 11, 2010). He has produced and reported for the program since 1994. He replaces Lester Crystal, who is retiring. Marks assumes his duties on Sept. 1. (Image: NewsHour)

CPB has ordered up a headcount of journalists working at both public TV and radio stations to serve as a baseline for monitoring future employment levels. Station execs will receive questionnaires later this month from a team of consultants working with Public Radio News Directors Inc., hired by CPB to handle the survey. PRNDI hired Michael Marcotte, Ken Mills and Steve Martin to do the survey, working with a research adviser, Hofstra University media-industry scholar Robert Papper. To induce replies by the survey deadline of Aug. 6, the team will give respondents a shot at winning a highly tactile new iPad touch-screen tablet.

Former White House Correspondent Helen Thomas’s front-row seat in the press briefing room is up for grabs and NPR wants it. In a July 14 letter to the White House Correspondents Association board of directors, NPR Managing Editor David Sweeney makes his case: “Our audience size, national and international reach, presence at the daily briefings, regular service in the radio pool rotation and on White House travel . . . all testify to our place among the premier news organizations covering the White House.” [Full text here.] Fox News and Bloomburg also are vying for the seat. NPR Correspondent Don Gonyea, a WHCA board member, recently told Poynter.org