Coming to you from Austin, a whole bunch of PBSers and station folks disguised as Cats in their Hats at breakfast today. Ironically, Martin Short (just left of center), the voice of the lead character in this fall’s “Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That” on PBS, appears to be the only one in the entire hall without one. Kate Klimo, longtime editor of Theodor Seuss Geisel, told the crowd in the later PBS Kids session that Audrey Geisel “maintains close personal contact with her husband in the hereafter,” and told Klimo that it was “PBS or nothing” for a Cat in the Hat animated series.

As blogosphere spats go, this one is rather perplexing. Washington Week in Review‘s Gwen Ifill doesn’t name the “journalism professor from New York University” and “self-appointed media critic” who recently described her show as the quintessential example of everything that is wrong with political journalism. Ifill would have preferred to ignore the Washington Post opinion piece by this nobody, she acknowledges in a reply posted May 13 on WWR‘s website: “Fighting against blogs is a lot like trying to stop oil escaping from a blowout preventer – it can go on forever. Hitting that ‘send’ key can get you in deep,” she writes.

Children’s television pioneer and Sesame Street creator Joan Ganz Cooney is the recipient of this year’s Be More Award from PBS. She accepted her honor at the PBS National Meeting, continuing in Austin. From the podium, PBS President Paula Kerger said Cooney’s work from 1968 to 1990 at her Children’s Television Workshop makes her “one of the single greatest educators of children in the world.” Former Be More winners include Bill Moyers and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Frontline’s David Fanning received the 38th annual Ralph Lowell Award from CPB last night in Austin. The prestigious honor has been presented since 1975 (when Cooney won) for outstanding contributions to public television.

A 7 a.m. session with an overflow crowd? The results of the 2010 Local Underwriting Category Study lured folks in, coffee in hand, at the PBS Annual Meeting in Austin. The research was conducted by Enginuity Workshop, formerly Public Radio Partners. The workshop’s Jim Taszarek said he believes this is the first such report for pubTV, although pubradio has compiled similar research for years. Notable: Event revenue pulled in a half-million dollars at one station (the report didn’t name stations but  linked to their data). Another sold $600,000 in sponsorships for high school sports broadcasts. Another drew $200,000 in pledge drive sponsorships.

The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) Board of Trustees has formed a CEO search committee to fill its top spot, vacated when Larry Sidman recently left after a year in the job (Current, March 14, 2010). Committee co-chairs are Polly Anderson, g.m. of KNME-TV, Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Elizabeth Christopherson, president of the Rita Allen Foundation, Princeton, N.J. Committee members: APTS Board Chairman Rod Bates, g.m., Nebraska Educational Telecommunication; DeAnne Hamilton, g.m. of WKAR, East Lansing, Mich.; John Harris III, president of Prairie Public Television, Fargo, N.D.; Skip Hinton, NETA president; Tom Karlo, g.m. of KPBS, San Diego; and Lonna Thompson, APTS acting president.

In a sometimes acrimonious session at the PBS national meeting in Austin, station reps and PBS execs faced off over the controversial topic of online national fundraising on PBS.org. The session had been intended to introduce PBS’s new development s.v.p. Brian Reddington and give an update on development work; he announced at the top of the meeting that there had been “a change in agenda to emphasize what we are doing to strengthen the stations’ economic health.” Reddington provided a bit more information on one topic that station reps have been wondering (and talking and worrying) about, PBS’s national online fundraising project.

Tavis Smiley and Clark Atlanta University have donated $25,000 each to establish the Sheryl Flowers Scholarship at the university. Flowers, a Clark graduate who helped shape Smiley’s public radio talk shows, died of breast cancer last June at the age of 42. She was supervising producer of his daily NPR show starting in 2002 and e.p. of the two-hour weekly Public Radio International show that had its 5th anniversary in April. The PRI show is produced in a Los Angeles studio named for Flowers. The scholarship includes an internship with Clark’s WCLK-FM and with the Smiley show.

How do you define success for a media project that reaches beyond broadcast and tries to engage audiences Web 2.0-style? In an evaluation of its Makers Quest 2.0 initiative, the Association for Independents in Radio, Inc., and American University’s Center for Social Media assert the time has come to break from the ratings-based methodologies developed for public radio by researcher David Giovannoni in the influential CPB-backed study Audience 88. “Looking forward, we must recognize as a point of departure that the current system puts highest value on media that attract and hold the greatest number of individuals in one place for the longest amount of time,” write co-authors of “Spreading the Zing: Reimagining Public Media through Makers Quest 2.0,” a report released early this month.

American Public Media is cutting production of American RadioWorks, the investigative documentary series that won a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton in January. MinnPost’s David Brauer reports that Executive Editor and host Stephen Smith and some members of his team will remain at APM to produce coverage of higher education and sustainability, which are priority editorial topics for APM. “Some of this work will appear as ARW docs, some will be shorter in nature and appear in regular programs such as Marketplace or as specials,” writes Judy McAlpine, senior v.p. of national content, in a memo to staff. “Along with the documentary work, we will continue to build out smaller features and online content as part of these projects.

Mickie Edwardson, who helped found University of Florida’s pubradio WUFT-FM in 1981, died May 15 at age 80 following complications from an accident, according to the Gainesville Sun. Edwardson began as a producer-director at WUFT-TV soon after its launch in 1958. When the station announced a format change to news in August 2009, she told Current (July 6, 2009) she was concerned for the students. “I’m worried that the new shows won’t provide the educational component that the current programs provide,” said Edwardson, who at the time of her death was a retired journalism professor and still produced opera specials during WUFT pledge drives.

Tiny WCTE, Upper Cumberland Public TV in Cookeville, Tenn., got a shout-out from PBS President Paula Kerger in her opening remarks at the PBS Annual Meeting in Austin. “It isn’t only the smallest station in Cookeville, it’s the only station,” Kerger said. It’s an area rich in music, culture, character — and characters. During a recent visit Kerger met Hippie Jack, who arrived there to start a commune in the 1960s and never left. Now he works with the station, including pledge shows, and 130 PBS affiliates nationwide carry his “Jammin’ at Hippie Jack’s” music festival. It’s a good example of keeping viewers engaged with the arts, one of three of Kerger’s visions for pubcasting: To reimagine children’s media, reinvent journalism and reconnect all Americans with arts and culture.

People consuming public affairs coverage because of duty or a fascination with policy create a demand for news with context, details, debate, and reason. But those watching public affairs in search of drama create a demand for covering politics as a horse race or morality tale with winners and sinners.

Detroit Public Television senior development veep Kelley Hamilton is moving to the University Liggett School, an independent day school in Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., to head up a $10 million endowment campaign, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. While at DPT, she helped the station wrap up a $22 million push last year. Hamilton had been with the station since 1996.

Pubcasters are streaming into Austin for the big PBS Showcase/Development Extravaganza/Annual Meeting/Networking-a-palooza. First up, PTPA meeting. A Twitter Critter from the latest incarnation of Public Media Digest is currently Tweeting, follow along here. Current will be blogging here Monday evening through Thursday afternoon so check back often.