“Gov. Bob McDonnell is gunning for Big Bird,” says the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. The GOP governor wants to phase out funding to the Community Idea Stations pubcasters in Richmond and Charlottesville over the next four years, beginning with $592,835 between 2010 and ’12. One bright spot: “I’ll probably oppose that,” said Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles J. Colgan. “It’s quite a bit of money for those stations. That’s a pretty good hit.” The Legislature takes up work on the budget this week.

CPB President Pat Harrison appeared on the Hill this week to make the agency’s fiscal 2013 advance appropriation request of $604 million. She also made FY11 requests of $59.5 million for digital initiatives, and $32 million for Ready to Learn (background, Current, Sept. 2, 1996). President Obama’s current budget includes an FY13 CPB advance appropriation of $460 million. Harrison spoke before the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies of the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 12.

Blair Levin, President Obama’s National Broadband Plan adviser, is leaving his work at the FCC for the Aspen Institute, Broadcasting & Cable reports. His new title there: Communications & Society Fellow. CPB has long worked with the institute, participating in think-ins including its Roundtables on Public Service Media in March 2009 (PDF). CPB President Pat Harrison credited that work in her announcement last month of CPB’s $10 million local journalism initiative (Current, April 5). Levin’s last day with the FCC will be May 7.

Michael Getler, PBS ombudsman, is warning readers that this week’s column is long. But if you’re interested in the history of America’s aerial bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, check it out. It’s a continuing discussion going back to the American Experience doc “The Bombing of Germany” in February.

Idaho Public Television has survived a proposed phase-out of its state funding (Current, Jan. 25, 2010) and actually ended up with a little boost. Gov. Butch Otto had asked the Legislature to drop the station’s nearly $2 million annual funding gradually over four years. Instead, in its appropriation signed by Otter this week, IdahoPTV loses $141,000 this fiscal year, receives an appropriation of $2.4 million in FY11, and its full-time equivalent positions are limited to 33.

A new website titled Revolution PBS has drawn the attention of pubcaster/blogger John Proffitt. Proffitt notes that whatever person or group writes the anonymous site, which puts forth ideas for a radical reorg of the system, “shows a better understanding of the member station model than most ‘civilians’ I’ve met over the years. Perhaps its someone that’s done their homework, or perhaps it’s an ‘insider’ looking to anonymously get some ideas a little traction.”

Monsignor Pedro Briseño, the controversial g.m. of dual licensee KMBH in Harlingen, Texas, (Current, March 16, 2009 and May 1, 2008) has been reassigned to full-time parish work, local TV station KGBT is reporting. The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville owns the station. Bishop Daniel Flores, recently installed in the diocese, told the station’s staff this morning, saying regional growth of the Catholic Church requires more clergy in churches. Former KMBH Chief Engineer John Ross will be interim g.m. while the board searches for a replacement. KMBH’s ongoing problems — ousted board members, a pledge drive with six callers — prompted a push by a local group to establish another radio station.

WNET/Thirteen’s new studio at Lincoln Center opens today, reports the New York Times. The glass-front facility on the corner of West 66th and Broadway in Manhattan “is truly a metaphor for what we want to be in New York,” President Neal Shapiro told the paper. “We want to be transparent about the things we do and we want to be facing out to the public. Here we are in the center of arts and culture.” The space was originally envisioned as retail, so many changes were made: Designers outfitted the stairs with cushions and outlets so producers can work on the steps.

After starting the process to hire a new chief content officer, PBS has reduced the purview of the job. The CCO will oversee TV programming but will no longer supervise PBS Interactive and web content. The position also lost oversight over program promotion. Until Current asked about the job description last week, the position said “the CCO will lead the PBS Interactive team.” That wording was from an older job description, spokesperson Jan McNamara said. PBS has now deleted that paragraph and a few other lines from the online document. Seiken “will work very closely with the CCO” on web content, McNamara said.

After starting the process to hire a new chief content officer, PBS has reduced the purview of the job.

The PBS Board tweaked its rules governing one of public TV’s touchiest ongoing internal disputes.

National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith (right) said the FCC’s call for a spectrum giveback is sort of like that scene in “The Godfather” — an offer broadcasters can’t refuse. In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable, Smith also had harsh words about FCC Chair Reed Hundt’s recent revelations that the agency decided in 1994 to push broadband over broadcast. “Frankly, I was rather offended, as a former member of the Senate Commerce Committee, that his secret musings were never shared with the elected representatives of the American people as it relates to such a profound policy change,” Smith said.

Norman S. Craley, a broadcast engineer who worked 35 years at Washington’s WETA, died of cancer March 24 at the Capital Hospice in Arlington, Va. He was 65. He had been diagnosed with metastatic esophageal cancer six months earlier and had chemotherapy, leading to a clear scan in February, his family told WETA, but the cancer took a rare and fatal course, spreading in his head. “Norm was a jack of all trades” who handled cameras, edited video and found his perfect match in master control, often working the night shift, wrote Joseph Bruns, the station’s chief operating officer, in a memo reporting the death to WETA’s staff.

An NPR bargaining unit of 64 broadcast technicians ratified a new five-year contract negotiated by the National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians/Communications Workers of America. The new contract gives NPR more flexibility on jurisdictional rules over uses of new technology in the newsroom. A no lay-off clause specifies that no jobs will be terminated “for reasons other than budget or programming changes,” but up to 17 NABET workers may be offered voluntary buy-outs, according to an NPR statement. “Both NPR and NABET recognized the need to address staff reductions carefully, and committed to fair and generous treatment of those who will be affected in coming years,” the statement said.

Two CPB Inspector General reports are out. There’s an examination of KDNA-FM in Granger, Wash., triggered by complaints it was shirking requirements for public meetings and financial record keeping, and an audit of CPB grants to WHYY in Philadelphia for fiscal years 2007 and ’08. KDNA broadcasts to a rural area of Washington State about 225 miles southeast of Seattle; it programs mainly for migrant workers. It has this official station website, which says it’s the only full-time educational Spanish-language pubradio station in the nation. There’s also a competing site detailing what it calls “the troubles” at that station for nearly two years — including a monthlong strike last year that triggered a longtime board member to resign.