Does your station want to get in on broadband stimulus funding? The National Center for Media Engagement is hosting a webinar, the first in a series, at 2 p.m. Thursday. Joanne Hovis, president of Columbia Telecommunications Corp. and an authority on community broadband, will provide technical and strategic advice to pubcasting stations. This is the first in a series of webinars from NCME, CPB and the APTS Grant Center. Sign up at the NCME website. The next one is 2 p.m. Feb. 11.

The latest public radio offering in Apple’s iTunes App store is from This American Life. For $2.99, iPhone users gain access to the 15-year archive of This American Life radio programs; episodes of the Showtime television series can be downloaded for an additional fee. Public Radio Exchange developed the app in collaboration with producers of TAL and Chicago Public Radio. “There is no doubt: it is a high-end app,” says Jake Shapiro, PRX executive director. “A lot of ingenuity went into it, and back-and-forth about what it needs to be. It needed a lot of development time to make sure it was high-performing.”

President Barack Obama’s new budget proposal includes extending the FCC’s authority to auction spectrum “indefinitely,” according to Broadcasting & Cable. That move would free up space for wireless broadband carriers. The budget is looking for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the FCC to collaborate over 10 years “to make available significant spectrum suitable for both mobile and fixed wireless broadband use.” Many broadcasters say spectrum is not available, because it’s already being used for HDTV and muliticasting and mobile DTV. The FCC is undertaking a spectrum inventory this year, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps told the CPB Board of Directors at a meeting last week.

Two documentaries airing on POV this year are among Academy Award nominees announced this morning. “Food, Inc.,” scheduled for April 21, and the ITVS co-production of “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” also running in 2010, were both nominated for the Best Documentary Feature award. The Oscars for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented at 8 p.m. Eastern on March 7 from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. There’s a full list of nominees on the Academy’s website.

At least three public broadcasting requests for broadband stimulus funding have been turned down. The site simulatingbroadband.com, which tracks news about the effort, reports that the federal agency overseeing the grants, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is mailing out around 1,400 rejection letters and updating its online database to reflect the nonfunded applications. Included in the rejections: Mississippi Public Broadcasting, which wanted $2.2 million for a public computer center for children and childcare providers; Florida Public Broadcasting Service, which requested $22.8 million for a HELPS (Health, Education, Local, Public Safety) Network; and PBS, asking for $8.7 million for an eight-station local and national partnership (California, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia) to combine content and outreach programs to stimulate demand for educational broadband content.

Youth Radio/Media International is seeking an experienced Development Director who can grow and lead a development department, diversifying revenue sources while capitalizing on Youth Radio’s long history in public media. The Development Director will work closely with the Board, Executive Director, senior staff, and finance department, and supervise the work of development associates, grant writers and administrative interns in day-to-day operations. The Development Director will actively pursue established fundraising models/traditional sources of revenue within public broadcasting, including but not limited to: car donations, membership, events, sponsorship and underwriting. In addition, this position will supervise the development of traditional and nontraditional nonprofit revenue sources, including local and national foundations, government agencies and individual donors.

The new Director of Radio Engagement will help shape the thinking and engagement efforts of the public radio community nationwide. The National Center for Media Engagement has an enviable track record in strengthening public media’s local service through community engagement. NCME is wholly funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is attached to the University of Wisconsin-Extension on the UW-Madison campus. Requirements include a bachelor’s degree and 7+ years with significant experience in and knowledge of public radio. Full details and requirements at: http://mediaengage.org/connect/employment. Betsy Nelson, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706. betsy.nelsonwpt.org. EOE/AA.

Western North Carolina Public Radio, Inc. is excited to announce its search for the position of Executive Director. WNCPR, Inc. owns and operates WCQS (www.wcqs.org), serving Asheville and 11 neighboring counties in Western North Carolina. Located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, WCQS serves a culturally rich and diverse population. WCQS is a community licensee founded in 1984 with a coverage area population of 550,000 and average weekly cume of 66,000. With 10 full-time staff, the station operates with an annual budget in excess of $1 million. We invite candidates who have the energy, integrity, talent, and experience to lead WCQS in achieving our Vision.

President Barack Obama’s budget for next year recommends $496 million for CPB, including a $460 million two-year advance appropriation for FY13, according to APTS. That’s an increase of $40 million from this year and $15 million from FY12. Also included is $36 million for pubTV and radio digital conversion, content and services. “The proposed increase in the advance appropriation reflects a recognition of the enormous return on investment public broadcasting generates regarding education, job training and disease prevention,” said APTS President Larry Sidman. But persuasive work remains, Sidman noted: The budget omits funding for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, which helps pay for public stations’ equipment upgrades, and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utility Service Digital Transition Grant Program.

This week, a special Thursday edition of A Prairie Home Companion will be “cinecast” live in HD to some 500 theaters across North America. The two-hour show starts at 8 p.m., with an encore Feb. 9. It’s the first time the eclectic program has tried this.

A former Time correspondent whose reports ran on the PBS NewsHour is the new editor of the Washington Times, the paper announced today. The show carried Sam Dealey’s segments from Africa. The paper’s top management staff was recently terminated from the Times, which is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.

In a story headlined, “PETA Smacks Big Bird in D.C.,” Broadcasting & Cable writes that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has filed a complaint with the FCC against pubTV stations that air Sesame Street. Two problems, PETA says: The show is presenting a spot showing a sanitary poultry processing plant with children eating eggs and talking about their nutritive value. PETA has long contended that chickens raised for slaughter or egg production live in filthy, inhumane conditions. Also, PETA says the American Egg Board’s work is embedded in Sesame Street segments; the board is the industry promotional group created by Congress for egg producers.

PBS President Paula Kerger was on hand Saturday for the grand opening of KAET/Channel 8’s new digital media center at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, reports the State Press student paper. Arizona PBS General Manager Kelly McCullough said the move has been planned for two years. Under three hours after staffers signed off at the former station, they were on the air from the new facility. “The transition was surprisingly smooth,” McCullough said. “There was so much that really could have gone wrong. We have had some glitches and I’m sure we’ll have a few more but the important fact is, we’re on the air on three channels in high quality in nearly all of Arizona.”

As a follow-up to its recent report on public radio audience growth strategies, Station Resource Group asked 14 leading pubcasting and public media experts to react to its recommendations on new media. Which of the many activities proposed to advance pubradio in the “networked environment” should be top priority? In Proposals for Investments in New Media (PDF), an analysis and report on what the 14 respondents told SRG, two initiatives appear to have “relatively broad support”: developing a flexible local/national Internet structure for distributing all pubradio content, and exploring a coordinated online fundraising system. If you haven’t already read the final set (PDF) of recommendations from the CPB-backed Grow the Audience project, the section on new media–which is the focus of this particular discussion–begins on page 43.

The CPB Board earlier this week approved its FY08-09 affirmative action report and FY10 plan (PDF). According to the document, during FY09, total employees increased from 100 to 114; 12 staffers left during that year. Of the 26 employees hired, 13 are women and 10 are minorities. In FY 2009 CPB also hired five student interns: one male and four females, and three of the five were minorities. That brings the total staff breakdown for 2009 to non-minority, 61 percent; minorities, 39 percent; males, 45 percent; and females, 55 percent. For 2010, CPB says it will work to maintain or increase minority and female representation within executive and senior officials and managers, as well as first and mid-level officials and managers.