Marketplace host David Brancaccio discusses his show’s raison d’etre with the Boston Globe. (Via Romenesko.)

PBS and MTV air programs tonight on the threat of war with Iraq, Frontline‘s “The War Behind Closed Doors” and an MTV news special that serves as a “more elementary but also intelligent primer” for its young viewers. The New York Times reviewed both.

Fast Company named Susan Clampitt, g.m. of WAMU in Washington, D.C., one of its “Fast 50.”

NPR’s Steve Inskeep is a finalist for the 2003 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, awarded by the Shorenstein Center. (Via Romenesko.)

Public radio stations in New Hampshire and Vermont expect the FCC will soon decide on their application for a jointly owned classical music station.

Ellen Kushner, host of public radio’s Sound and Spirit, has helped launch the Interstitial Arts movement.

Maigstrates in Kentucky have refused to endorse a grant application from Whitesburg’s Appalshop because of an alleged unpatriotic remark by a DJ on WMMT-FM, reports the Associated Press. Appalshop operates WMMT, a community radio station.

The Daily Northwestern goes behind the scenes at NPR’s Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me! Host Peter Sagal acknowledges he’s achieve a modicum of fame but will “never reach Bitch Goddess level.” (Via Romenesko.)

After fielding more advocates on the Hill than ever before, APTS reported that Congress had reduced the amount it will rescind from this year’s CPB funding. Instead of cutting $10 mil to $15 mil, Congress applied a smaller cut of 0.65% or $2.37 million. APTS called it a “tremendous victory.” Congress also agreed to lay out its largest amount for the digital transition — $48.7 million — in addition to $43.5 million for PTFP, which will spend much of its budget this year on digital.

Some Pacificans are urging the network’s board to guarantee seats for women and people of color.

The theme of this year’s Public Radio Collaboration (Nov. 1-9) is democracy in America.

WRYR in Churchton, Md., one of the first low-power FM stations to go on the air, is “definitely starting to catch on,” says founder Mike Shay in the Baltimore Sun.

Frontline‘s cameras will not record jury deliberations in the capital murder trial of 17-year-old Cedric Harrison. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday issued its opinion in the controversial proposal. (Reports in today’s Houston Chronicle and New York Times.)

Public radio stations will have their first chance in five years to file for translators on non-reserved FM frequencies. The FCC window is March 10-14 (release in PDF, text and Word formats). Communications attorney John Crigler believes this means the FCC will soon decide–possibly before the window opens–how to handle situations in which commercial and noncommercial broadcasters vie for the same frequency.

There’s no escape from rant media: a Washington Post feature on “nasty name calling, vindictive invective and unrelenting venting” doesn’t mention cross-channel exchanges between PBS’s Bill Moyers and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News.