The Supreme Court will soon consider a complaint by Fox against the FCC about a proposed indecency fine, leaving the commission in legal limbo until the Court hands down a decision — its first indecency ruling in three decades — probably early next year, the Los Angeles Times reports. The FCC and broadcasters have gone back and forth in federal court since the 2003 Bono ruling and early 2004 Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction ushered in a more aggressive campaign against on-air naughtiness. Pubcasters have taken a number of steps to stay out of harm’s way, but at least one, KCSM in San Mateo, got caught in the FCC’s dragnet.

Click and Clack’s As the Wrench Turns, the animated TV version of NPR’s popular Car Talk, has its first 10 hour-long episodes in the can and is ready to debut in PBS primetime in July. The idea for an animated Car Talk series floated around for years but picked up momentum — and crucially, funding — after Paula Kerger arrived as president of PBS.

A TV studio at the University of Alabama’s Center for Public Television and Radio will be out of commission for months because a faulty sprinkler soaked the place after a fire alarm went off on Thursday, the Tuscaloosa News reported.

Is the online radio audience growing or flat? Researchers behind The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio’s Digital Platforms chart an “all-time high” in weekly listenership, but marketing strategist Mark Ramsey says the data “sure seems weird.”

The Columbus Social Media Cafe, an endeavor to engage local bloggers in the creation of Web 2.0 public media that benefits the communities served by WOSU-TV/FM/AM, is planning a new website. Intended to be an “agora for information and communication,” the website will aggregate content created by and about Central Ohio, creating a “loop of communication” between topics discussed on the Web and covered by the WOSU stations. Elements of the site, and video footage of the most recent Social Media Cafe meeting, are posted here. WOSU’s Susan Meier discusses the ideas and how-to elements of the project here.

The Public Radio Exchange has received a MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, an annual $500,000 grant awarded only to previous MacArthur grantees with budgets of less than $2.5 million. “By gathering and distributing new programming and using technological innovation to expand content choices, PRX is leading public radio to become more interactive, diverse, and participatory,” the foundation said today in its release. PRX explains that it will use the money to upgrade its web service, encourage the development of new PRX content and create a capital reserve that will support the creation of an independent board of directors.

Public TV’s lobbying unit, the Association of Public Television Stations, said today it expects to hire a new president by September. The Boston-based search firm of Issacson, Miller, which specializes in nonprofit leadership posts, will conduct a nationwide hunt. Jane Gruenebaum, a onetime congressional staffer who was executive director of the League of Women Voters and c.o.o. of the Center for Policy Alternatives, is heading the search, working with Gail Gregory. In March, John Lawson left APTS after leading it for seven years.

This year’s slate of Webby nominees includes thirteen different public broadcasting websites and mobile services, as well as PBS Kids Sprout, the pubTV- affiliated digital channel. NPR Music’s Project Song received three nominations in the online film and video division, and Frontline/World received three. Nominees in the Web division include Seattle music station KEXP, World Without Oil, and political coverage on NPR.org. Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards closes on May 1; winners will be announced May 6.

A documentary about David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and continues to makes in-character appearances 40 years later, premieres tomorrow in Pittsburgh. The doc, made on $4,000 by a 26-year-old who forged a friendship with Newell three years ago, follows the speedy delivery man–in and out of costume–through a summer of engagements, including one on a Mr. Rogers’ replica set in Baltimore.

Adobe has released its new, free Flash-based video player, which includes content from PBS and the Bay Area’s KQED. Viewers can stream or download video, and they can watch while online or offline. The current business model relies on ads attached to videos, but Adobe may develop other models, such as paying to download or rent, reports CNET. Other content partners include CBS, MTV and Scripps Networks.

Frontline‘s “Bush’s War” has garnered more than 1.5 million online views of all or part of the program. The website features an interactive timeline of the “war on terror” that incorporates 175 embedded video clips. Frontline recently built a new, full-screen video player with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. [See New York Times story on the website here and Current’s story on Frontline‘s war coverage here.]

PubTV’s government-relations unit, the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), will move its offices this weekend from downtown Washington to the same building across the Potomac where PBS is headquartered. As of Monday, April 7, APTS’ address will be 2100 Crystal Drive, Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22202. Phone and fax numbers won’t change.

Maria Thomas, builder of NPR’s web services since 2001, will return to cutting-edge e-commerce in May, PaidContent.org reported Tuesday. She’ll be chief operating officer of Etsy.com, a three-year-old Brooklyn-based online marketplace for handmade craft objects that recently sold more than 400,000 items worth $5.6 million in March. She came to NPR from Amazon.com. “It is about an opportunity for me, and not much to do with NPR,” Thomas told PaidContent. See press accounts of Etsy.com.

Yesterday’s announcement that WYPR founder and former host Mark Steiner won a Peabody Award coincided with the station’s on-air fundraising drive and reinvigorated the protesters camped outside its studios, according to the Baltimore Sun. “I called and told them there’s no way I’m giving them any money,” said Anita Lingan, a Steiner supporter who used to be a dollar-a-day WYPR member. “I want them to feel this.”

Of the 35 George Foster Peabody Awards announced today, 14 went to programs produced and/or aired by public broadcasters. Winners, chosen by the Peabody Board as the best of electronic media in 2007 include: Design Squad, a reality TV show of engineering challenges for older kids; The MTT Files, a pubradio series featuring San Francisco Symphony Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; and Just Words, created by former WYPR-FM host Marc Steiner to bring the voices of Baltimore’s most under-privileged citizens to the air. Three of PBS’s winning programs, including Design Squad, were produced by Boston’s WGBH.