There was no single reason why the NPR Board ended Ken Stern’s 18-month run as chief executive officer — or at least none that any participant in the decision would describe publicly after Stern’s abrupt exit March 6 [2008]. Judging from what board members, station execs and other observers are willing to say, it came down to a lack of confidence in Stern’s ability to lead the organization in directions that public radio’s various stakeholders — especially NPR stations — could embrace. “I can’t comment on the nature of that decision,” said Dennis Haarsager, a longtime station leader now serving as interim c.e.o.,

In letters to PBS ombudsman Michael Getler (scroll down), a handful of viewers accused Gwen Ifill of being soft on Barack Obama during a Newshour interview on Monday. Getler agrees the interview was “somewhat disappointing,” but he doesn’t blame it entirely on the interviewer. “I don’t know if Ifill could have extracted more from Obama or not,” he writes, “because he seemed subdued in his responses.”

Facing a $200 million budget shortfall, the Miami-Dade public school system will consider selling part or all of its WLRN-FM/TV duo, schools Supt. Rudy Crew told the Miami Herald editorial board. The stations are on reserved channels, the newspaper reported, so they could be sold only for noncommercial use.

In another story about the firing of WYPR’s Marc Steiner, The Baltimore City Paper reports that President Anthony Brandon’s “answers–and his nonanswers–during an hour of questions on March 13 suggest displeasure with not just Steiner’s personality but also his unusual employment contract.” Brandon says, “Marc was under contract for $125,000 per year to produce eight hours of programming a week. He was also given the latitude to operate other business ventures at the same time.” Since Steiner stepped down as station v.p. in 2005, his paycheck has been written out to a company Steiner founded in 1998, Lasko Round Inc.,

WNIT, the pubTV station in South Bend, Ind., has discontinued analog broadcasting after its two major signal amplifiers failed, writes General Manager Mary Pruess in the South Bend Tribune today. If the expensive repairs wouldn’t be obsolete within a year, when the FCC mandates the final analog sign-off, WNIT would do them immediately, she writes. WNIT offers a phone hotline and webpage for info about over-the-air viewers’ options. In Tennessee, where cable carriage is limited, Cookeville’s WCTE rented expensive equipment rather than turn off its analog signal this winter.

PBS Kids Play!, an Internet-based subscription educational gaming service for kids ages 3 to 6, officially launches today. The curriculum-based service, which has been in beta test for two months, features PBS Kids characters including Curious George and the Berenstain Bears. It costs $9.95 a month, or $79 a year, and includes a free 15-day trial.

The Washington Post reports on the Supreme Court’s announcement yesterday that it will take up the Fox Broadcasting lawsuit challenging FCC policy on indecent broadcasts. The case focuses on the commission’s 2004 decision to fine broadcasters for “fleeting” use of expletives.

The program director of Pacifica station KPFT-FM in Houston spent some time recently with Nicole Sawaya, who recently recommitted to serving as the network’s executive director, and he likes what he saw. “In virtually all our conversations the last few days, Nicole was quick to remind us that being into new media will be key to staying relevant,” writes Ernesto Aguilar, who makes clear that he’s equally bullish on the subject.

The g.m. of Boston’s WBUR-FM tells the Boston Phoenix that he’s been talking with Mike Barnicle, the local columnist who faced accusations of plagiarizing material in the late ’90s. “I had nothing but the best of experiences with Mike for 23 years…. I think he’s a voice that’s missed in Boston,” says Paul La Camera. On his blog, media watcher Dan Kennedy reminds readers that the most recent accusations “were only the latest in a quarter-century of similar, very credible complaints.”

Gravity Medium points to a NewsGang podcast featuring Dennis Haarsager, now interim CEO at NPR, as well as Doc Searls, Steve Gillmor and Stephen Hill.

Andy Carvin calls attention to an e-mail fraud scheme that uses the name of Joan Kroc, the philanthropist who gave NPR more than $200 million. “The scam claims to be doling out cash to nonprofit groups,” Carvin writes. “If you respond, they’ll end up demanding a hefty processing fee or even direct access to your bank accounts.”

CPB, meeting with station leaders this week near Washington, announced extended funding for two pubTV stars, Ken Burns and Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. PBS joined CPB in announcing three new Gates series: for 2010, The Faces of America, a four-parter about the ancestry of famed Americans; for 2011, the eight-part Searching for Our Roots: The History of the African American People, and for 2012, African American Lives III: Reclaiming Our Past. They will be produced by WNET in New York, Kunhardt Productions and Inkwell Films. New Ken Burns projects under consideration for the next decade include a joint bio of Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt and a series on the Vietnam War, according to CPB, which announced a funding agreement with Burns that runs through 2017.

“In a moral sense or in a fair game sense, we who pledged on pledge drives and gave money to building the station deserve a chance to raise the money to buy it,” says Steve Denkers, a philanthropist whose family foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Salt Lake City’s KCPW, in today’s Deseret Morning News. Denkers, a major contributor to public broadcasting outlets in Utah through the Stephen G. and Susan E. Denkers Family Foundation, was responding to recent news that KCPW licensee Community Wireless has demanded that Wasatch Public Media, a new local nonprofit, match the bid terms of California-based religious broadcasters.

Get My Vote, a new NPR website presenting user-generated content, launched in public beta yesterday. NPR’s Andy Carvin, who led development of the site, explains the ideas behind Get My Vote and its various elements here.

“NPR’s weakness is that is has too often undervalued the quality of radio-ness in building the organization,” writes Jeffrey Dvorkin, former NPR News exec and ombudsman, in a blog commentary about Ken Stern’s firing as NPR ceo. This was especially the case during the last decade with Stern at the helm, he writes, when NPR recruited “non-radio people” in false belief that “true journalistic legitimacy is found among the world of newspaper reporters and editors.” NPR succeeded in attracting bigger news audiences, but “clarity of purpose of the organization became more confused” and Stern’s vision for NPR diverged from that of stations.