Frontline announced its new fall lineup on PBS, beginning Oct. 16 with “Cheney’s Law.” Other doc subjects: America’s relationship with Iran, the business of being an undertaker, the Darfur crisis, and CIA kidnapping of terror suspects (Frontline/World). [See a preview video.]

A measure of how far the cultural battle over broadcast indecency has shifted: New York’s WBAI, the Pacifica station that successfully challenged the FCC over George Carlin’s “seven dirty words,” created a special program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the court ruling that deemed Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” not obscene. But the program is being distributed online, not over the air. Bernard White, WBAI p.d., tells the San Francisco Chronicle that broadcasting “Howl Against Censorship” would put the station at risk for $325,000 FCC fines for each “dirty word” in Ginsberg’s poem. “This is about the public airwaves,” says Janet Coleman, WBAI arts director.

In a follow-up to another mini-flap involving NPR’s Juan Williams, someone at the network leaked an internal memo (via mediabistro.com) from news director Ellen Weiss explaining NPR’s decision to reject an opportunity to interview President Bush. The network declined the White House offer because President Bush would only speak to Williams and NPR doesn’t let subjects dictate who interviews them, Weiss said last week. Williams instead conducted the interview for Fox News (transcript, via Dan Froomkin, video at FoxNews.com), where he is a regular commentator. In the memo released today, Weiss explained that NPR rebuffed a similar offer from Sen.

NPR’s Juan Williams has been sucked into the media feud over Bill O’Reilly’s racial awareness. Bloggers for Media Matters and the Nation argue that Williams has discredited himself and NPR by defending O’Reilly. Video of Williams’ recent appearance on O’Reilly Factor is posted here [scroll down to “Middle Man” headline]. An AP video with audio excerpts of O’Reilly’s original remarks about his dinner at Sylvia’s, the Harlem soul food restaurant, is here.

HD will be the battle cry for cable nets and competing satellite TV operators during the next year, said Phillip Swann of TVPredictions.com yesterday, issuing his annual 10 HD predictions for ’08 at Iowa PTV’s DTV Symposium. DirecTV will offer 100 HD channels, he foretold, but consumers will remain confused about what equipment they’d need to receive true HD, and many will buy $300 standard-def DTV receivers. Iowa Public Radio programmer Todd Mundt reacts to Swann at the symposium, confiding that, since installing an HD set, he has “grown to dislike watching” standard-def programs, and feels little allure from multicast SD channels.

Philadelphia magazine runs a long, occasionally snide piece on WHYY and its well-compensated CEO, Bill Marrazzo. The writer takes aim at the station’s perceived “lack of ambition to do public television” as well as Marrazzo’s $400,000+ salary, and outlines mostly anonymous employees’ concerns about both issues. The WHYY Board defended Marrazzo’s performance and compensation in August in response to another local writer’s criticism.

What can stations do to smooth the transition when analog TV transmission ends? PubTV’s Affinity Group Coalition has started a new website, The Analog Shutoff: A Repository, offering examples of on-air spots, web pages and other material to help educate viewers about new digital services and their reception options. The coalition’s project is led by Larry Smith, g.m. of KUED in Salt Lake City, and the site was built by his staff. It features a ticker counting down to shutoff, 504 days away.

The board of the Pacifica Foundation unanimously named Nicole Sawaya executive director of the left-wing radio network at its meeting in Berkeley, Calif., Sept. 29. Sawaya previously served as g.m. of KPFA-FM, Pacifica’s station in Berkeley, where she enjoyed strong support from colleagues. Her firing in 1999 touched off protests and worsened the internal conflict plaguing the network at the time. Pacifica historian Matthew Lasar calls Sawaya’s hiring as ED “great news”: “It signifies that a critical mass of people at Pacifica have grown weary of chaos and drift.”

Mark Ramsey interviews Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com. The Internet radio website was mentioned frequently during music and research sessions at the recently concluded Public Radio Program Directors conference. [Via Technology360]

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) plans to introduce a bill next month that would require over-the-air radio stations to pay performance royalties for the music they play, a move the recording industry has been plotting for some time. Broadcasters have paid royalties to composers and music publishers for decades, but unlike satellite and online radio operators, they haven’t had to pay the performance rights holders–generally record labels–of recordings they air. The National Association of Broadcasters predictably vowed to fight the effort. “The big record labels are spinning the same old tune to Congress–asking them to impose a tax on radio to line the pockets of international record executives,” NAB President David K.

To address the slowing in public radio’s audience growth, CPB put out an RFP today seeking someone to lead a systemwide consultation and develop goals, audience-building strategies and best practices. Deadline: Oct. 31. Earlier this week CPB gave the Development Exchange a $235,000 grant to plan a Major Giving Initiative for pubradio. The objective is to train radio fundraisers and otherwise help them find major donors, following completion of a similar project for pubTV.

Miami is the 12th largest metropolitan area without a full-time classical music service. The region lost its last classical FM radio service, a commercial station, seven years ago. As one of the largest producers and distributors of classical music programming in the world, the new station will build on one of American Public Media Group’s core strengths.“American Public Media Group is in a unique position, with our commitment to classical music, arts and cultural programming, to make this station into a strong public radio station serving the residents of Miami and southeastern Florida,” said Bill Kling, president and CEO of American Public Media Group.

Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley found a factual error in Ken Burns’ The War, reports Radio Iowa. In his description of “one of the most famous Iowa families involved in that war,” Burns says the five Sullivan brothers were from Fredericksburg. ” ‘That came as a great surprise to all of us living in Waterloo, home of Sullivan Park and the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center,’ Braley says. Braley faxed a letter to Burns today, praising his work as a filmmaker but pointing out the error.”

Rebuffed last week in a bid to buy an FM outlet in the Washington, D.C., area, American Public Media Group has agreed to laid out $20 million for a station in the Miami area, according to a news report on APMG’s Minnesota Public Radio. APMG plans to change the format of WMCU from Christian to classical music, a format that lost its longtime broadcaster a decade ago. APMG President Bill Kling said he’s not on a buying spree, but the offer was “just too good to pass up.” The seller is an affiliate of an evangelical school, Trinity International University. WMCU’s last day on the air will be Sunday, Sept.

The doctor is in. Jim Russell, the longtime radio producer who does business now as The Program Doctor, has just begun taking questions at Transom.org, the website for public radio producers. Like other Transom.org guests, Russell posted a conversation-starter, his 17-step guide to program development. (He had a hand in developing not only Marketplace, but also The World, Weekend America and more. Transom’s previous guest was Ben Shapiro, a TV-and-radio producer who discusses visual storytelling for radio folks.