Ken Burns told TV critics yesterday that 28 minutes of footage about Hispanic and Native American soldiers is being added to The War, AP reported. Material about two Latinos will appear before final credits at the ends of episodes 1 and 6 and about an Indian solider at the end of episode 5. “It doesn’t alter the vision of the film that we made and completed a year and a half ago,” he said. But adding the material at the ends of episodes may draw complaints from Latino leaders who had already objected to tacked-on heroes. Antonio Morales of the American GI Forum did not object in a statement: “The two Latino Marines who are part of the documentary ‘The War’ represent the honor and patriotism of all Hispanic-Americans,” he said.

The results from Round 2 of the Public Radio Talent Quest were announced yesterday. Three finalists eliminated from the competition were Bee Jellyfish, Carrie Kaufman and Komal Trivedi. The People’s Choice winner from Round 2 is Rebecca Watson, the contestant who also received the ranked highest rankings among PRTQ online voters in Round 1.

In a recent column, PBS ombudsman Michael Getler says his mailbag was slammed with letters from disconcerted viewers on the eve of July 4th. Many were in a tizzy that the “Capitol Fourth” telecast went off the air before the fireworks finale was over. One viewer wrote, “Who made the decision to run credits and leave the air before the Grand Finale of the Washington, DC, 4th of July fireworks display? Is he or she still employed by PBS?” Others wondered whether the extravaganza’s religious content belonged on PBS. “My fiance and I turned on the Capitol 4th PBS special to enjoy a celebration of what has made America great – our diversity,” wrote one viewer.

Round 2 voting on the Public Radio Talent Quest finalists ends tomorrow, July 10, at midnight Eastern time. Online votes and assessments of the PRTQ judges determine which seven candidates move on to the next phase of the contest.

“What we are looking at is really being an old-style, progressive rock station,” said Chris Wienk, WMHT radio v.p., describing the format switch that converted WBKK from a “hip classical” outlet to WEXT, a Triple A station dubbed “The Exit.” The change, which took effect on Saturday, ended WMHT’s 16-month experiment broadcasting two differentiated classical music services to Albany/Schenectady region of New York.

Is this a scam? Not long ago a young woman knocked on a family’s door in western New York state and asked for a donation toward raising $5,000 for a trip to England, where she’d appear with John Cleese on a program that PBS supposedly will air Oct. 17, reports Kansas City Star critic/blogger Aaron Barnhart. But a couple of her statements sounded fishy, including the claim that Cleese worked on Upstairs Downstairs. What’s up with this? Barnhart’s e-mail address.

Jeff Golden, a talk host on southern Oregon’s Jefferson Public Radio, said yesterday that he’ll leave the air while considering whether to run for the Senate against incumbent Republican Gordon Smith, AP reported.

Yesterday’s Open Source was the last from the webcentric pubradio talk show, which went “on a summer hiatus” and is disbanding its staff, wrote host Chris Lydon and producer Mary McGrath on the show’s blog. They hope to maintain the blog and to relaunch the show in the fall. Why shut down? They explained that “a brand-name media company that had asked to partner with us had changed its mind.” The show was running out of money despite a $250,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation in March and recent listener donations. The Boston-based show’s distributor, PRI, and its home station, WGBH, dropped it in recent weeks, the Boston Phoenix reported.

Low stock prices for Sirius Satellite Radio indicate Wall Street is doubting the company will merge with its competitor, XM, Bloomberg News speculated.

KOCE will give religious broadcaster Daystar Television Network one of its DTV multicast channels in exchange for Daystar dropping its persistent litigation to gain control of the channel that the public TV station bought in 2003. KOCE and Daystar yesterday swore not to disclose the terms of their mediated settlement, but the Los Angeles Times cited a description from “a source familiar with the settlement.” [Attribution corrected.]

KOCE will remain a public TV station but is not disclosing so far the terms of its settlement with religious broadcaster Daystar Television, which contended that it was high bidder for the license sold to the KOCE Foundation in 2003. A station spokeswoman released this terse statement today: “KOCE-TV Foundation and Daystar Television are pleased that they have reached a settlement to the parties’ mutual satisfaction. This brings to conclusion all the outstanding litigation between the parties and results in a complete dismissal of all claims against the KOCE-TV Foundation and the Coast Community College District. KOCE-TV Foundation will continue to own and operate KOCE-TV as a PBS member station.

Attorneys for both sides met in court four weeks ago, the Daily Pilot reported.

PBS has issued an RFP for an Internet Protocol-based system to handle server-based program delivery via public TV’s new satellite system, Broadcasting & Cable reports. Enabling non-real time distribution represents the second phase of the $122 million Next Generation Interconnection System, which got its last bit of funding from Congress this year (Q-and-A with APTS President John Lawson). PBS hopes to deliver around 150 non-real time program hours and 50 real time hours by December 2008, but roughly 50-75 stations still lack the necessary hardware to use file-based delivery. RFP responses are due July 2.

Maine Public Broadcasting Network is dropping jazz host Robert Skoglund, a 28-year Friday night fixture, after a lengthy feud over the content of Skoglund’s folksy commentaries. Better known as the humble Farmer (the “h” signals his humility), Skoglund was officially fired after he refused to sign off on commentary guidelines that prohibit hosts from taking stances on controversial issues, among other no-nos. The move ended an eight-month spat that started in November when network execs pulled an episode of The humble Farmer, saying it was critical of an upcoming ballot initiative and they didn’t want to seem as if the station was weighing in on the issue.

Fiscally pinched Black Hawk College in Moline, Ill., is considering selling or leasing out public TV station WQPT, Quad-Cities Online reports. The college trustees will hear the proposal June 21.