A New Republic blogger reviews two BBC radio shows and asks, “Why are there so many excellent program(me)s on BBC Radio 4 with no American counterpart?”

Programming will include educational shows, how-to and lifestyle programs, movies and performance shows, and current-affairs programs.

As in years past, the administration budget released on Feb. 5 [2007] calls for substantial cuts to CPB funding and other system line items. The White House would slice more than $140 million from the system’s current funding levels in fiscal 2008, a reduction of almost 25 percent from ’07...

Bob Edwards will assume presidential duties for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists next month when current National President John P. Connolly departs. Connolly is leaving AFTRA to become National Executive Director of Actors’ Equity Association. Edwards, now AFTRA’s First National Vice President, will assume presidential duties until April.

The Sacramento Bee profiles public radio’s Fair Game. “A public radio reporter from one of our pilot stations heard the show and told me, ‘Faith can ask all the questions we can’t ask but want to,'” says the show’s e.p. of host Faith Salie.

Michael A. Tondreau, v.p. of engineering at Oregon Public Broadcasting, died Jan. 30 of cancer, according to TVTechnology.com. Tondreau worked for OPB for more than 40 years and served on the PBS Engineering Committee.

NPR’s Michel Martin seeks a name for her show and has asked her community of Web visitors for suggestions.

Despite a “significant number” of objections, the FCC will allow Kilgore Junior College in Kilgore, Texas, to sell KTPB-FM, its noncommercial station, to a religious broadcaster. But the commission has taken an unusual step and given KTPB’s unhappy listeners a one-time chance to apply for a low-power FM license that could restore a classical music station to the community. (PDF.)

The return of classical music on Washington’s WETA-FM has left the city without Weekend Edition Sunday, and the editor-at-large of the American Prospect is not happy. “Is there cosmic justice in the fact that people in the hollows of eastern Kentucky and the remote plains of Nebraska can hear a serious couple hours’ worth of radio news on Sunday mornings, while those of us who have taken the good time, trouble, and expense to deposit ourselves in the nation’s political nerve center — and even enmesh ourselves in its sordid particulars — can’t?” he asks.

PBS will debut Ken Burns’ The War on Sept. 23, one week later than originally planned. The Washington Post‘s Lisa de Moraes reports on the schedule change, which television critics clamored for during the recent press tour, and consults anonymous commercial network programmers. They describe the switch as “monumentally stupid.”

Thanks to FishbowlDC, we learn that NPR media reporter David Folkenflik owns four suits and had a scrambled-egg-and-tomato sandwich for breakfast. Not only that, but people think he is hot.

With problems saddling the rollout of NPR’s new ContentDepot program distribution system, the network will keep a backup for the system in place until at least April, longer than initially planned. Some station staffers tell Radio World that the transition is “a case study in how a big technological change is fraught with problems.” (More from NPR Distribution at prss.org.)

Wondering which HD Radio to buy? NPR Labs recommends two tabletop and two aftermarket auto models. (PDF.)

Mattel, maker of the ever-popular Tickle Me Elmo dolls, will follow up last year’s anniversary T.M.X. Elmo with “extreme” Ernie and Cookie Monster dolls to be released this fall, CNNMoney.com reports. Also coming soon: Pizza Elmo, a doll with a pizza that sings along with him. Pubcasting critic Jeffrey Chester takes aim at a Sesame Workshop moneymaker that he says pushes junk food and further commercializes childhood.

A survey sponsored by the Association of Public Television Stations found that 61 percent of respondents did not know a DTV transition was happening; 10 percent had limited awareness; and 25 percent were somewhat or very aware. APTS is leading a coalition of trade and interest groups that is competing for the $5 million Congress set aside for consumer education in last year’s DTV bill. “There are more than 21 million U.S. households that get their TV exclusively free and over the air, and we know these homes are heavy viewers of public television,” APTS President John Lawson said. “That puts us, working with our partners, in a strong position to provide information about the digital transition to the people who need it most.”