Bill Marimow resigned last night as NPR’s v.p. of news and will become its ombudsman, reports the Washington Post. NPR staffers told the Post that Marimow and Jay Kernis, v.p. of programming and his immediate boss, had clashed about “the scope and nature of his responsibilities.” UPDATE: The New York Times has posted an expanded version of its original article. “Colleagues said that Mr. Marimow, a long-time print journalist and investigative reporter, was perceived as having failed to adapt quickly enough to radio, particularly as radio converges with the Internet,” the Times reports. “They also said that he was on the wrong side of an internal power struggle.”

This American Life will offer its show in podcast form for the first time starting this weekend. Each episode will be available free for a week, and subscribers to the show’s podcast through Audible.com will get a refund. TAL‘s listeners have been critical of the show’s approach to digital delivery.

The FCC will not accept minor change applications during the application window for an upcoming auction, according to Radio World.

Your next cheeses from Wisconsin might come from goats named after Cokie Roberts and Nina Totenberg, notes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Fantome Farm in Ridgeway, Wis., is home to a herd of goats named after “inspiring women,” including the NPR analyst and reporter. (Via NPR’s Mixed Signals.)

Former U.S. Sen. David Pryor, named last month to the CPB Board, is expected to make a full recovery after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark., reports the Arkansas News Bureau. Pryor was admitted to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Monday night after complaining of chest tightness and pressure, the paper reports. The 72-year-old Pryor previously underwent bypass surgery following a heart attack in 1991.

WNED in Buffalo, N.Y., and the University of Buffalo are preparing to launch a public radio series based on oral histories of African-American women, reports Buffalo Business First. The producers received $280,000 for the project last year from CPB.

Austin City Limits will move out of its studio on the University of Texas campus, its home for the past 32 years, and into a new downtown Austin facility in 2009, reports the Austin American-Statesman. Bill Stotesberry, KRLU g.m., says the new theater will be roughly the same size as the current studio but will accomodate three times as many seats.

The Public Radio Program Directors Association has posted audio files of general sessions from this year’s PRPD conference at its website.

Linda O’Bryon, a creator and onetime co-anchor of pubTV’s Nightly Business Report at WPBT in Miami, joins San Francisco-based Northern California Public Broadcasting (KQED/KTEH) as chief content officer, says the Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. O’Bryon is now NBR‘s executive editor and g.m. of WPBT’s NBR Enterprises. John Boland, her predecessor in San Francisco, set off an instance of musical chairs when he moved to PBS as its first chief content officer in June.

Staffers at WITF in Harrisburg, Pa., share embarrassing moments from their broadcasting career: “I have one, but it involves transposing the initial consonants in the phrase ‘forty bucks,’ so I’m guessing it’ll be inappropriate to share.”

The Pacifica Foundation passed a resolution last week empowering its executive director to “use the resources of the foundation to educate and inform the public” about U.S. Senate Bill 3930, which addresses the rights of detainees. The legislation “has given President Bush extraordinary and chilling power to indefinitely detain and try prisoners in the so-called war on terror,” the resolution says.

John Sutton looks at the latest national Arbitron data for public radio’s audience, which shows continuing declines in most measurements, although cume rebounded somewhat. “The loss of Share means public radio is losing ground in the radio marketplace,” he writes. “A decline in Loyalty, if further analysis shows that’s the case, means that public radio listeners are still using the radio but choosing to spend an increasing amount of the radio listening time with commercial broadcasters.”

NPR’s upcoming music website will not directly offer song downloads, says Maria Thomas, v.p. of digital media, in an interview with Digital Media Wire. Thomas also says that it’s unlikely public radio will create a central web portal, an idea espoused by Mark Fuerst, executive director of the Integrated Media Association, in a Current commentary.

Motorola announced yesterday that it will offer programs from NPR, Public Radio International and American Public Media to mobile phones via its iRadio service.

The California State Long Beach Foundation has chosen Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters Inc. as the prospective operator of KKJZ-FM (PDF). The foundation’s Board of Directors heard recommendations tonight from an evaluation committee. Also bidding were Pacific Public Radio, the nonprofit that has run the station since 1987; Southern California Public Radio, the L.A. sibling of Minnesota Public Radio; and the Jazz Institute of Los Angeles. Mt. Wilson already operates two commercial outlets: K-Mozart, an FM classical station, and KKGO-AM, which airs adult standards. (More coverage in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.)