“A clear sign that Armageddon is near: The ballroom, at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, was easily twice as full for [WB reality show featuring washed-up celebs] “Surreal Life” as for “Becoming American” on PBS with Bill Moyers.” So writes the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Jill Vejnoska of this year’s Television Critics Association tour.

Tampa’s WUSF-FM plans to convert to digital broadcasting within the next few weeks, making it one of the first public radio stations to go digital. In other digital radio news, NPR is teaming up with Harris and Kenwood to test the secondary audio channels the new technology allows.

Listeners may have booed NPR’s recent comedy miniseries on Morning Edition, but On the Media‘s extended parody of pubradio drew an “overwhelmingly positive” reaction, at least according to hosts Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield. The Jan. 2 parody needles lefty commentors and toadying general managers with equal glee and intense audio detail. Gladstone and Garfield later read the viewer mail.

WLRN-FM is weighing a newsroom partnership with the Miami Herald, reports the Miami New Times.

The Houston Chronicle reports on a Texas appeals court hearing of the Frontline jury taping case.

Media reporter and critic Mark Jurkowitz slams public radio in today’s Boston Globe, accusing NPR President Kevin Klose and WBUR General Manager Jane Christo of dodging and patronizing supporters of Israel who say the network’s reporting is biased. [Earlier article from Current about WBUR and its pro-Israel critics.]

A new CPB-backed website for producers offers guidance on enhancing education in public TV programs. It includes case studies that assess educational outreach strategies for recent PBS series and specials.

Joanne Kaufman writes in The New York Times of her 11-year-old son’s love for radio, which includes public radio. Writes Kaufman, “If I were not afraid of going out on a limb, I would say that he likes Scott Simon almost as much as Scott Simon does.”

Documentary producer and director Jaime Kibben died Jan. 11 in a car accident in Tel Aviv. Kibben worked as a sound engineer for PBS’s NewsHour from 1990 to 1996.

NPR has renewed and expanded its contract with the Associated Press, reports Radio Ink.

When PBS took over the Television Critics Association press tour, the Toronto Globe and Mail‘s Andrew Ryan found the change startling: “Gone are the attractive, Starbucks-fuelled cable hacks; now we have dozens of timid PBS publicists in sensible National Public Radio fashions drinking tea at the back of the room.”

Hearing Voices has produced a new public radio special, “State of Union”, featuring contributions from Scott Carrier, Jay Allison and other producers.

“Talking to PBS suits about the skanky infomercials with which the public broadcasting network’s stations pollute the PBS brand during pledge drives is a lot like talking to parents of a crack-addicted teen,” writes Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post. [Scroll down from top story in column.]

A line of furniture based on pieces seen on Antiques Road Show will be in retail stores this summer, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The New York Times published two reviews of the PBS series Freedom: The Story of US. Alessandra Stanley described it as a “didactic, worthy and irritatingly timid” signal that “at long last the time has come to consider privatizing public television or turning it over to the state.” In the second review, published a day later, Ron Wertheimer praised it as a “courageous attempt” to encourage the reaffirmation that Americans need in these perilous times. These critics agreed that the series is overburdened with a parade of celebrities doing voice-overs. [Link to the pbs.org website.]