Starting Oct. 4, West Virginia students get help with their homework for free, says the Register-Herald in Beckley, W.V. The Homework Hotline show, approaching its 20th year, airs Mondays through Thursdays on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. It started out by offering assistance to students while the show was on the air. Now, teachers often later correspond with the kids by e-mail or phone to ensure everyone gets help. “The teachers that work with the show are very dedicated,” said Dennis Adkins, executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “They stay and answer questions long after the cameras are turned off.”

The Republican candidate for Lucas County (Ohio) auditor on Wednesday (Sept. 22) accused Toledo’s WGTE-TV/Channel 30 of favoring the Democratic incumbent, according to the Toledo Blade. Gina Marie Kaczala said she was told by a WGTE production assistant that part of her two-minute campaign speech for broadcast was “inappropriate.” Kaczala later discovered that the assistant’s brother-in-law is on the staff of the incumbent, Anita Long. Marlon Kiser, president WGTE, denied Kaczala’s charges. He said that part of her speech was negative, and the station does not allow attack statements in its candidate statement segments. Kiser told the paper that a station attorney who specializes in Federal Communications Commission regulations advised him to allow Kaczala to read the speech, which she did.

A seven-minute video of a free-climbing tower technician “has the broadcast engineering community abuzz,” says the TV Broadcast website. Free climbing “meaning no safety lines are used,” the narrator says. “It’s easier, faster, and most tower workers climb this way. . . . Free climbing is dangerous, of course, but OSHA rules do allow for it.” But a source in the story says the Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not consider free climbing an acceptable technique. In the video, an engineer takes an elevator to 1,600 feet, then free climbs the rest of the way to the top of the 1,768-foot TV tower.

University of Minnesota Vice President Karen Himle, who pulled the plug on a documentary that was to run on Twin Cities Public Television in October, is being asked to resign by a sustainable agriculture advocacy organization, according to the local Star-Tribune. Himle canceled the broadcast of “Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story,” which was produced by the university. The paper reported that Himle is married to John Himle, c.e.o. of Himle Horner Inc., a PR firm that represents the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council, an agribusiness advocacy association; he denied any role in the cancellation. The Land Stewardship Project is calling for her to step down.

Shae Hopkins, executive director of Kentucky Educational Television, has dropped out of a fundraiser for Birthright of Lexington, which provides assistance to women with unplanned pregnancies, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. “Unfortunately, a normal vetting process of this event was not taken,” KET spokesperson Tim Bischoff told the newspaper in a statement. “Although Birthright International has a philosophy of avoiding direct involvement in political advocacy, after further consideration and out of concern that her participation could lead to the perception that she and/or KET are endorsing a particular cause, Ms. Hopkins has decided not to participate.” Hopkins was scheduled to be a celebrity auctioneer for the nonprofit’s Bid & Buy 2010 event on Nov.

It’s a good thing Ken Burns brought his glove to the Orioles-Red Sox game in Boston on Tuesday (Sept. 21). Yup, he snagged a foul ball. Burns is on one of his amazingly energetic promotional tours (Current, Oct. 13, 2009) for his latest PBS doc, Tenth Inning, which airs Sept. 28 and 29.

“I want this show to always have one piece in it where someone listens to it and says, ‘You know what I heard on the radio today?’ and talks about it at the dinner table,” Madeleine Brand says in a Los Angeles Times feature on the Sept. 20 debut of her new morning show for KPCC in Pasadena. “Intellectually stimulated and delighted at the same time,” she says. “My goal is for it not to be reheated broccoli.” The Madeleine Brand Show airs weekday mornings at 9 a.m. — the same timeslot as Day to Day, the NPR newsmagazine that Brand cohosted until its cancellation last year.

Seventeen child-care providers were honored on Capitol Hill yesterday (Sept. 21) in ceremonies sponsored by KCET and WETA. It’s the third such outreach event for KCET’s A Place of Our Own and Los Ninos en Su Casa. Members of Congress helped present the awards, and PBS President Paula Kerger spoke. The child-care providers previously were selected as “Caregivers of the Week” by their local pubcasting stations.

NPR’s social media team launched the NPR Tumblr, a short-form blog that will feature photos and quotes that play to the strengths of the blogging platform. Tumblr launched in 2007 and has more than 8 million users; it’s distinguished by its visual appeal and the ease with which users can post and share photos, text, links, music and video. In today’s first post, featuring an arresting image of a monarch butterfly, NPR’s Andy Carvin cites Fresh Air’s Tumblr as the inspiration for the network’s foray onto tumblelogging. In July, NPR hit a major social media milestone when its Facebook page surpassed one million fans.

WNET, WGBH and nine other broadcasters are signatories to several cease and desist letters to the Seattle startup ivi, which is selling Internet access to their live TV signals. And ivi has responded by filing a Complaint for Declaratory Judgment of Copyright Noninfringement (PDF) in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday (Sept. 20), in what it calls “a preemptive move to discourage needless litigation from big media.” All that then prompted the National Association of Broadcasters to issue a strongly worded statement Tuesday (Sept. 21). “It is blatantly illegal to steal broadcasters’ copyrighted works and signals,” said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton.

Rumor has it that Ira Glass of This American Life is making a cameo appearance on the season premiere of The Simpsons. “Elementary School Musical” also co-stars . . . Jemaine and Bret. All you Flight of the Conchords fans may commence squeals of joy, while you Ira Glass fans continue your enthusiastic applause.

The CPB Board today (Sept. 21) heard an ominous “State of Public Television” update that predicts that licensees haven’t yet seen the worst of declines in state support, underwriting and philanthropic giving. CPB management commissioned Public Radio Capital for a systemwide analysis of fiscal year 2008 and FY2009 to assess pubTV station solvency. During that time, non-federal funding fell 16 percent. Although federal support to stations increased, aggregate revenues “continued their steep downward trend,” the report said. Community licensees saw a 22 percent decrease in corporate underwriting, with national producing stations particularly impacted. Individual philanthropy is down 11 percent regardless of licensee type or station size.

Was NPR’s decision not to devote more airtime to Harry Shearer’s documentary on New Orleans–even if it was paid for as underwriting–a case of censorship, quibbling over credit language, or fainthearted journalistic commitment to covering problems with the levy system constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers? All three theories played out over the blogosphere after Shearer wrote for the Huffington Post about his difficulties in getting NPR’s newsmagazines to report on his documentary The Big Uneasy and in placing underwriting spots promoting its Aug. 30 debut. “NPR has decided its initials stand for nothing,” Shearer wrote, taking a jab at the network’s recent decision to abbreviate its name on-air.

The decision by the University of Minnesota to cancel broadcast of the documentary “Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story,” continues to generate controversy. The film, exploring agricultural pollution and possible solutions, had been set to air on Twin Cities Public Television on Oct. 5. The story was broken by the Twin Cities Daily Planet, a local news site. University News Service director Daniel Wolter told the Daily Planet that the Bell Museum is responsible for halting the release. That’s part of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences, and where the film was to premiere on Oct. 3.

Renowned movie critic Roger Ebert, who literally owns the trademarked thumbs-up/thumbs-down gesture, is returning to public TV, where he started his on-air career 35 years ago. Starting in January, Ebert will produce the weekly show Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies, and do a monologue for each episode. The balcony front-row reviewers will be Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Elvis Mitchell of The Treatment on KCRW with additional opinions from movie bloggers Kim Morgan and Omar Moore. Ebert said he’d known Lemire and Mitchell for some time. “Kim and Omar I met online and admired.” The show will be distributed through American Public Television.