Madonna’s current visit to Israel may be getting more press, but Grover will reach far more fans with his. The popular Sesame Street resident is traveling the country to update the 1986 Shalom Sesame, which has sold 1 million copies — the No. 1 Jewish educational title, according to The Jerusalem Post. Grover has visited the Dead Sea, Caesarea, the Western Wall and even Mahane Yehuda, Jerusalem’s largest shuk (outdoor market) to sample the goodies. Madonna may be visiting bigwigs including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Grover gets to star in Shalom Sesame with stars including Jake Gyllenhaal and Debra Messing.

Some pledge drives are going pretty darned well, reports The Washington Post. At D.C.’s WAMU, donations are running 50 percent higher than last year and membership is up 53 percent. “We’re getting astounding numbers,” Walt Gillette, WAMU’s director of individual giving, told the paper. Maryland Public Television in Baltimore saw a 3 percent increase over last year. WETA in Arlington, Va., is off 11 percent overall, but radio is up 2 percent. Colorado Public Radio, up 15 percent; KPBS in San Diego had a record number of donations over $1,200. How did your pledge go? Email Current Senior Editor Dru Sefton at seftond@current.org

Next week, a group of supporters of WLIU on Long Island will detail their plan to buy the radio station from Long Island University, reports the local Sag Harbor Express. The news site adds that within the next two weeks the backers will offer $800,000 to take over; a source with the group told Current while that figure is “in the ballpark,” it is not precise. More than 300 supporters in SPREE (Save Public Radio on the East End) include Loews Hotels Chairman Jonathan Tisch, publisher Jann Wenner, actor Alec Baldwin, singer Suzanne Vega and Congressman Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.). Here’s Current’s Aug.

Nearly 80 viewers wrote to PBS or ombudsman Michael Getler to lament the end of the long-running Reading Rainbow (Current, Aug. 6). Several of the letters Getler shared are quite emotional; one Portland, Ore., woman calls the show’s demise “a crime against literacy.”

Curious about the broadcasting tower site above Mount Wilson, threatened this week by Los Angeles wildfires? Tower aficionado Scott Fybush has two pages (here and here), complete with photos, detailing what area stations have equipment atop the mile-high mountain–which turns out to be many area broadcasters. Fybush is a radio transmission tower expert, as well as part-time pubcaster on WXXI in Rochester, N.Y. Latest on the fire: Broadcast engineers have begun returning to the mountain to assess equipment damage, according to Television Broadcast site.

NBC has ordered a two-hour pilot remake of the longtime Masterpiece staple “Prime Suspect,” reveals The Hollywood Reporter. The popular ITV show starring Helen Mirren ran on PBS from 1992 through 2006 (Current, Nov. 6, 2006). The new one will be co-produced by ITV and Universal Media studios. “We want to carefully choose a couple of iconic titles this year to reinvent, and our intention is to create another classic television show from this brilliant original format,” said Angela Bromstad, NBC and UMS president of primetime entertainment.

CPB is looking for:— A broadband grants consultant to assist stations applying to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service. Details here.— A PBCore 2.0 development project manager. The manager for the 12-month assignment will report directly to CPB’s veep of digital media strategy. Details here.

KPBS will create an interactive newsroom for multimedia and multi-platform projects with a $2.5 million gift announced today. The donation came from Irwin Jacobs, co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, and his wife Joan, longtime supporters of the San Diego station. Right now reporters, writers, producers and support staff work throughout the building. “It was time we created a physical environment where all news and content producers can work collaboratively,” said Tom Karlo, KPBS general manager.

Laura Fedele and Jim O’Hara from WFUV in New York City have been working on that with their “independent, emerging music” online and HD Radio channel (TheAlternateSide.org) and will report on best practices and best pitfalls at a webinar Sept. 16 (3-4 p.m., Eastern) organized by Public Media Innovation. Capacity is limited, reservation required. Listeners’ computers must run Windows 2000, XP and newer versions or Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) or newer.

Firefighters have made “significant progress” in containing wildfires on Mt. Wilson, the Los Angeles Times is reporting, but “they are still concerned about the massive blaze’s fast-moving southeastern flank.” To protect the historic Mt. Wilson observatory and broadcast transmission facilities on the peak, fire crews have been dumping water and flame-resistant gel on the area. An AP story on NPR.org reports that 150 firefighters and engines were stationed at the peak last night to defend the towers. KPCC, one of six pubcasters with transmitters on the mountain, created this special website for wildfire coverage. The Pasadena-based news station has arranged for a backup transmitter with the help of KUSC-FM, which broadcasts from Mt.

A comment on WAMU about Sen. Ted Kennedy enjoying jokes about the notorious Chappaquiddick incident is generating a lot of press, particularly on conservative news sites. Edward Klein, biographer of the senator who died last week, told Diane Rehm’s guest host Katty Kay that one of Kennedy’s “favorite topics of humor was, indeed, Chappaquiddick.” He added as an explanation: “Not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too.” NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard writes about Kennedy coverage in her latest column, noting that of 23 NPR stories on Kennedy’s death, “only one mentioned the name Mary Jo Kopechne and 5 mentioned Chappaquiddick.”

The FCC has announced guidelines for special procedures to assist licensees impacted by the ongoing California wildfires (PDF).

The 20 stations comprising Florida Public Broadcasting Service have applied for a $22 million grant through stimulus funds from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, reports The Tampa Bay Business Journal. The funding would be used to build on the stations’ coverage of the state to create a broadband network linking schools, public safety and health care facilities and other critical institutions. The new high-speed network would link to Florida LambdaRail, which already connects research institutions. The grant should be awarded by September 2010.

The National Park Foundation is providing half a million dollars to establish a nationwide grant program to reach underserved visitors, it announced yesterday. The foundation said it was “inspired” to do so by Ken Burns’ documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, which premieres Sept. 27 on PBS. Thirty-five parks nationwide will use the funds to develop outreach strategies and engagement programs for folks who don’t usually visit the parks–primarily people of color, according to the foundation’s press release.

More cutbacks are on the way at WGBH, The Boston Globe reports, although station management declined to offer specifics. The station, which produces more than a third of PBS’s primetime lineup, continues to struggle. “We’re making a lot of difficult choices,’’ chief exec Jonathan C. Abbott told the paper. The paper points out the station has a nearly $7 million shortfall to correct; see Current’s Aug. 3 story for details on that. WGBH also had layoffs in December (Current, Dec. 22, 2008) amounting to 2 percent of its workforce.