The station manager charged with creating an independent nonprofit and viable financial plan to purchase KCPW in Salt Lake City launched a website appealing for public support. Ed Sweeney, who gave up his job at KCPW last week, established the Utah nonprofit Wasatch Public Media and is working with Public Radio Capital on a bid for the station. Even though Community Wireless, KCPW’s current licensee, gave Sweeney first pass at creating a plan for KCPW to retain its staff and its current NPR news/information format, there’s no guarantee that Sweeney’s plan will be chosen over those of other potential buyers, he writes on the website.

In a piece for the Los Angeles Times, Ken Burns responds to “grandstanding politicians who believe that public television must be de-funded” and “misguided cultural critics who mistake our mission and demand of us something we are not.” PBS is “obligated to serve the public in a number of decidedly unsexy ways,” he writes, and while it isn’t as fast-paced as commercial TV, pubTV persists in “doing things well and doing things that last.” In response to suggestions that PBS should have to compete in the marketplace like other media outlets, Burns writes, “Many blessing have flowed to America from that marketplace, but I am certain that none of the films I have made in the last nearly 30 years could have been produced anywhere but at PBS.”

NPR will move into a new home in Washington’s emerging mixed use NoMA (North of Massachusetts Avenue) neighborhood in 2012, the network and District of Columbia announced today (press release). The company will move its entire Washington-based operation from its current home on Massachusetts Avenue to 1111 N. Capitol St. NE, site of the historic former home of the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company, built in1927 (map). Consistent with D.C. development practice, the original facade will be incorporated into the new 10-story office tower, which will include a 60,000 square foot newsroom for NPR’s radio and multimedia ops and a public space for live shows and events.

Public broadcasting resembles the “live-in brother-in-law,” writes The Heritage Foundation’s Ken McIntyre in a column appearing in several newspapers. “For 40 years, taxpayers have paid the rent.” McIntyre says it’s time to cut pubradio and TV loose from government funding and let them “go it alone in the marketplace.” If PBS and NPR had no government funding, he adds, they would be less self-indulgent. Also, viewers and listeners would be more likely to give them money. Echoing Charles McGrath’s New York Times column “Is PBS Still Necessary,” McIntyre writes, “The original mission – to provide quality educational, cultural and public affairs programs – is now the province of dozens of specialty networks.” 

In the lefty journal The Nation, media activist Jerrold Starr offers his take on the Pittsburgh pubcasting piece of the McCain/lobbyist issue.

Daljit Dhaliwal has been chosen to anchor KCET’s upcoming Global Watch, an international news program premiering on PBS April 9. Dhaliwal is also anchor of Foreign Exchange, the international news program presented by Oregon Public Broadcasting and distributed by American Public Television. Global Watch, also streaming online, will examine perceptions of the U.S. abroad, incorporate reports from citizen journalists, and host discussion and gather stories online. Produced by KCET’s Bret Marcus, the program was initially imagined as part of a public affairs block for the PBS World multicast channel, to be produced by California Fault Line Productions, a nonprofit formed by KCET, KQED and PBS and headed up by former CNN producer Sid Bedingfield.

Nicole Sawaya has agreed to stay on as executive director of the Pacifica radio network, according to interim e.d. Dan Siegel. She resumes her duties tomorrow.

Inadequate pay, burnout and overwhelming pressure to raise money are driving nonprofit executives to plot their exits within five years, and their potential successors describe these challenges as reasons why they don’t aspire to top leadership positions, according to a recent national survey of emerging non-profit leaders. The Washington Post and the Chronicle of Philanthropy [subscription required] reported on the survey findings yesterday.

The FCC today approved new DTV consumer education and reporting requirements for broadcasters and cable and satellite companies (press release). Broadcasters must choose one of three different plans to educate viewers and must report to the FCC on their efforts each quarter. Broadcasters can 1.) air a combination of PSAs and screen crawls with increasing frequency as the shut-off date gets closer; 2.) follow an alternate schedule put forth by the National Association of Broadcasters that calls for an average of 16 PSAs and 16 crawls per week; or 3.) noncommercial broadcasters only can follow the APTS plan, which requires 60 seconds per day of on-air consumer education, including at least 7.5 minutes per month between 6 p.m.

A small-town Utah public-radio outfit that expanded into Salt Lake City thanks to its founders’ deal-making acumen — and stirred controversy over their compensation — is now pulling back, planning to sell both the Salt Lake station and its costly AM booster.

A proposed merger of two California pubradio stations fell apart when officials at California State University Monterey Bay voted to keep control of KAZU-FM.

The three-station Public Radio Partnership in Louisville, Ky., has renamed itself Louisville Public Media. “What does our new name imply? Simply put, it reflects our determination to refashion and reshape our organization in the on-line, on-demand world of digital media and provide a new era of service to our community,” says its website.

NPR apologized to listeners Feb. 16 after newscaster Jean Cochran referred to Africa as “the dark continent” in a newscast. “This is simply an outdated reference as well as being outrageously offensive,” said one of many listeners who complained. But the apology in turn drew criticism accusing NPR of hypersensitivity. Should the network have apologized? “Given the intense listener reaction, it would have been arrogant for NPR to ignore the use of the controversial term,” writes ombudsman Alicia Shepard. “But in not offering any serious explanation for its apology, NPR missed an opportunity for a broader discussion — on air, online, or both — about the power of language.”

KAZU-FM in Pacific Grove, Calif., will remain under control of California State University Monterey Bay, the board of the school’s Foundation decided yesterday. (Coverage in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and a university press release (PDF).) The decision ended a year of formal negotiations over a merger of the station and KUSP, a nearby pubradio outlet that airs some of the same programs as KAZU. “I’m sorry the university has chosen to go it alone, and pass on this opportunity for us to work together to serve the public,” said Terry Green, KUSP’s g.m., in a press release (PDF).

This weekend’s installment of The Simpsons will feature Terry Gross, host of public radio’s Fresh Air, starring as herself, according to the PRPD blog. (NPR release.)