The New York Times gives high marks to African-American Lives 2, the follow-up to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s celebrity genealogy investigation that aired on PBS in 2006. The four-part series begins Wednesday and, the Times‘ Felicia R. Lee writes, “belies its sleepy name with the poetry of history, the magic of science and the allure of the family trees of Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Tina Turner, Don Cheadle, Tom Joyner and Maya Angelou.”

President Bush’s proposed federal budget for fiscal 2009 recommends deep cuts for public broadcasting: the $400 million that was previously approved for CPB next fiscal year would be cut in half and the White House would rescind $220 million from a 2010 advance appropriation of $400 million. In addition, the White House provides no advance appropriation for CPB in 2011 and no additional monies in 2009 for digital conversion costs or upgrades to the Public Radio Satellite System. The cuts represent a 56 percent reduction of CPB funding from 2008 levels, according to CPB. In a statement issued this morning, CPB President Patricia Harrison described the proposed cuts as “draconian.”

Switching to an iPhone has changed the way Wired editor Chris Anderson listens to public radio, he writes on a blog tied to his influential book, The Long Tail. By capturing his favorite programs as podcasts, Anderson avoids pubradio pledge drives but voluntarily answers Ira Glass’s appeal for contributions toward the bandwidth bill of This American Life. “I just don’t care that much about KQED, and now that I’ve got another way to get the shows I like, I don’t really feel much of a connection to it,” Anderson writes. “Now that I get my radio via podcast, I don’t have to take the bad shows with the good.

Successful producers help talent compensate. They make a deal with their talent: “I’ll help you maneuver the everyday travails of living life, and you will go out there every night and try to give the performance of your life.”

On Friday, Baltimore news/talk station WYPR fired Marc Steiner, the talk show host who led the 2002 campaign to create a freestanding station when Johns Hopkins University wanted to sell it, the Baltimore Sun reported today. Steiner blamed differences with President Tony Brandon; management blamed falling ratings for Steiner’s midday show, which focuses on Baltimore affairs. WYPR plans a show called Statewide with a wider scope befitting the station, which now has repeaters in the western and eastern reaches of Maryland.

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler says NewsHour‘s state-focused “Big Picture” series, which features discussions with citizens about election issues, is “exactly what public television ought to be doing.” However, “the press, in general, and television in particular, including PBS, did not do a good job at the time of explaining the implications of Democratic primaries in Michigan and Florida,” he says. Getler received letters on both topics, including one from a viewer upset by the lack of African Americans in the NewsHour‘s Colorado discussion group.

It would be a shame “if ‘Miss Austen Regrets’ goes more unseen than most Masterpiece fare because of PBS’ scheduling, which forces the hollow-eyed Jane to compete against several dozen heavily muscled gentlemen in padded uniforms,” says Variety of Superbowl Sunday. “It’s the kind of dunderheaded scenario, frankly, from which even the dashing Mr. Darcy would be hard-pressed to affect a rescue.”

No matter whether you’re a DTV optimist or someone with real concerns about next year’s analog shut-off, there was a survey released yesterday that validates your feelings. Bright-siders could take comfort in the NAB‘s finding that 79 percent of consumers are aware of the transition, a figure that has doubled in the past year. The NAB found that 83 percent of over-the-air households are hip to the coming shut-off. However, Consumer Reports released its own survey suggesting that a smaller figure, 64 percent, were aware of the transition and that 74 percent of those folks had “major misconceptions” about the shut-off.

This Daily Astorian editorial lauds the statewide scope of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s new daily radio and online talk show, Think Out Loud.

Salt Lake City Weekly laments the coming transformation of KRCL from a quirky, eclectic community radio station into one designed to net to a larger music audience, with paid DJs on-air from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. The station is moving to a more broadly appealing music mix format, says James Roberts, chairman of the KRCL board. The change is being fueled by a $195,000 CPB station renewal grant. The station was in danger of losing CPB funding and being shut out from its music-licensing agreements because it failed to maintain the minimal levels of listening or community financial support to be eligible for Community Service Grants.

Pubcasters in the Netherlands are sticking to their plans to air the pornographic film Deep Throat next month after the nation’s media minister rejected calls from conservatives to prohibit the broadcast. “There can be no question of a ban, and no investigation of this will be mounted either,” said Ronald Plasterk. “The government also has no views on any programme, [sic] moral or otherwise.”

On Jan. 5, Paul Feinstein, a 24-year-old former KOOP volunteer angry about past playlist decisions, poured gasoline over the community radio station’s control panels and lit them on fire, Austin fire officials say. The resulting blaze caused more then $300,000 in damage and knocked the station off the air until last week, when it resumed operations in a donated studio. Feinstein has been charged with second degree felony arson and could face two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Feinstein, who has no criminal record, had clashed with another volunteer because his selections for an overnight Internet-only program had been changed, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Detroit Public Television’s new president, as of Friday, will be Ritschard (Rich) Homberg, who has been v.p. and g.m. of CBS’s all-news WWJ-AM for more than a decade, the Detroit Free Press reported. Homberg succeeds Steve Antoniotti, who resigned in April after an apparent conflict with his board. “My strongest interests are in local programming and really working to complete the capital campaign,” Homberg told the newspaper.

WNET’s new president Neal Shapiro, who came from NBC News, “hasn’t been shy about putting his at times unorthodox stamp on WNET and his own team in place,” write Elizabeth Jensen in a New York Times article about his first year at the station. “Four of the station’s top executives have left,” and Shapiro says a coming restructuring of staff may lead to “change behind the scenes.” The story highlights his focus on local documentary, online video, and a new arts program with him as host. “Mr. Shapiro said he was reveling in no longer chasing Britney Spears interviews and in having an educational department to work with,” writes Jensen, “but he acknowledged that he found the pace at his new employer slow.

WTVP in Peoria, Ill., has struck a new deal with Bank of America to settle the station’s debt, writes station President Chet Tomczyk on the WTVP website. The bank accepted WTVP’s offer to settle the station’s debt at $5.2 million, due by February 28. See Current‘s story on the station’s debt problems here.