NPR tests have determined that a third of commercially available FM modulators exceed acceptable emissions limits, reports Radio World. The devices, which feed satellite radio signals into car receivers, often broadcast on frequencies that can interfere with the nonreserved band.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that public radio websites are among those now off-limits to state employees in Kentucky, where the government is trying to stop its workers from goofing off online. Some site operators accuse the state’s Republican governor of singling them out. (More from WFPL-FM in Louisville.)

I’m in Boston reporting an article about Open Source, the public radio show, and meeting with some other public radio people. Here are some photos I’ve taken of the Open Source staff in their Cambridge offices. —Mike Janssen

Ruth Seymour, g.m. of KCRW-FM in Santa Monica, Calif., shares her thoughts about NPR’s Blueprint for Growth (PDF). “Choose the best option for your station. Not for the group. Not for some amorphous ideology whose premise is questionable to begin with.”

Stephen Hill looks at the shortcomings of HD Radio as compared to other emerging technologies: “Of the major usage trends that are driving the growth of Internet radio — new ‘long tail’ niche and alternative content, on-demand delivery, user-created content, podcasting (subcriptions and portability), and time-shifting — only time-shifting is even doable with HD, and then only in a relatively crippled way due to memory and interface constraints. Even this undermines the one incontestable advantage of conventional radio: ease of use.” UPDATE: Dennis Haarsager chips in: “If ‘HD’ is going to work, we need patience, some advanced features beyond the ones we now have that are implied in the mark-up language, some smart business thinking about multicasting and PAD features — and some luck.

Jake Shapiro ponders the place of voluntary financial support in a new-media environment: “. . . [E]ven if the underwriting revenue does the trick, I think there’s something important to continue and to redefine in the invitation for voluntary support.”

KCPW-FM in Salt Lake City ran a $609,366 deficit in fiscal year 2005 while paying its General Manager Blair Feulner $179,815, reports the city’s Tribune. The sale of an unused license covered the losses and also paid Feulner and his wife a bonus of $895,000, the paper says.

Impress your friends at parties this summer with your encyclopedic knowledge of NPR’s Profile 2006! Tell them over hors d’oeuvres what percentage of NPR listeners play bingo (2.83 percent)! While smoking a fine cigar, let drop that 29.32 percent of NPR listeners have bought underwear in the last year. You’ll be the toast of the town. Now get reading!

The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, a 30-year-old group that coordinated activism and provided networking and training for independent filmmakers, shuttered its offices and shut down operations in late June. The Manhattan-based association told members in March that it faced a financial crisis, but an emergency fundraising appeal didn’t generate enough contributions to maintain operations. The AIVF Board is looking for another group to take over publication of The Independent, AIVF’s monthly magazine. Although the board considered a scenario of eventually resuming operations, it’s unlikely that the association will revive, said Bart Weiss, organizer of the Dallas Video Festival and board president.

Chris Douridas, a host on KCRW-FM in Santa Monica, Calif., pleaded no contest July 25 to a charge of cocaine possession, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A former underwriting rep for Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor was convicted July 26 of conspiracy to commit embezzlement, the Ann Arbor Times reported. Jeremy Nordquist was one of three former employees tried in the investigation. (Earlier coverage in Current.)

San Francisco Gate columnist Mark Morford attacks the PBS Sprout Network’s decision to fire Melanie Martinez for her “Technical Virgin” history. “What, exactly, is the fear here?” Morford writes. “Is it that Martinez would suddenly start extolling kiddies to, say, drink more vodka and turn gay?”

MoveOn.org is soliciting donations for a campaign to “Beat the NPR-PBS 24“–the 24 members of Congress up for reelection who voted to cut pubcasting’s federal aid. “With your help, together we can retire enough of these representatives to tip the balance on this issue—and send a signal that cutting public broadcasting comes with a political price,” writes MoveOn.org’s “Political Action Team” in an e-mail solicitation [Via Indybay.org].

Chicago Public Radio’s Julie Shapiro blogs about the Grassroots Radio Conference, which begins tomorrow in Madison, Wis. “though i respect, not to mention adore the community of public radio producers i’ve come to know over the past six years, the public radio system at large feels pretty sterile, isolated and starched compared with the sometimes crazy, often manic and totally dedicated community station devotees,” she writes.

Commercial networks, broadcast, cable and consumer electronics trade associations, film studios and the Ad Council are partnering on a broad campaign to educate parents about V-chips, cable channel blocking and other tools and techniques for controlling what kids see on TV, reports Broadcasting & Cable. A new website, www.thetvboss.org, is the cornerstone of the campaign, which is an effort to stave off federal content regulation as FCC leaders aggressively police broadcast indecency and support a la carte cable models.