New Jersey police arrested the former director of Seton Hall University’s WSOU-FM on charges of embezzling more than $500,000 from the university between 1985 and 2004, reports CMJ. (Via WFMU’s blog.)

BBC’s free iPlayer not only offers downloads of the past week of the TV network’s programs but also the listeners’ own choice of podcasts, tentatively called MyBBCRadio. Yet to come: details of how do-it-yourself scheduling will work. Meanwhile this week, the Beeb is offering downloads of BBC Philharmonic performances of Beethoven’s symphonies 6 through 9. Music lovers downloaded the first five symphonies 700,000 times. Downloads are offered for a week starting on the day after broadcast. The iPlayer holds down server costs by using Kontiki peer-to-peer technology also employed by the California-based nonprofit Open Media Network.

Bleak House leads PBS’s slate of programs nominated for Primetime Emmys. The Masterpiece Theatre miniseries received nominations in 10 categories and American Masters drew 9 Emmy nods. PBS fare earned a total of 34 Primetime Emmy nominations. Broadcasting and Cable runs down top nominees for the commercial nets, and the Post‘s Lisa de Moraes reports on how the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences overhauled its nomination process.

The New Yorker finds a few “blind spots” in The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson, the book expounding on his influential 2004 Wired magazine article. The Long Tail blog links to this and other reviews in the blogosphere.

NPR’s Public Radio Satellite System rolls out the ContentDepot this month after almost two years of delays, reports Radio World. “ContentDepot promises to simplify operations for more than 400 satellite-interconnected stations, make program distribution more reliable and improve tracking and reporting of program carriage for producers,” writes Dan Mansergh.

Viewer responses to Frontline‘s “The Dark Side” and a botched NewsHour interview prompt PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler to expound on the patriotism of journalists.

What should CBS and Katie Couric do with the Evening News? On CBS’s site, guest columnist William Powers from the National Journal suggests, among other things, taking a page from NPR and PBS’s NewsHour: “Slow down. Tell us a few important stories, slowly. Help us breathe and think.” And let Couric talk at length with guests, as Jim Lehrer and company do.

“Comments continue to drift in about the PBS program on the Armenian genocide,” CPB ombudsman Ken Bode writes in his latest column, which features remarks from several of his readers on the issue. One commenter: Michael Getler, public TV’s other ombudsman, who took exception to the way Bode, in his initial column on the matter, characterized the PBS monitor’s comments on The Armenian Genocide controversy. Replied Bode: “I am happy to have Mr. Getler state clearly, as I thought he did not in his original posting, his opinion that the events in Turkey, did indeed deserve to be considered as genocide.

With the election of financier James Tisch as chairman of Educational Broadcasting Corporation — and Paula Kerger’s recent departure as executive v.p. of its flagship New York station — the pubTV licensee with a $100 million endowment is contemplating another major capital campaign, reports the New York Times. “In order for us to be what we need to be, we’ve got to have at least twice what we have in endowment,” says WNET President Bill Baker.

Chris Douridas, a deejay at KCRW-FM in Santa Monica, Calif., was charged yesterday with one count of cocaine possession, reports the Los Angeles Times. Douridas had been booked for poisoning and kidnapping as well, but the Los Angeles district attorney’s office was unable to support those charges. If found guilty of possession, Douridas could face three years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

Todd Mundt writes that stakeholders in public radio have formed a Digital Distribution Consortium to map a shared digital infrastructure for the system. “Ultimately, we sense something bigger still — the opportunity to create new models for how networks, big stations, small stations and independent producers can relate to each other. That one piece alone could change everything,” say the consortium’s charter and principles. “Our effort, today and tomorrow, is to describe the services we want to create or enable — the ‘it’ that we’re aiming for,” writes Mundt in another post. UPDATE: The consortium now has a public wiki.

KOOP-FM in Austin, Texas, is building new studios after two fires destroyed the community station’s old home and knocked it off the air earlier this year, reports News 8 Austin.

Lovers of classical music are fighting to keep KTPB in Kilgore, Texas, on the air, reports the New York Times. “Just because we live out here in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean we have to be a cultural void,” says a executive director of a nearby symphony orchestra.

A radio audience research firm found that only one percent of respondents to a telephone survey knew that HD Radio can provide more channels of programming. “Our research reveals that radio needs to explain HD Radio and its benefits for listeners,” writes Mark Kassof. Meanwhile, Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post writes that he returned his Boston Acoustics HD Radio out of frustration with the on-again, off-again status of a few multicast channels in the Washington area.

At Boing Boing, a former intern with This American Life weighs in on a debate over unofficial podcasts of the show. Thanks to this intern, we learn that “. . . Ira’s not trying to cheat you. He is, in fact, a very nice guy. Like, for instance, if he were going out to get lunch, he’d ask you if you wanted anything, and then he’d bring it back, and he wouldn’t make you pay for it. And, say, if you were going out to get lunch, and you asked him if he wanted anything, he’d tell you and give you money to go get it, and sometimes he’d let you borrow his car.