Donovan Reynolds, who recently resigned as director of Michigan Public Media in Ann Arbor, says he prompted investigations of his station last fall by reporting “suspicious business practices” to the University of Michigan, which holds the station’s licenses. Reynolds tells the Detroit Free Press that he resigned “because serious things occurred on my watch and I had to accept responsibility.”

Phil Redo is leaving WNYC-AM/FM to return to commercial broadcaster Greater Media, where he will oversee five Boston stations. Redo is WNYC’s v.p. of station operations and management.

Georgia Public Broadcasting has bought an FM station in Rome, Ga., reports the Rome News-Tribune. And in other station news, WDIY-FM in Bethlehem, Pa., will manage and program WXLV-FM in Schnecksville, Pa., a station licensed to Lehigh Carbon Community College. (Coverage in the Allentown Morning Call.)

The latest Audience 2010 report (PDF) from the Radio Research Consortium finds Arbitron’s methodology to be reliable, which means it can’t be scapegoated for public radio’s audience loss. “Public radio’s national loss of audience momentum is real,” the study says. The previous Audience 2010 installment let satellite radio off the hook.

The University of Michigan is investigating its public radio and TV stations after the abrupt resignation of director Donovan Reynolds, reports the Detroit Free Press.

WFMU’s Professor checks in on the Satellite Sisters, formerly of public radio, and his words are not kind: “Some of the urgent topics recently on the Satellite Sisters show: ‘As you listen to the weather forecast this winter, think what it means for your animals’ and ‘Look a salesperson in the eye when you say goodbye’ and most importantly ‘Wipe down exercise machines and mats at the gym after using them.’ I’m NOT kidding.”

New York’s WNET will not air a controversial panel discussion that was scheduled to run April 17 after the doc, The Armenian Genocide, the Associated Press reports (via Newsday). The forum has been criticized by Armenian-American groups and community leaders for including scholars that deny that the early 20th century killing of more than 1 million Armenians by Turkish forces qualifies as a genocide (earlier post). Activists protested the follow-up panel outside WNET Saturday, but a station spokeswoman said yesterday’s choice to 86 the add-on was “an editorial decision.” An online petition urging PBS to pull the panel discussion has received more than 15,000 signatures.

Public radio can’t blame competition from satellite radio for its recent audience slump, according to the latest installment of the Radio Research Consortium’s Audience 2010 study (PDF). The study also suggests that public radio has little reason to withhold NPR’s flagship newsmagazines from broadcast on satellite. Pubradio consultant John Sutton agrees. “To remain a significant media choice, NPR needs to have its best programming available in real time on all delivery platforms,” Sutton writes. “This is a sacrifice stations will have to make.”

Attendees at this year’s Public Broadcasting New Media Conference are blogging about the conference here.

The Palm Beach Post reports and editorializes on the Florida State Board of Education’s unanimous vote yesterday approving the sale of local pubcasting stations WXEL-TV/FM.

Nine more stations have added American Public Television’s Create, a digital multicast channel featuring cooking, travel, painting and other how-to programming. This brings the total number of stations carrying Create to 157 (controlled by 84 licensees), reaching nearly 64 percent of US TV households.

“[W]e strongly feel that debating the Armenian Genocide is akin to arguing about the Jewish Holocaust in order to project a sense of balance,” says an online petition circulated by Armenian-Americans who object to PBS’s decision to pair the April 17 debut of The Armenian Genocide, a documentary by Andrew Goldberg, with a follow-up panel discussion. More than 11,000 individuals from around the world have signed the petition. NPR’s Scott Simon moderates the half-hour follow-up show, in which scholars debate the Turkish government’s role in the deaths of Armenian civilians during and after World War I, a sensitive topic in U.S.

“[I]n the 17 months since he jumped to pay radio, Edwards has displayed more range and reportorial chops than some at NPR had given him credit for,” writes the Washington Post‘s Marc Fisher about Bob Edwards and his XM Radio show.

Minnesota Public Radio is suing Al Gore’s television channel over the name “Current,” reports the New York Sun.

An FM station in Berlin will soon become the first programmed overseas by National Public Radio.