CPB isn’t covered by the Freedom of Information Act, so nonprofits probing Ken Tomlinson’s period as chairman continue trying to use FOIA to spring CPB-related documents from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a U.S. panel Tomlinson still chairs. Common Cause, Center for Digital Democracy and Free Press yesterday appealed [PDF] BBG’s rejection of their Nov. 22 FOIA request. Their lawyer, David L. Sobel, requested e-mails, phone logs and other records relating to Tomlinson’s CPB work, particularly communications with the White House. BBG official Martha Diaz-Ortiz told them in January that the documents would be “personal records” beyond FOIA’s reach.

A warm reception among critics at the Berlin International Film Festival has made the film realization of A Prairie Home Companion a contender for a prestigious award, reports the Guardian.

“With [Bill] Marimow taking over as vice president of news this week, the print guys may have completed their takeover” of NPR, writes Harry Jaffe in the Washingtonian.

Newsman Dan Rather will be on hand today in Marfa, Texas, to help launch KRTS-FM, a new public radio station serving the small town and its sparsely populated surroundings. “There’s probably a big part of the population here that has never heard of NPR,” says a resident in the New York Times. (More coverage in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.)

NPR will soon start broadcasting to Berlin on a frequency recently vacated by Voice of America. It’s the first station the network has ever operated on its own. Never fear, Berliners: there will be no pledge drives.

NPR reports on a Class D high-school station in Massachusetts trying to protect its license from takeover by a California religiocaster.

The weekly cume audience for WVXU-FM in Cincinnati jumped by 35 percent after a switch to an all-news format last summer, reports the Cincinnati Post. “I don’t think any of us expected such a great start for the new WVXU,” said Richard Eiswerth, g.m.

This American Life‘s deal to produce a TV show requires the show’s relocation to New York, reports the Chicago Reader — a change host Ira Glass says won’t matter much. “I work 70 hours a week. Sometimes it feels like I’d be doing the same program if I lived on the space shuttle.”

Michael Getler of PBS, Jeffrey Dvorkin of NPR and two other ombuds recently got together to chat with Marvin Kalb about their work and the state of the media. Quotes and blurry photos at FishbowlDC.

NPR has named Bill Marimow v.p. of news. Marimow joined the network in May 2004 as managing editor and recently served as acting news veep after the departure of Bruce Drake. His long career in journalism has included tenures at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Baltimore Sun.

Al Lewis, who played Grandpa Munster on television’s The Munsters and hosted a show on Pacifica’s WBAI-FM in New York, died Friday at the age of 82, reports USA Today. Monday’s Democracy Now featured an excerpt of a 1997 interview with Lewis. NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu also contributed a remembrance.

A commercial AM station in Buffalo, N.Y., is airing a mix of programming from Pacifica and Air America, reports the Billboard Radio Monitor.

Bill Marimow, v.p. of NPR News, explains why the network has not posted on its website the European cartoon that has offended Muslims around the world: “[T]he cartoon is so highly offensive to millions of Muslims that it’s preferable to describe it in words rather than posting it on the Web.” NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin sides with Marimow.

“I hate to say this but if PBS can’t see the value of PBS YOU, I don’t see the point of supporting local stations,” writes a viewer from Pennsylvania, one of many who wrote to PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler about the demise of PBS You.

Buried in the worst possible timeslot on the Fox News Channel, Journal Editorial Report is a “TV conspiracy for dittoheads,” writes Slate media critic Jack Shafer.