WQED in Pittsburgh, one of 22 pubcasting stations participating in phase two of CPB’s American Archive Pilot Program, is uncovering a treasure trove of old programming, reports the Post-Gazette. There are interviews with baseball exec Branch Rickey, who integrated the game; Eleanor Roosevelt; and jazz legend Louis Armstrong. The station received $100,000 to digitize and preserve valuable footage.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, pubcasters all! Here’s a feel-good story of seasonal generosity, courtesy of Hawaii PBS.

“Snarky” blog postings by Paul Burka, senior executive editor of the Texas Monthly, disqualify him as a panelist for next month’s televised debate between Republican gubernatorial candidates Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Gov. Rick Perry, a spokeswoman for Dallas’s KERA-TV tells the Texas Tribune. KERA, chief sponsor of the debate among several media outlets, invited the magazine to appoint a panelist, just not Burka; the magazine declined to send anyone and dropped out as a sponsor. The Tribune suggests that Hutchinson’s campaign leaned on KERA to ban Burka, who has been “a fixture” in the state’s political debates since the late 1980s.

The NPR News app for Google’s Android mobile platform, announced earlier this month, has gone live. Mashable has already taken it for a test-run: “[T]he Android version of NPR News is very similar to its iPhone counterpart. Most of the menu designations are the same and most of the layout options are similar.” The biggest missing feature is the live streaming function: “You can listen to archived programs, but live-streaming and tuning in to live stations won’t be available until spring 2010.”

Former NPR digital media chief Maria Thomas is leaving Etsy, the online marketplace for hand-crafted goods that she has run as chief executive since 2008. Founder Rob Kalin will takeover as c.e.o. in January. It’s not clear why Thomas is leaving. In a blog post announcing the change, Kalin wrote that the company has become profitable under her leadership. “Maria helped us reach this major milestone….Her long experience and business skills were hugely helpful.” Traffic to the site has doubled in the past year, according to TechCrunch, which offers this speculation about the role that NPR’s former veep played at Etsy: “Perhaps Thomas was brought in for adult supervision while Kalin, who is young, was learning the ropes.”

What else would Marvel Comics stars Wolverine, a Canadian mutant who has sideburns and retractable claws, and Nightcrawler, a German Catholic mutant who has a tail, listen to during a road trip? In the comic “Nation X #1,” the X-Men’s ears are glued to WBEZ-produced This American Life, as revealed by news producer Hunter Clauss in a blog for WBEZ’s sister station, Vocalo. Current has determined that they are listening to a towering achievement of self-deprecatory humor in which TAL‘s staff takes blood tests and finds that even some of the women have more testosterone than Ira Glass. (The stuff is poison, anyway!)

PBS announced today that for the first time, it has subscribed to full-time Nielsen ratings, reports the New York Times. The ratings will provide weekly numbers only. Andrew Russell, a senior v.p. for PBS Ventures, told the paper that monthly ratings were no longer satisfying marketers, who want shorter time frames for sponsorships and more information on viewership. The subscription started tracking numbers with National Parks: America’s Best Idea in September. That reached an average of 5.5 million viewers over its six-night run.

Want to talk public media 140 characters at a time with like-minded thinkers? Use the Twitter #pubmedia hashtag to join in the discussion. Idea comes from Jessica Clark of the Center for Social Media at American University.

Comments are coming in to the PBS ombudsman regarding the transformation of PBS NewsHour into a more nimble and multiplatform program. Viewpoints range from appreciation of its “new briskness” to disappointment that “it comes across as a canned program.” Also, thoughts from viewers on specific NewsHour reports including climate change.

PBS programs have won 18 CINE Golden Eagle Awards, presented twice a year to recognize work of filmmakers, videographers, producers, directors and other craftspeople in the film, television, and new media industries. Among the winners are Sesame Street, American Masters, four for Nova (including “Ocean Animal Emergency,” above) and a MacNeil/Lehrer doc. WCTE-TV/Two Six Inc., serving the north-central area of Tennessee, also scored an Eagle for Tuba U: Basso Profundo. Full list of winners here.

How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin is bringing back some McCartney memories for KCET programming guru Bohdan Zachary. Turns out he actually chatted with Paul McCartney — yes, gabbed, in person, for several minutes, with THE Paul McCartney — backstage at a 1976 Wings Over the World Tour concert stop at Madison Square Garden. A buddy of his was a longtime friend of Paul’s wife Linda. As Linda and his friend caught up, Zachary and the former Beatle visited. “First, he complimented me on my ‘cool shoes’ (old sneakers I’d hand painted) and engaged me in conversation all about me,” Zachary recalls.

The House yesterday approved the Local Community Radio Act, which would effectively remove channel-spacing regs that have previously blocked new low power FM stations in urban areas (Current, Sept. 20). Reclaim the Media reports that the Act “would allow for the creation of hundreds, possibly thousands, of new, low power FM radio stations dedicated to broadcasting community news and local perspectives to neighborhoods across the country.” The Senate version has been okayed by the Commerce Committee, but a full Senate vote has not been scheduled.

NPR news voice Carl Kasell, who’ll do his final broadcast for Morning Edition on Dec. 30, chatted with Ozarks Public Radio yesterday about his past and future. Topics included his North Carolina accent (“All of us who were born below the Mason-Dixon line, at some time had to deal with it, to get rid of it. . . . I read some books on the subject and worked with some very good people who did not have an accent and who would help me along the way to get rid of it”) and his next adventures (“I’m going to be NPR’s roving ambassador.

Frequent producers for public radio Scott Carrier of Salt Lake City (Hearing Voices), and Elizabeth Meister and Dan Collison of Three Oaks, Mich. (Long Haul Productions), were among 50 individuals named United States Artists fellows for 2009. Also three film/video producers: Cruz Angeles of New York (Sundance 2009 debut Don’t Let Me Drown), Charles Burnett of Los Angeles (first episode of The Blues, Killer of Sheep), Heather Courtney of Austin, Texas (Los Trabajadores on Independent Lens) and Renée Tajima-Peña of Los Angeles (Calavera Highway on P.O.V., 2008). Each will receive an unrestricted $50,000 grant.

Eighteen broadband stimulus projects in 17 states worth $182 million will be announced today by Vice President Joseph Biden in Dawsonville, Ga. Public broadcasters are among the many nonprofit and commercial entities vying for the funds (Current, Sept. 21) in four categories: middle mile, to build or improve high-speed connections to communities; last mile, connecting users to their community’s broadband infrastructure; public computing, to expand computer centers; and sustainable broadband, for projects that promote broadband demand. UPDATE: No public broadcasting projects announced in this round. Biggest single grant this time is $39.7 million with $9.9 million in matching funds, to Albany, N.Y.-based