San Francisco Chronicle TV critic Tim Goodman marks the 50th anniversary of KQED with a column excoriating PBS and its local member station: “Rarely has a media outlet lost pace with the needs and wants of its audience and been more in denial about it than PBS.”

A teacher in Utah was suspended after showing Frontline‘s “Merchants of Cool” to middle school students. A school official told the Associated Press that the documentary, which examines marketing strategies used to target teenagers, is “clearly inappropriate.”

Ira Glass’s girlfriend tells the Houston Chronicle that Glass is “not the master storyteller he’s made out to be” and thinks too much about work. “But at the same time I want everyone to know that he’s taken, and you really don’t have a chance with him because you couldn’t possibly measure up to me.”

Blogger Dru Blood shares a dream about Bob Edwards.

Film critic Elvis Mitchell, who recently left The New York Times, tells Journal-isms that he might not continue his weekly chats on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday. (Via Romenesko.)

NPR’s decision to reassign Bob Edwards followed sound corporate strategy–and that’s a good thing, writes Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post. “If you don’t find a way to disrupt your own success, the theory goes, someone else will.” (Pearlstein discusses his column.)

Last week’s Frontline doc on President Bush’s born-again faith “appears to be a balanced look at the impact of faith on politics,” cautiously admits a writer for the conservative Focus on the Famiily website.

Louis Rukeyser, longtime host of Wall Street programs on public TV, has taken leave from TV for health reasons, the Baltimore Sun reported. Doctors said he needs treatment for a low-grade malignancy, CNBC said. Since October, guests have hosted Rukeyser’s CNBC program, carried on many public TV stations. Rukeyser promised to return, according to news reports.

Philadelphia’s WRTI-FM will use digital radio technology to offer two channels–full-time jazz and classical streams–on its one frequency. (PDF of a Philadelphia Inquirer article.)

More on Bob Edwards and his last day as host of Morning Edition, via Google News.

NPR has created a tribute page to Bob Edwards, who leaves Morning Edition today.

The Agriculture Department has named a second round of rural public TV stations awarded DTV conversion aid. Eighteen stations received $14 million, including WVPT in Harrisonburg, Va. and Wyoming PTV, which got $2 million each, and KIXE in Redding, Calif., which got $1.5 million. South Dakota ETV and WSKG in Binghamton, N.Y., each received $1.2 million.

In a Star Tribune op-ed, chairs of Minnesota Public Radio’s corporate boards explain and defend the network’s unorthodox use of funds from for-profit sister ventures (reg. req.).

In its early days, KQED was “boiling with ideas,” says an old timer in the San Francisco Chronicle‘s series marking the station’s 50th anniversary this week. [See also David Stewart’s retrospective from Current.] The first public TV station, KUHT, celebrated its 50th last year. Also turning 50 this year are stations in East Lansing, Mich.; Pittsburgh; Madison, Wis.; Cincinnati; St. Louis; Lincoln, Neb.; and Seattle.

It’s Bob Edwards’ final week on Morning Edition, and articles in Newsday and the Washington Post highlight the impending change. NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin addresses the persisting woes of Edwards’ fans: “In some cases, listeners ended their messages to me in tears, unable to go on.” (More in the Houston Chronicle.)