Quick Takes

Four more stations join NPR’s Facebook geotargeting project

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NPR Digital Services has added four stations to its Local Stories Project, in which participants submit stories to be included on NPR’s Facebook page and geotargeted to Facebook users in their markets. The project launched a little over a year ago with KPLU in Tacoma, Wash., and has since expanded to include 18 stations. Stations submit online stories that are shared via NPR’s Facebook page but appear only in the News Feeds of users in each station’s market. In April the project drove 114,000 visits to station sites, according to NPR. The four new participants are WXPN in Philadelphia, KUER in Salt Lake City, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho and KALW in San Francisco.

Quick Takes

CNN correspondent O’Leary joins Marketplace

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A day after a shakeup of senior management at Marketplace, American Public Media announced that CNN’s Lizzie O’Leary would be joining the public radio business and economics show as host/correspondent. O’Leary will serve as the primary fill-in host for all the Marketplace programs. When not hosting, O’Leary will cover topics related to the intersection of “politics, policy and Wall Street,” APM said in its announcement.  Prior to joining Marketplace, O’Leary was the aviation and regulation correspondent at CNN. “As a longtime listener, I’m absolutely delighted to join Marketplace,” O’Leary said, in a statement. “Marketplace tells sharp, engaging stories about business and economics the best possible way: by making them about people. I’m thrilled to be part of the team that tells those stories.”

On Monday, J.J. Yore, a veteran producer and co-creator of Marketplace, was one of three senior executives let go in an organizational restructuring of the Minnesota-based company.

System/Policy

Pacifica misses CPB deadlines, holding up funding for stations

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CPB has withheld financial support for the Pacifica Foundation’s five radio stations after the organization missed deadlines for fixing errors and shortcomings in its accounting and operations. The errors were discovered during a CPB audit last year that cited Pacifica for insufficient accounting practices, misreported revenues and failure to comply with CPB rules on open meetings and financial transparency. The withholding of CPB funding hits Pacifica at a precarious time as its stations struggle to raise enough money to pay rent and staff. WBAI, Pacifica’s New York station, fell short of its on-air fundraising goal in May by 45 percent, or $343,000. The station can’t cover its June payroll or rent for its antenna, according to a June 9 email by Berthold Reimers, g.m., to members of WBAI’s board.

People

NPR’s Rudin hopes to launch new show after leaving network

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Shutdowns of a show and a reporting project at NPR have prompted the departure of “Political Junkie” Ken Rudin, who has worked at the network since 1991. Rudin appears weekly on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, which is ending production this month. He also served recently as editorial coordinator for StateImpact, a collaborative reporting project with stations that NPR is exiting. “With the combination of Talk of the Nation and StateImpact ending, there wasn’t really a place for me,” Rudin says. “It didn’t come as a surprise.” He will leave NPR at the end of September.

Programs/Content

Salt Lake City’s KCPW cites program costs, duplication in canceling NPR programs

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Salt Lake City pubcaster Wasatch Public Media, licensee of KCPW-FM, will drop all NPR programs June 24, a schedule change intended to save money and differentiate its service from other pubcasters in the market. “A lot of the decision just came down to sheer economics – NPR is just getting more and more expensive,” said Wasatch C.E.O. Ed Sweeney. “And, when you already have NPR in the market with other stations, it just gets harder and harder to set yourself apart when pitching to sponsors and underwriters.” The University of Utah’s KUER-FM is KCPW’s primary competitor for NPR news listeners. “We were just looking more and more alike, and you can’t stay in business doing that,” Sweeney said.

Quick Takes

Pubcasters in Colorado join commercial stations for on-air wildfire relief fundraiser

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Colorado public broadcasters are among stations uniting for a live on-air fundraiser Thursday for victims of recent destructive wildfires in the state. Denver stations Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado Public Television and KUVO-FM, along with KUNC-FM in Greeley and KRCC-FM in Westcliffe, will participate in the “Red Cross 2013 Colorado Wildfires Fundraiser” statewide broadcast, along with six commercial stations. Donations will support Red Cross efforts to assist residents affected by the recent Black Forest fire, and other wildfires that may occur this year. Red Cross volunteers will take calls from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time at Rocky Mountain PBS’s studios in Denver.