Tom Silva of This Old House explains why America is losing its home-repair mojo in Boston Globe Magazine.

"We don’t do anything in a small way,” says Laura Walker, and in her eight years as president of New York’s WNYC the station has learned to live large.

For the past four years under PBS President Pat Mitchell, the network has had two chief program executives: at headquarters in Alexandria, Va., John Wilson, a veteran  programmer who came to PBS a decade ago from KAET in Phoenix; and in Los Angeles, Jacoba (Coby) Atlas, a news and documentary producer who previously worked with Mitchell at CNN. In this interview they describe for the first time a new formal practice of using minimum ratings, along with other factors, to judge the success of programs. They also discuss brainstorming with producers to create new programs and the tight budgets that limit how many new things PBS can try.

Some NPR listeners thought Don Gonyea, the network’s White House reporter, was rude to the President last week. Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin says in his latest column that Gonyea was “well within the bounds of fair journalistic practice.” (Via Romenesko.) Also: Ketzel Levine’s interview with Laura Bush, and 35,000 e-mails about Bob.

The FCC’s April 15 request for comments on rule changes required for digital radio is online. (PDF.)

Former WFMU DJ Douglas Wolk looks at filthy words and the FCC’s shifting definition of profanity in this Village Voice essay.

The FCC will hold an auction for nonreserved FM spectrum Nov. 3 that was postponed from 2001. (PDF.) The auction was delayed while the FCC and broadcasters debated how to handle cases in which noncommercial broadcasters apply for nonreserved spectrum. They resolved that muddle last year. Noncommercial broadcasters have tried to reserve frequencies at stake in the November auction, as detailed in FCC releases (3/24, 4/2, 4/12, 4/14).

Roger Chesser, outgoing g.m. of WUKY-FM in Lexington, Ky., looks back on his career in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

BBC America reaches less than half of US cable homes but it’s earning notice with its mix of edgy British fare. “We found a way to bring some of the best British television to America,” says chief executive Paul Lee in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Arguing that cable must-carry rules for DTV would be a huge giveaway to broadcasters, progressive groups are asking Congress and the FCC to set minimum standards for broadcasters’ coverage of elections and civic affairs. That’s the point of an online petition by Common Cause, for example. In Columbia Journalism Review, Neil Hickey watches as media reformers enter what was previously a joust between two media industries.

Orlando Sentinel TV critic Hal Boedeker urges anyone with $6 million in spare change to aid Masterpiece Theatre: “Won’t someone step forward and save TV’s classiest program?”

Lefty columnist Norman Soloman challenges Jim Lehrer to “set the factual record straight” on a (mis)statement he made during an April 7 NewsHour interview.

Thirteen stations around the country are using KQED’s “You Decide” feature on their websites, says the University of Maryland’s J-Lab Director Jan Schaffer. The interactive doodad asks you to take a position on questions like “Should Saddam be executed?” and then systematically argues the other side against you. The feature doesn’t take sides–it’s ready to debate you either way.

The FCC asked for comments today on the rule changes required as radio moves to digital broadcasting. (PDF.) The commission specifically asked for comments on whether it should allow supplemental channels, and how digital broadcasting will affect noncommercial stations and LPFMs. The FCC’s site links to commissioners’ statements. Also today, CPB announced more than $5 million in grants helping 76 public radio stations convert to digital broadcasting.

NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin sizes up Air America, the liberal talk radio network, in his latest column: “NPR would do well to pay close attention to Air America’s fortunes to see if monolithic and conservative commercial radio has begun to run its course.”