Plus: The legal fight over podcasting takes an odd turn, and Kai Ryssdal takes the Ice Bucket Challenge.

KEET-TV, one of the smallest PBS member stations, has grown its membership by 40 percent and raised more than $600,000 over the past six months in an effort to keep its federal Community Service Grant. Local businesses in Eureka, Calif., have posted banners pushing “The Power of One,” the motto of KEET’s campaign. Website pop-ups show viewers holding signs with titles of their favorite public TV shows. A local utility provider is pitching in, donating a portion of each paid petroleum bill to the station. At issue is KEET’s inability to meet the $800,000 minimum in nonfederal financial support that CPB requires of CSG grantees, which the station has never done in its 45-year history.

Plus: Greenwald criticizes NPR, First Look Media scales back plans, and CPB's Theriault talks local journalism.

The Washington Post had a blockbuster front-page investigation with a lengthy Aug. 3 story about an unreliable witness in a Texas execution case. But the story came from a new kid on the block. “The Prosecutor and the Snitch” was the first story to be published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news site focused on criminal justice reform. The Marshall Project, named after former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, plans to officially launch in October. Founder and Chairman Neil Barsky, a former hedge fund manager, has also worked as a reporter for outlets including the Wall Street Journal, and he directed the 2013 documentary Koch.

The month-long election for NPR’s Board of Directors closed Monday, with two incumbents and two new faces joining the board. NPR announced Tuesday that Mike Crane, director of Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison, and Mike Savage, g.m. of WBAA in West Lafayette, Ind., will join the board. For what is believed to be the first time, Savage got on the ballot with a written petition signed by at least 15 authorized representatives. Candidates are usually picked by a selection committee headed by the NPR board chair. Incumbents Caryn Mathes, g.m. of KUOW in Seattle, and Flo Rogers, c.e.o. of KNPR in Las Vegas, were re-elected to second terms, and Patricia Diaz Dennis and former NPR interim CEO Paul G.

The public radio economy is built on $432 million in annual listener contributions to local public radio stations. Each year nearly 3 million listeners and their families recognize the value of a station brand in their lives, and they voluntarily give that station money. We’ve known since the 1980s that listeners give out of enlightened self-interest, not altruism. The primary motivation for donating to a public radio station is nearly universal — they recognize that the programming they hear via the station brand is personally important and that they would miss it if it were to go away. This finding has been confirmed through multiple studies over decades and more than 1,000 donor surveys conducted over the past nine months by Emodus Research, which I founded last year to learn more about the emotional connections that motivate audiences to listen and donate to public stations.

Plus: An Israeli show inspired by This American Life offers an English translation, and NPR's ombud weighs in on sexism in coverage.

Back in the day when young writers were pitching magazines to publish their work, there used to be a common complaint by magazine editors: “Some of the writers have never even seen our magazine! Don’t they realize how rude and disrespectful it is to pitch us stories that we would never publish, because they’re just not us!” I have been working on recruiting a journalism staffer for a major public radio station. And, frankly, after sitting through a bunch of interviews and reading even more applications, I am stunned that almost none of the applicants have taken the time to do basic homework.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS Public broadcasters received 17 Salute to Excellence Awards from NABJ with NPR, Chicago’s WBEZ and Milwaukee Public Television taking home multiple awards. NPR won two awards in the network radio category and one in digital media. NPR’s coverage of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington won best long form news, while the article “USC Students Allege Racial Profiling by LAPD” won best short form news. The story “Science Rap B.A.T.T.L.E.S. Bring Hip-Hop Into the Classroom” was recognized for best digital media feature story. Two other radio programs won awards among network radio. “Reconciliation Way,” a documentary produced by State of the Re:Union and WJCT in Jacksonville, Fla., 

The broadcast signal for WQPT-TV in Moline, Ill., is now originating from WTVP-TV in Peoria, about 90 miles to the southeast. WQPT previously outsourced its master control operations to Westar Master Control Services in Cedar Hill, Texas. The station’s signal now travels across fiber from WTVP to WQPT’s transmitter in Orion, Ill. The change “provides financial savings for WQPT, a new source of revenue for WTVP, valuable technological advances for both stations and an invaluable chance for the sister stations to work together,” said WTVP President Chet Tomczyk in an Aug. 8 announcement. “This new broadcasting arrangement is a positive step forward for both stations and provides WQPT with stellar signal quality,” WQPT General Manager Mary Pruess said, adding that each station’s programming, governance and community services remain separate.

Plus: Paula Kerger takes her interns to breakfast, and Planet Money hops on Reddit.

Pubcasters who own broadcast towers are about to get regulatory relief thanks to a FCC decision that closes the books on a lengthy effort to revise rules governing tower safety and maintenance. At an open meeting Friday, FCC commissioners approved the changes while decrying the long road their predecessors took to get there. “This issue was first raised in 2005 during the Commission’s 2004 biennial rule review,” said commissioner Michael O’Rielly. The question that has to be asked is, why did it take the commission nine years?” Though the Part 17 rules apply to all owners of “antenna structures” (FCC-speak for towers), the Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau promoted the changes as a boon to cellular and data services, which depend on hundreds of thousands of smaller towers across the country to meet ever-growing demand from consumers.

• The Public Media Platform is showing more signs of life. A blog post last week on PMP’s site describes how American Public Media has been testing the platform’s features with its regional stations, uploading content into the PMP for stations to pull. But APM’s content partners, including Minnesota Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio and Classical South Florida, each use a different content management system, so APM built a centralized data hub called “The Barn” to funnel content through before it reaches the PMP. • Garrison Keillor talked to the New York Times Book Review about his literary adventures, favorite authors and the worst thing about running his own bookstore, Common Good Books.

WNED in Buffalo, N.Y., is tweaking its management of programming, resulting in one layoff. Gabe DiMaio, who programmed classical WNED-FM, confirmed to Current Thursday that his position was eliminated. He previously served as assistant program director at WBFO-FM, the broadcaster’s NPR News station, as well as producer and local host for All Things Considered. He’s also secretary for the board of the Public Radio Programming Directors Association. Ron Santora, WNED’s v.p. of broadcasting, is adding radio programming to his portfolio. Starting in September, new hire Brian Meyer, a former Buffalo News reporter, will direct the WBFO newsroom. The station made the changes to create a more efficient management structure, said Chief Programming Officer John Grant.

Also: CPB's Inspector General is one of 47 IGs protesting closed federal records.