Plus: Hawaii Public Radio enjoys a pledge record, and Ken Burns recalls his early influences.

Public television’s March pledge drive raised $46.7 million for 146 local stations, an increase of 19.3 percent from last year’s spring fundraiser.

Occidental College professor Peter Dreier takes issue with PBS coverage of a 2010 education documentary, while advocating for a new doc being offered for pubTV distribution.

Plus: FiveThirtyEight crunches the numbers on Bob Ross, and noncom radio stations are on the rise.

The ongoing standoff over Pacifica’s leadership reached the California courts last week, opening what could become a protracted legal battle over the Pacifica Foundation board of directors’ decision to fire executive director Summer Reese. Reese, who has defied the board’s March 14 vote to fire her and taken up residence in Pacifica headquarters in Berkeley, filed a civil lawsuit in Alameda County, seeking a restraining order to reverse the board’s decision. During an April 9 hearing, Superior Court Judge Ioana Petrou denied the request by Reese and her supporters for a temporary restraining order on procedural grounds. Petrou will rule May 6 on Reese’s request for a temporary injunction to stay the board’s decision.

Plus: A Boston Marathon playlist, a professor accuses PBS of bias and Laura Poitras returns to the U.S.

The Public Media Futures Forum, in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting, will host “Understanding Impact,” a two-day discussion in Washington, D.C., April 17-18.

American Public Media is replacing its weekend personal finance show Marketplace Money with Marketplace Weekend, beginning June 28.

WFMT-FM in Chicago racked up 700 pledges in a six-hour period relying solely on listeners’ reactions to recorded performances of a Vera Gornostaeva, an 84-year old Russian pianist who spent most of her peak performing years trapped behind the Iron Curtain. WFMT ran a one-day pledge drive April 4 with the goal of collecting 700 pledges. For the drive, the station only played selections from a CD featuring recently remastered archived recordings of Gornostaeva performing compositions by Chopin. Listeners who pledged $40 received a copy of “Chopin Recitals” as a premium gift. WFMT played the CD four times, and pledges continued to pour in despite the repetition, according to Steve Robinson, g.m.

Plus: KCETLink has some laughs, the CBC cuts more than 600 jobs and WCRB searches for a sonic logo.

The spending plan, the House GOP's blueprint for balancing the federal budget by 2024, now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is widely expected to defeat it.

• PBS has promoted two of its programming execs. Michael Kelley, formerly v.p. of strategy and business affairs, ascends to s.v.p., programming and business affairs. In addition, Bill Gardner, formerly director of general audience programming, is now v.p. of programming and development, overseeing science, history, natural history, cultural and current events programming. Both joined PBS in 2012. “Mike’s strong business skills and strategic leadership coupled with Bill’s acute editorial judgment and significant development chops have been instrumental to the success of PBS, our producers and member stations nationwide,” Beth Hoppe, PBS chief programming executive, said in a statement. “These promotions recognize their programming vision and aim to set the team up for continued success.”

The grant will allow the PBS program to fund new projects and a digital technology fellowship.

CPB will convene two meetings about spectrum over the next two months, working to craft guidelines for public TV stations to use in deciding whether to participate in the upcoming auction, as well as exploring wider policy and technology issues. Broadcasters face several options as the FCC works to clear bandwidth for the growing number of wireless devices. A station can sell all its spectrum and get out of broadcasting completely, sell part of it and share a channel with another broadcaster, or opt out of the auction altogether. The auction is set for mid-2015. CPB is approaching spectrum issues in a “very measured” way, CPB President Pat Harrison told the board at its April 8 meeting in Washington, D.C.

Plus: CBC braces for huge losses, and the Fred Rogers Center honors Yo-Yo Ma.