Colorado Public Radio has scaled back its plans for Colorado Matters, a 30-minute weekday news show that was slated to expand to one-hour and be paired with a local call-in. Since purchasing an FM channel to serve as the broadcast home of KFCR, an NPR News outlet serving Denver, CPR has been unable to sell 1370 AM, the outlet that until last year was the primary CPR news service in the market, according to the Denver Westword blog. In addition, CPR’s listener-sensitive revenues are starting to soften. Programming veep Sean Neathery says CPR now plans to expand Colorado Matters to a one-hour show that airs four days a week, with the call-in airing in the same timeslot on Fridays.

Too many public radio stations rely on subsidies from government and/or their university licensees, writes pubradio marketing consultant John Sutton, offering WMUB-FM in Oxford, Ohio, as a case in point. Miami University can no longer afford to operate WMUB as an independent station and on Jan. 22 announced a pending agreement to convert the outlet into a repeater of Cincinnati Public Radio’s NPR News service. “Maybe this is the future of public radio,” Sutton writes on his blog. “The consolidation of costs by having fewer independent operations is an option.” If localism is as important to the future of public radio as many say it is, then more stations need to “back away from the subsidy trough” and take steps toward financial “self-sufficiency,” Sutton writes.

Lorry Lokey, consistently one of America’s top donors, answered questions from nonprofits in a Chronicle of Philanthropy online chat Jan. 27. Lokey, who committed $45.7 million to nonprofits in 2008 alone, answered questions such as: How can a nonprofit best prove it is most worthy of a corporate donation? And, what is the biggest mistake development officers make when first meeting a new prospect?

Natalia Almada, director of the upcoming P.O.V. film El General, won the directing award for U.S. documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Her film–a co-production with Altamura Films and ITVS in association with Latino Public Broadcasting–looks at the legacy of Almada’s great-grandfather, former Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles. Almada’s film El Otro Lado, about drug traffickers and musicians on the U. S./Mexico border, aired on P.O.V. in 2006.

This American Life will again stage a national video telecast to hundreds of specially equipped theaters this spring. Tickets to the April 23 event (8 p.m. Eastern time plus a delayed feed at 8 Pacific time) were offered at a discounted price to stations, PRI announced. Tickets go on sale to the public March 6. The net said that more than 35,000 fans turned out for the show’s first live-to-theaters telecast last May 1.

Attorney Lawrence Sidman, a longtime telecom advocate, is the new APTS president. Sidman has been involved in the industry for decades, serving in the late 1980s as chief council of the Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee of House Commerce and Energy under longtime pubcasting advocate Edward Markey (D-Mass.). Most recently, Sidman has been chairman of the government affairs group of the law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker’s DC office. In 2003 he was named one of the 10 top telecom lobbyists by Telecommunications Reports. Sidman replaces John Lawson, who departed for Ion Media Networks in March 2008. Sidman takes over Feb.

The Senate — on a voice vote — has approved moving the DTV transition date from Feb. 17 to June 12. The House bill is up for consideration Jan. 26.

Putting off the DTV transition from Feb. 17 to June 12 could cost pubcasters $22 million, PBS head Paula Kerger estimates. The White House is seeking the delay because the fed program providing money for converter box coupons is out of money. Kerger said she announced the figure so lawmakers might keep in mind the financial hardship for stations. She added that PBS is not aligned with either side in the ongoing debate over the date.

Here’s a new fundraising idea: Milwaukee Public TV is selling some 400 wedding gowns and other formal dresses at its studio and warehouse on Feb. 7. An area bridal shop closed and donated its leftover inventory to the station, which is pricing the dresses at $10 to $40. 

KBDI in Denver is coping with the aftermath of 100 mph winds that knocked its analog signal off the air. Its antenna and transmission line were extensively damaged and repairs could take up to a month. Viwers are being urged to convert to digital reception immediately. This comes in the wake of KRMJ-TV’s analog transmitter in Grand Junction failing on Dec. 31; that may not be repaired.

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a lead sponsor of the 2005 Community Broadband Act, has reversed his stance. On Jan. 25’s Fox News Sunday, the former presidential candidate said: “Some of the stimulus in this package is excellent; some of it, frankly, has nothing to do — some of the projects and others that you just mentioned, $6 billion for broadband and Internet access. That will take years.” Broadband stimulus is one part of President Barack Obama’s economic proposal. His broadband plan is to create jobs by building out greater access to the Internet, and improve America’s technological competitive edge in the world by making the Internet faster.

The Congressional Budget Office has issued its economic and budget predictions for FY2009 through FY2019 early to “aid the new Congress in its deliberations,” according to the CBO director’s blog. Outlook details: “A marked contraction in the U.S. economy in calendar year 2009” followed by a “slow recovery” in 2010. It also says America “is in a recession that will probably be the longest and the deepest since World War II.”

Indiana PubTV’s WFYI is facing a total elimination of state funding under Gov. Mitch Daniels’ budget proposals. Due to reductions in private donations, the station last week laid off five staffers and ended production of several programs. Now Daniels wants to strip all state funding, $517,000, or less than 5 percent of the station budget. However, WFYI management said each state dollar helps raise some $8 in funding from foundations, corporations and individuals.

A quiet move to “save” that quiet pubTV legendary show, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” has sprung up on the Internet. Save the Mister Rogers Neighborhood Campaign, according to the website, was organized by Brian Linder, a father of twin toddlers from Columbia, S.C., who wanted his children to be able to see a show he grew up watching daily. The show hasn’t been discontinued; last September its distribution changed. PBS now offers the show weekly to allow room for more PBS KIDS’ new series on its daily feed, according to PBS Engage. A Facebook page linked to Linder’s efforts is up to nearly 7,000 members.

“Waltz with Bashir” continues its run of prizes and nominations with a nod in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards. It’s the 10th Oscar nomination for ITVS, and the first for its ITVS International initiative. The presitgious awards show airs Feb. 22 from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.