The program director of Pacifica station KPFT-FM in Houston spent some time recently with Nicole Sawaya, who recently recommitted to serving as the network’s executive director, and he likes what he saw. “In virtually all our conversations the last few days, Nicole was quick to remind us that being into new media will be key to staying relevant,” writes Ernesto Aguilar, who makes clear that he’s equally bullish on the subject.

The g.m. of Boston’s WBUR-FM tells the Boston Phoenix that he’s been talking with Mike Barnicle, the local columnist who faced accusations of plagiarizing material in the late ’90s. “I had nothing but the best of experiences with Mike for 23 years…. I think he’s a voice that’s missed in Boston,” says Paul La Camera. On his blog, media watcher Dan Kennedy reminds readers that the most recent accusations “were only the latest in a quarter-century of similar, very credible complaints.”

Gravity Medium points to a NewsGang podcast featuring Dennis Haarsager, now interim CEO at NPR, as well as Doc Searls, Steve Gillmor and Stephen Hill.

Andy Carvin calls attention to an e-mail fraud scheme that uses the name of Joan Kroc, the philanthropist who gave NPR more than $200 million. “The scam claims to be doling out cash to nonprofit groups,” Carvin writes. “If you respond, they’ll end up demanding a hefty processing fee or even direct access to your bank accounts.”

CPB, meeting with station leaders this week near Washington, announced extended funding for two pubTV stars, Ken Burns and Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. PBS joined CPB in announcing three new Gates series: for 2010, The Faces of America, a four-parter about the ancestry of famed Americans; for 2011, the eight-part Searching for Our Roots: The History of the African American People, and for 2012, African American Lives III: Reclaiming Our Past. They will be produced by WNET in New York, Kunhardt Productions and Inkwell Films. New Ken Burns projects under consideration for the next decade include a joint bio of Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt and a series on the Vietnam War, according to CPB, which announced a funding agreement with Burns that runs through 2017.

“In a moral sense or in a fair game sense, we who pledged on pledge drives and gave money to building the station deserve a chance to raise the money to buy it,” says Steve Denkers, a philanthropist whose family foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Salt Lake City’s KCPW, in today’s Deseret Morning News. Denkers, a major contributor to public broadcasting outlets in Utah through the Stephen G. and Susan E. Denkers Family Foundation, was responding to recent news that KCPW licensee Community Wireless has demanded that Wasatch Public Media, a new local nonprofit, match the bid terms of California-based religious broadcasters.

Get My Vote, a new NPR website presenting user-generated content, launched in public beta yesterday. NPR’s Andy Carvin, who led development of the site, explains the ideas behind Get My Vote and its various elements here.

“NPR’s weakness is that is has too often undervalued the quality of radio-ness in building the organization,” writes Jeffrey Dvorkin, former NPR News exec and ombudsman, in a blog commentary about Ken Stern’s firing as NPR ceo. This was especially the case during the last decade with Stern at the helm, he writes, when NPR recruited “non-radio people” in false belief that “true journalistic legitimacy is found among the world of newspaper reporters and editors.” NPR succeeded in attracting bigger news audiences, but “clarity of purpose of the organization became more confused” and Stern’s vision for NPR diverged from that of stations.

It’s inertia that’s preventing the music labels and other rights holders from setting up a system to legally incorporate music into podcasts, according to David Oxenford of the Broadcast Law Blog. In a Q&A on Hear 2.0, Oxenford says it’s not a simple process to set up fee schedules and make songs easily available for podcasts and other on-demand uses. “There’s no question it should be done. Right now, you have to go through each and every record company and negotiate separately for every song, and for the small guy it makes it almost impossible.”

There’s a bidding war going on for KCPW-FM/AM in Salt Lake City. Current licensee Community Wireless has told former g.m. Ed Sweeney that he needs to match a $3.7 million offer from religious broadcasters if the station is to remain a locally controlled NPR news outlet, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The Community Wireless board had given Sweeney until March 15 to mount a viable bid for the station. Last week, Wastach Public Media, a newly formed Utah non-profit established by Sweeney, offered to pay $2.4 million for KCPW-FM. “I feel betrayed,” Sweeney tells Tribune blogger Glen Warchol.

The FCC will process its backlog of mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial FM stations by identifying and working through groups of MXed applicants one at a time. First up are MX groups with four or fewer applicants, all 263 of whom are listed here. As of Friday, these applicants have 30 days to negotiate settlements. Afterwards, the commission will apply its point system before awarding licenses, according to this public notice. [Both links are PDF downloads.] The point system adopted by the FCC to evaluate MXed noncommercial applications is explained here and here.

Gravity Medium has compiled a list of news reports and blog commentary on Ken Stern’s exit as NPR ceo. Here’s one that’s missing: Bob Garfield of On the Media interviews Current‘s Karen Everhart on Stern’s troubled relationship with pubradio station managers.

“This is not a coup by Luddite station CEOs who want to stop or slow down effective responses to [the] very types of disruptive change we’ve been trying to strategically accommodate,” writes NPR interim CEO Dennis Haarsager, in a blog post attempting to explain why Ken Stern is no longer at the helm of National Public Radio. Haarsager is responding in part to Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine, who characterized Stern’s ouster as a protectionist takeover by “local yokel” stations that feared his digital distribution strategies. [Be sure to read the comments to both blog entries.] Responding to a request for the NPR Board to explain in more detail why Stern was forced out, Haarsager writes: “I cannot comment in detail on this personnel matter except to say that Mr.

Rocker Andrew W.K. has written a song for public radio’s Fair Game with lyrics based on the words of John McLaughlin, host of The McLaughlin Group. Listen to “McLaughlin Groove” here.

Dick Meyer, editorial director at CBSNews.com, announced yesterday in his online column that he is moving to NPR. Meyer didn’t specify which post he’ll assume, but PaidContent.org reports that Meyer will serve as editorial director for digital media.