KCET.org launched a special feature on the independent movement within the gaming industry. Flow, a New Age Pac-Man of the sea, is the first of four independent games to be showcased on the site.

KWIT/KOJI-FM in Sioux City, Iowa, has launched an all-Spanish website.

Jake Shapiro points out that The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, mentions the Public Radio Exchange.

NPR honored Daniel Schorr on the occasion of his upcoming 90th birthday with a luncheon yesterday, reports the Washington Post, but didn’t invite the press. “It’s absurd!” Schorr told the paper. “I don’t want to start an argument with NPR, but I regret that. And I apologize.”

A Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist addresses the idiosyncratic block of ethnic programming that airs Sundays on the city’s WCPN-FM. “It’s a throwback,” writes Tom Feran. “Personally, I wish [WCPN] would throw it back.”

Ken Freedman, g.m. of WFMU-FM in Jersey City, N.J., commemorates his blog’s four millionth page view with an analysis of web stats. “52% of y’all are still using Internet Explorer – are you out of your minds?”

Commentary by geezer pundits smother the subject of Marilyn Monroe: Still Life, an American Masters biography debuting on PBS tonight, writes New York Times critic Virginia Hefferman.

The New York Times takes note of WNYC’s move from its shabby headquarters in the city’s Municipal Building to a $45 million space downtown. “In a place where the phones work and the toilets flush, we can focus better on making radio,” says President Laura Walker. (Current article from 2004 about WNYC’s transition from city control to independence.)

Harry Shearer told Le Show listeners last weekend that Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison canceled his show due to unhappiness with political content, reports the Wisconsin State Journal. Phil Corriveau, WPR’s director, admits that it was a “small factor,” but adds: “[S]ometimes he tends to ramble on, and it gets kind of boring.”

NPR launched the next phase of public radio’s New Realities process last week, releasing an ambitious plan to strengthen ties with listeners and foster better collaboration within the system. In its 12-page Blueprint for Growth, released to general managers July 12, NPR said it will work with stations and other system partners to develop a “News Network of the Future,” a web-based music service and an infrastructure to support distribution of digital content. The network will also lead efforts to raise major gifts to support these ventures. But the blueprint goes further by asking stakeholders in public radio to reconsider their relationships with their audiences and each other.

July 3, 1978 FCC v. Pacifica Foundation: The Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s right to ban indecent speech when children could be expected to be in the audience. Pacifica’s WBAI in New York had aired George Carlin’s “Filthy Words” monologue in the afternoon of Oct. 30, 1973. Upshot: Confirmed both the FCC’s right to regulate indecent language and its definition of such speech as that which depicts “sexual or excretory activities or organs in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium.” Indecent material falls short of obscenities, which are banned at all hours. Aug. 28, 1995 “Safe harbor” for grownup material: New FCC indecency rules take effect, prompted by court decisions, establishing a “safe harbor” of 10 p.m.

Consultant Robert Paterson says that NPR’s packaging of Leroy Sievers’ “My Cancer” series is “a pointer for the future of public radio.” “It expands the 5 minute radio spot into infinity and allows the interested person to escape time and space,” Paterson writes.

Arts criticism at Boston’s WBUR-FM is being phased out and the station’s art critic was laid off, reports the Globe.

After fewer than half of PBS stations made commitments to carry a proposed multicast channel for school-aged children, the network pulled back its plan to launch PBS Kids Go! as a fully packaged DTV multicasting service in October. The network is instead exploring its options to distribute school-age fare via video-on-demand or broadband platforms. “I don’t want to bring up a service and not have the resources to support it,” said PBS President Paula Kerger, who announced the decision to stations July 6 [2006]. Only one-third of public TV licensees expressed interest in paying for Go! as an a la carte service, while PBS needed buy-in from least half, she said.

Some pubcasting leaders aren’t happy about surprise CPB Board nominee Warren Bell, a TV producer and contributor to the online version of the conservative National Review, reports the Los Angeles Times. “We are definitely concerned about Warren Bell’s nomination,” said APTS President John Lawson. “After the damage caused by Ken Tomlinson’s activities, the last thing we need on the CPB board is another ideologue of any stripe.”