Lamar Marchese, g.m. of Nevada Public Radio in Las Vegas, is retiring. Marchese co-founded the station in 1979.

Today Discovery Education unveils Cosmeo, the consumers’ version of its unitedstreaming service to K-12 schools. For a monthly subscription fee of less than $10, households with school-aged kids and high-speed Internet connections can buy access to curricular material from Discovery’s library, as well as that of other “educational content providers such as Scholastic Corp. and the Public Broadcasting Service,” reports the Washington Post.

The latest Audience 2010 report (PDF) sizes up the stalling of public radio’s audience growth and its impact on fundraising. This year’s individual giving could come in at least $30 million short of what it might have been had audience growth continued. Public radio “is no longer a growth industry,” the report says.

CBS’s Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian Institution announced plans for a Smithsonian On Demand service for cable TV and other multichannel distribution starting in December. They’ll offer a library of 40 hours of programming, refreshed monthly, including docs, children’s programming and event coverage. Other branded Smithsonian Networks projects are expected to follow.

Merlin Mann selects five more excellent public radio names.

Baltimore’s WYPR-FM aims to boost its wattage soon, a move which could drown out 10-watt WMUC-FM, the station operated by the University of Maryland in College Park. The tiny station is the only college station in the Washington, D.C., area.

Donovan Reynolds, who recently resigned as director of Michigan Public Media in Ann Arbor, says he prompted investigations of his station last fall by reporting “suspicious business practices” to the University of Michigan, which holds the station’s licenses. Reynolds tells the Detroit Free Press that he resigned “because serious things occurred on my watch and I had to accept responsibility.”

Phil Redo is leaving WNYC-AM/FM to return to commercial broadcaster Greater Media, where he will oversee five Boston stations. Redo is WNYC’s v.p. of station operations and management.

Georgia Public Broadcasting has bought an FM station in Rome, Ga., reports the Rome News-Tribune. And in other station news, WDIY-FM in Bethlehem, Pa., will manage and program WXLV-FM in Schnecksville, Pa., a station licensed to Lehigh Carbon Community College. (Coverage in the Allentown Morning Call.)

The latest Audience 2010 report (PDF) from the Radio Research Consortium finds Arbitron’s methodology to be reliable, which means it can’t be scapegoated for public radio’s audience loss. “Public radio’s national loss of audience momentum is real,” the study says. The previous Audience 2010 installment let satellite radio off the hook.

The University of Michigan is investigating its public radio and TV stations after the abrupt resignation of director Donovan Reynolds, reports the Detroit Free Press.

WFMU’s Professor checks in on the Satellite Sisters, formerly of public radio, and his words are not kind: “Some of the urgent topics recently on the Satellite Sisters show: ‘As you listen to the weather forecast this winter, think what it means for your animals’ and ‘Look a salesperson in the eye when you say goodbye’ and most importantly ‘Wipe down exercise machines and mats at the gym after using them.’ I’m NOT kidding.”

New York’s WNET will not air a controversial panel discussion that was scheduled to run April 17 after the doc, The Armenian Genocide, the Associated Press reports (via Newsday). The forum has been criticized by Armenian-American groups and community leaders for including scholars that deny that the early 20th century killing of more than 1 million Armenians by Turkish forces qualifies as a genocide (earlier post). Activists protested the follow-up panel outside WNET Saturday, but a station spokeswoman said yesterday’s choice to 86 the add-on was “an editorial decision.” An online petition urging PBS to pull the panel discussion has received more than 15,000 signatures.

Public radio can’t blame competition from satellite radio for its recent audience slump, according to the latest installment of the Radio Research Consortium’s Audience 2010 study (PDF). The study also suggests that public radio has little reason to withhold NPR’s flagship newsmagazines from broadcast on satellite. Pubradio consultant John Sutton agrees. “To remain a significant media choice, NPR needs to have its best programming available in real time on all delivery platforms,” Sutton writes. “This is a sacrifice stations will have to make.”

Attendees at this year’s Public Broadcasting New Media Conference are blogging about the conference here.