What came between NPR and Tavis Smiley? Howard Kurtz reports in the Washington Post that a letter from Smiley’s agent demanded that the network commit $3 million to promote the weekday talk show. Smiley quit in December, hurling accusations of racism. The host also wanted to own the program and tape it a day before broadcast, NPR reportedly told Kurtz.

Three public radio operations will merge to create a new Iowa Public Radio network, the state’s Board of Regents has confirmed. The net will include stations at three universities overseen by the regents: WOI-AM/FM at Iowa State University in Ames, KUNI and KHKE at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, and WSUI and KSUI at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Regents expect the merger will lower administrative costs and improve programming, with management of the stations centralized under an executive director and news reports and other programming shared throughout the network. Managers of the stations share that optimism but worry about lost jobs and the future of their local programs.

Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman are among new commentators on PBS’s Now series, the producers announced. Also civil rights attorney Constance Rice and former Maine Gov. Angus King.

Martin Scorsese, producer of a four-hour portrait of Bob Dylan to air in the PBS series American Masters in July, never met the guy, he told the Toronto Sun.

NPR reporter Jason Beaubien tells the Poynter Institute’s Jill Geisler about covering the tsunami. “It taxes you as a radio reporter to get across the essence of this story . . . which is that this isn’t just about a tragic event,” he says. “It’s about a tragic event times one million . . .”

After a four-year hiatus, NPR producer Van Williamson has resurrected his variety show Radio From Downtown, reports the Baltimore Sun. Susan Stamberg and Carl Kasell star in the production, which focuses on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and comes off as “something of a marshy, saltwater version” of A Prairie Home Companion. (Reg. req.)

Columbia Journalism Review criticized NPR for informing listeners that Slate, its partner on Day to Day, was reporting exit poll data throughout Election Day, and the webzine’s Jack Shafer snaps back. That prompts another salvo from CJR: “Ouch! What did you have for breakfast Thursday?”

Chicago broadcasters led by Steve Robinson, manager of WTTW’s sister WFMT-FM, jointly raised $2 million for tsunami relief last week, the Sun-Times reported. In Pittsburgh, an hourlong telethon aired from WQED studios drew nearly $923,000 in pledges Jan. 7, said the Pittsburgh Channel. In Canada, CBC plans a three-hour fundraiser, Canada for Asia, tonight. Mike Myers, Celine Dion, Wayne Gretzky and other stars of the frozen north will appear. Australia’s three commercial TV nets raised more than $20 million Jan. 8.

CPB has issued an RFP for its Public Radio Program Fund ($6.4 million in FY 2005). One priority: funding “projects that have a clear commitment to balance and objectivity in all content.”

Radio researcher Mark Ramsey offers “Four Things Public Radio Can Teach Commercial Stations.”

WFCI-FM, licensed to Franklin College near Indianapolis, will begin simulcasting programming from WFYI-FM, reports the Indianapolis Star.

The board of the Public Radio Partnership in Louisville, Ky., has decided to keep Gerry Weston as president of the broadcaster, reports Louisville’s Courier-Journal.

Tom Lix, founder of Public Interactive, is seeking investors for his latest venture, Bulldozer Camp. Billed as the “ultimate ‘big toy’ experience,” the theme park in Washington State will give white-collar desk jockeys a shot at piloting construction gear and monster trucks.

Jeffrey Dvorkin calls NPR’s tsunami coverage the day after the disaster “curiously distant and even callous.” Dvorkin also addresses a controversy about the editing of David Sedaris’ “Santaland Diaries,” which is discussed at length on this weblog. (One commenter says he “ripped [Dvorkin] another one”; we hope for a speedy recovery.)

The board of directors of the Public Radio Partnership in Louisville, Ky., is considering replacing president Gerry Weston, according to the (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal.