The latest Eastern Public Radio newsletter includes updates on digital radio, station hires and more.

WUSF in Tampa let go of eight employees in a reorganization.

Technical problems have knocked WCVW-TV in Richmond, Va., off the air.

“We’ve ridden the tiger before,” says PBS’s Wayne Godwin of the tough market for PBS underwriting sales. The Los Angeles Times reports on why companies are less inclined these days to sponsor PBS programs (Reg. required).

The Washington Post takes note of the federal budget’s possible blow to pubcasting.

With its proposed fiscal year 2004 budget the Bush administration not only rejects pleas for DTV transition funding for public TV, but recommends suspending the Commerce Department’s ongoing Public Telecommunications Facilities Program. APTS, PBS, CPB and NPR issued a joint statement saying the cutbacks would “deeply” threaten public service. [Link to administration’s proposed budget on OMB website.]

Residents of Olsburg, Kan., are surprised to have their own public radio station, though their rural town is already “pretty famous” for its Swedish supper the first weekend in December.

Maryland’s Gazette explores the political leanings of Marc Steiner, talk show host and executive v.p. of programming at WYPR-FM in Baltimore. Steiner led a group last year that bought WYPR from its former owner, Johns Hopkins University.

NPR commentator Cokie Roberts will sit on President Bush’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. A rep for ABC News, Roberts’ employer, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer the appointment raises no conflict of interest. But Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR’s ombudsman, told Current, “I’m not sure that it’s a good idea at this time.”

WXPN-FM in Philadelphia hired Roger LaMay, former manager of a Fox TV affiliate, as general manager. The Associated Press profiles the station, which will move next year to a $9 million space including studios, performaces stages and a “World Cafe” restaurant.

“In Washington, where you sit is almost always more important than what you say,” and PBS’s Jim Lehrer rubbed elbows with President Bush at a lunchtime media briefing yesterday, notes The Washington Post. (Second item.)

NPR’s Jason Beaubien and two other reporters were detained in Zimbabwe yesterday.

Christopher Lydon’s return to public radio also lands him in the Boston Globe.

The FCC is seeking comment on proposed DTV rules for channel election, replication and maximization requirements as part of its second periodic review of the digital TV transition. The commission is also soliciting comments on whether there are steps it could take to help public TV stations during the conversion. Read press release. See full NPRM.

CNBC, home of ex-PBS star Louis Rukeyser, is adding celebrity editor Tina Brown to its roster of hosts. The cable net is shifting away from heavy stock market coverage and scheduling programs that are “branded toward people who are smart, curious and interested in a more sophisticated take on the issues,” said CNBC President Pamela Thomas-Graham in the New York Times.