NPR has renewed and expanded its contract with the Associated Press, reports Radio Ink.

When PBS took over the Television Critics Association press tour, the Toronto Globe and Mail‘s Andrew Ryan found the change startling: “Gone are the attractive, Starbucks-fuelled cable hacks; now we have dozens of timid PBS publicists in sensible National Public Radio fashions drinking tea at the back of the room.”

Hearing Voices has produced a new public radio special, “State of Union”, featuring contributions from Scott Carrier, Jay Allison and other producers.

“Talking to PBS suits about the skanky infomercials with which the public broadcasting network’s stations pollute the PBS brand during pledge drives is a lot like talking to parents of a crack-addicted teen,” writes Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post. [Scroll down from top story in column.]

A line of furniture based on pieces seen on Antiques Road Show will be in retail stores this summer, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The New York Times published two reviews of the PBS series Freedom: The Story of US. Alessandra Stanley described it as a “didactic, worthy and irritatingly timid” signal that “at long last the time has come to consider privatizing public television or turning it over to the state.” In the second review, published a day later, Ron Wertheimer praised it as a “courageous attempt” to encourage the reaffirmation that Americans need in these perilous times. These critics agreed that the series is overburdened with a parade of celebrities doing voice-overs. [Link to the pbs.org website.]

Peter Sellars’ production of The Children of Herakles, covered in today’s New York Times, features contributions from public radio’s Christopher Lydon. Lydon is working on a new eight-part interview series for Public Radio International titled The Whole Wide World.

Vin Scelsa, pioneer of freeform radio and a host on public station WFUV in New York, is taking his show’s stream and archives offline to protest federal rules governing streaming, reports the New York Daily News. There’s more information at the station’s website.

There are 31 women general managers in public television. When this was reported to a gathering of women at the 2002 PBS Annual Meeting, the room burst into applause. For good reason. These are 31 highly accomplished women who shoulder not only c.e.o. responsibilities at their stations but also, in many cases, heavy national workloads as well. Yes, we’ve come a long way since the days when there were only three or four women g.m.’s in the room at public TV conferences. When you look at it that way, the system has seen 700 percent growth in the number of female g.m.’s

The Baltimore Sun profiles Murray Horwitz, formerly head of cultural programming at NPR and now in charge of the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Md.

WNYC-AM/FM in New York might be looking for a new home, reports the New York Daily News.

Fort Collins, Colo., will get a new community radio station this year, but KRFC is still looking for a studio and a leader, reports the Coloradoan.

The New York Times profiles comic Harry Shearer and his public radio program “Le Show,” produced at KCRW in Santa Monica. Says KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour, “Harry is adventurous and daring, all of the things that have been in great danger on public radio since the emergence of radio consultants.”

The MacArthur Foundation gave NPR a $14 million grant, the largest in the network’s history.

The Virginia Public Broadcasting Board imposed 15 percent across-the-board funding cuts to the state’s public TV stations, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.