New FCC Chair Tom Wheeler thinks broadcasting “is a critical component of the whole mix” when discussing future uses of spectrum, he told Broadcasting & Cable’s Multichannel News in an interview Thursday. “What fascinates me,” he said, “is that people say that if you are talking about how to use spectrum efficiently, then you have to be saying something that is anti-broadcasting. That is malarkey.” Broadcasters “fulfill an important public service,” he added. “The broadcasters distribute in many ways now, including over the air. And in a world in which we now have digital pathways, rather than analog pathways, [the issue is] what is the most efficient use of the spectrum.

PBS closed its books on fiscal 2013 with an extra $24.5 million — more than twice the $11 million surplus that bolstered its bottom line in FY12. Earnings generated by distribution deals for the hit drama Downton Abbey once again brought in much of the extra revenue, along with ancillary revenues from PBS Kids’ properties, short-term investment gains and reimbursements for overhead costs tied to grants. Molly Corbett Broad, chair of the PBS Board’s finance committee, announced the positive financial results Nov. 6 at a PBS Board meeting. The meeting, at PBS headquarters in Arlington, Va., was the first of the network’s new fiscal year and marked the beginning of a new board term for directors elected or re-elected to new terms.

Houston Public Media announced Nov. 7 the layoffs of eight staffers as part of a reorganization to create more multiplatform arts coverage. Four of the eliminated staffers hosted locally programmed classical music on KUHA-FM, one of the broadcaster’s two radio stations. HPM will replace the local shows with American Public Media’s Classical 24 service, though it will continue to air weekly broadcasts from the Houston Symphony. HPM also laid off two technical staff and two membership assistants. The changes advance a reorganization that got underway in 2011, when the University of Houston, HPM’s owner, began merging the staffs of its two pubcasting operations, KUHT/HoustonPBS and dual-service pubradio stations KUHA and news/talk KUHF.

A new survey of more than 460 community partners in CPB’s American Graduate project found enthusiasm for the station-based dropout-prevention initiative as well as challenges to overcome. The 66-page report, produced by the Civic Enterprises public-policy consulting firm and the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, found that 74 percent of 145 responding partner organizations indicated their belief that public media “provided opportunities that will have a lasting effect on youth” through the initiative. Eighty-five percent said that public media will help tackle the problem in their community in the future by building “knowledge, capacity and engagement.”

Curious about how the Muppets ended up partnering with the White House to promote healthy foods? “The back story,” according to Politico, “involves a series of connections between a White House chef turned policy adviser, a best-selling book and a former Coca-Cola executive who used the marketing skills he learned selling sugar-sweetened beverages to instead promote carrots.”

Armed with a two-year CPB grant, five Pennsylvania pubcasters are collaborating to explore issues facing cities in the Keystone State. CPB spokesperson Kelly Broadway confirmed that the grant supports the specialized reporting unit as one of two new Local Journalism Centers, multi-station news operations that produce multimedia reporting on topics of statewide or regional interest. “Once we have received signed contracts from all the stations involved, CPB will issue a press release” with details on both, she said. The Pennsylvania center will focus on the causes and cures of the financial distress of urban communities throughout the state, according to an online report published by WITF in Harrisburg, one of five participating stations.

The Association of Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS on Monday filed comments with the FCC regarding issues related to the spectrum repacking that will follow incentive auctions clearing bandwidth for mobile devices. Responding to the commission’s request for comment on the process for assisting stations with the costs of spectrum repacking, the three organizations “strongly encourage the Commission to adopt reimbursement policies and procedures that ensure noncommercial educational television stations are made whole and held fully harmless in the repacking,” they said in the filing (complete document here). Broadcasters are concerned that costs of the transition may exceed the $1.75 billion Congress has set aside to reimburse them.

Myrna Johnson, a former government relations associate for NPR who now directs a Boston nonprofit, has been named the next executive director of Iowa Public Radio. The Iowa Public Radio Board of Directors  announced Johnson’s appointment Nov. 5,  ending a  seven-month nationwide search for successor to Mary Grace Herrington, who was dismissed in February.  Herrington contested the firing and both parties agreed to a $197,000 settlement in May. Johnson departs the Boston Schoolyard Initiative, a public-private partnership that oversees renovation of  schoolyards in Boston’s urban neighborhoods, where she has worked as executive director since 2009. Her previous experience in public radio includes eight years on NPR’s government relations staff and service on the board of directors at KUNC-FM, in Greeley, Colo.

Twin Cities Public Television has adopted the name ReWire for the statewide network’s youth programming and engagement initiative. TPT settled on the name after its previous branding, Open Air, attracted a trademark infringement and violation suit from Colorado Public Radio. “Our vision is to rewire public media’s relationship to the world, and your relationship with public media,” Andi McDaniel, ReWire’s project manager, wrote in a re-introductory blog post Oct. 25. “[ReWire is] about connecting with our audience in new ways — through digital content, through collaborative approaches to storytelling, through interactive events, fresh takes on classic and new programming and much more.”

Vermont Public Radio said Monday that test results show that 11 of the 34 mugs in its Artist Mug Series, which the station gives as pledge premiums, contain lead — one at a level above the federal limit. Responding to safety concerns raised in September, VPR had mugs produced from 2002-13 tested by an independent lab. The lab found 10 had lead on the exterior of the mug that fell within FDA regulated levels. One, produced in 2005 with a design by Chris Varricchione, had “unacceptable” levels of lead. VPR is recommending the mug not be used. “Our goal from the beginning was to be open and transparent about this issue,” VPR said on its website.

Pat Fitzgerald, g.m. of WBGU-TV in Bowling Green, Ohio, for more than two decades, died Oct. 30 of a stroke in his home. He was 69. Fitzgerald was known among colleagues as a strong advocate for educational television and community service. “He was in essence my mentor, my education,” said Tony Short, g.m. of production, engineering and educational services at WBGU and one of two managers who took over Fitzgerald’s duties at the station after his 2010 retirement. “What I know about public broadcasting, I learned from Pat Fitzgerald. . . This is hitting us real hard. This is sort of a shock.”

KACV in Amarillo, Texas, is marking 25th anniversary by changing its name to Panhandle PBS, the station announced Sunday, to reflect its location in the Texas Panhandle. “Market research tells us that ‘Panhandle PBS’ is really what viewers think of when they think of KACV,” said Linda Pitner, the station’s general manager. Pitner told Current that no one in the region equates the word with its alternate definition of asking strangers for money — which PBS member stations are known to do from time to time. “We completed a market research project before changing our name and feel that the new name better identifies the product we are providing and the place we are serving,” Pitner added.