Two men were arrested Wednesday and charged with breaking and entering in connection with a burglary at a remote West Virginia Public Broadcasting tower facility on Kopperston Mountain, reports CBS affiliate WVNS in Ghent, W. Va. Wyoming County Sheriff Randall Aliff said arrests were made after the public identified the men on a surveillance video that aired on WVNS. Keith Dotson and Joe Torres are being held on $20,000 bond each. West Virginia Public Broadcasting Executive Director Scott Finn told Current that the break-in occurred around 4 a.m. Sept. 18 in the main building of a tower site, and a nearby generator shed.

Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim Henson, donated 21 Muppet puppets and props to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on Sept. 24, reports USA Today. The latest band of furry Muppets to move to the Smithsonian includes early iterations of longtime Sesame Street fixtures Elmo, Bert, Ernie, Grover, Cookie Monster and Count Von Count. They’ll join up with their buddies Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch, who are already members of the Smithsonian’s Jim Henson Collection. Miss Piggy is also joining the collection. In other Henson news, Jim Henson: The Biography, by Brian Ray Jones, went on sale Sept.

For the first time, PBS SoCal will distribute the annual Imagen Awards for broadcast on public television stations nationwide. The honors recognize positive portrayals of Latinos in media, as well as achievements of Latino celebrities in the entertainment and communications industries. The 28th awards gala took place Aug. 16 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The televised special will highlight attendees, winners and presentations. NETA is distributing the hourlong program, with one-year broadcast rights starting Sept. 21. It’s co-produced by the Imagen Foundation and PBS SoCal.

WKGC in Panama City, Fla., will replace NPR’s newsmagazines with BBC news programs distributed by American Public Media. The station, which is also dropping its NPR membership, cited duplication of NPR programs in the market as the reason for the schedule change, which takes effect Oct. 1, reports the local News Herald. During morning and afternoon drive times, BBC World News and NewsHour will air on the WKGC instead of NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered. WKGC is licensed to Gulf Coast State Community College and shares its service area with WFSU in Tallahassee, operated by Florida State University.

Starting Nov. 2, the new host of Marketplace Money will be Carmen Wong Ulrich. Ulrich is the former host of CNBC’s On the Money, and the author of  Generation Debt: Take Control of Your Money. She is co-founder of ALTA Wealth Management, a New York-based financial planning firm. She will host the weekend show, blog at MarketplaceMoney.org and appear on the daily Marketplace and Marketplace Morning Report shows.

Lonna Thompson, e.v.p., Association of Public Television Stations, is a panelist on the FCC’s Sept. 30 workshop on issues surrounding the reassignment of television stations after the upcoming broadcast spectrum incentive auctions. The workshop will be streamed live on the FCC website from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern. Panelists will discuss reimbursement costs that broadcasters may incur as a result of spectrum repacking, and how broadcasters might coordinate efforts to mitigate those costs. The Spectrum Act of 2012 provides a $1.75 billion relocation fund for the FCC to reimburse stations for costs associated with spectrum repacking.

Anxiety among public TV executives about channel repacking after spectrum auctions outweighs their enthusiasm for selling bandwidth, CPB s.v.p. Mark Erstling told corporation directors during their Sept. 17 board meeting in Washington, D.C. CPB has commissioned Booz & Co. to research the effect of spectrum policy issues on the pubTV system for a white paper CPB will release early in 2014. The outcome of the upcoming auction to clear broadcast bandwidth for use by mobile devices is as critical to the future of public media “as the original noncommercial set-aside of public spectrum and the Broadcasting Act of 1967,” Erstling told directors.

The Friends of KSPS, the nonprofit fundraising arm of KSPS-TV, has taken over as licensee of the Spokane, Wash., pubcaster from the local school district. The FCC approved the transfer, which includes the broadcast license, transmitter, tower and equipment. It was finalized Sept. 1. As part of the transition, the Friends of KSPS Board appointed Gary Stokes general manager. Stokes has been executive director of the Friends organization since August 2011. He replaces Claude Kistler, who retired Aug. 31 after 46 years at KSPS, with the last 33 as g.m. As part of the transfer, KSPS will continue to produce educational outreach programs for Spokane Public Schools.

Broadcasters across Colorado, including several public media stations, raised $1.1 million Sept. 18 during Colorado Flood Relief, a live fundraiser. Torrential rains caused the massive flooding, which began Sept. 9. Floods have destroyed some 1,800 homes so far, with property losses statewide estimated at almost $2 billion, according to Reuters. The death toll stands at 10, with 140 people missing. Public stations joined 14 commercial news outlets for the fundraiser, which ran from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Participating were Denver pubcasters Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado Public Television and KUVO-FM; KUNC-FM in Greeley; KGNU-FM, Boulder; KRCC-FM, Colorado Springs; KAFM-FM, Grand Junction; and KVNF, Paonia.

In a letter dated Sept. 20, a bipartisan group of senators tells the FCC that it is “essential” that the U.S. coordinate closely with Mexico and Canada over the quickly approaching broadcast spectrum auctions, reports Broadcasting & Cable. Signatories include members of the Commerce Committee and the chair of the Judiciary Committee, who insist that international issues be “addressed expeditiously.” Read a copy of the letter here.

WBUR in Boston, Northwest Public Radio in Pullman, Wash., and The Lens, a nonprofit newsroom in New Orleans, are among 10 recipients of this year’s Knight Community Information Challenge grants to strengthen community journalism and promote government transparency. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded a total of $545,000 to the winners, each of which raised additional matching grants from community-based funders. With $50,000 from Knight and a matching grant from the Boston Foundation, WBUR will establish a statewide education reporting project, Learning Lab. The station partnered with Glass Eye Media, founders of the Homicide Watch D.C. crime blog covering murder cases in the District of Columbia, to develop the idea.