KPCC Program Director Craig Curtis is departing Southern California Public Radio after 12 years, according to a station memo posted online by LA Observed. Russ Stanton, KPCC vice president of content, said in the memo that Curtis “oversaw the transformation of KPCC’s programming from its music [and] news format into the 24/7 news and information programming we deliver today.” Curtis’s last day is Friday. Update: Curtis confirmed the news of his departure for Current, saying that the decision to leave was his and that it was “time for a change” at KPCC. “I feel good about where KPCC has come and where it’s headed, and I feel good about me heading out now,” he wrote in an email.

The FCC has “quietly revealed” the methodology it will use for repacking television channels after upcoming spectrum auctions, reports TV Technology. The agency just released a new version of its OET-69 software, called TVStudy, which will perform interference analyses for repacking. OET-69 is based on the Longley-Rice signal propagation model — also known as the irregular terrain model — which TV Technology refers to as “an analog-era methodology that yielded shortcomings when applied after the DTV transition.” And according to Broadcasting & Cable, the National Association of Broadcasters this week expressed concern to the FCC over a proposed change to the Longley-Rice model, which the FCC may update to reflect 2010 Census population data.

As one of the most popular podcasts of all time, Public Radio International’s This American Life has had to deal with its fair share of imitators and parodies over the years, and many other podcasts have appropriated the “This American…” moniker to draw attention to their own audio. On Feb. 5, SF Weekly spotlighted one such effort that was reportedly getting heat from Glass and his attorneys over trademark violation: This American Whore, a podcast covering sex workers’ issues, created in November 2012 by Siouxsie Q, a San Francisco sex worker. Siouxsie Q first tweeted on Feb. 1 that she had been instructed by TAL‘s lawyers to change her podcast’s name within five days.

The gala premiere of Makers: Women Who Make America brought out A-list celebs Wednesday at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. The online/on-air project from PBS and AOL is building an archive of short interviews with dozens of influential women, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,  sex educator Dr. Ruth Westheimer, domestic doyenne Martha Stewart and media maven Oprah Winfrey. The broadcast documentary debuts Feb. 26 on PBS. Luminaries at the gala premiere included feminist activist Gloria Steinem, who inspired series creators Dyllan McGee, Betsy West and Peter Kunhardt to chronicle the influence of the women’s movement; NBC’s Katie Couric; Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates; actresses Kyra Sedgwick and Diahann Carroll and Murphy Brown Director Diane English.

NPR has launched a three-month multimedia marketing campaign that aims to increase audience for stations in four markets around the country. The campaign runs the gamut of media, including billboards, social media and print, TV and digital ads. Participating stations are KERA in Dallas; WFYI in Indianapolis; KPBS in San Diego; and WMFE in Orlando, Fla. NPR chose the stations based on their opportunity to grow audience and their eagerness to work with the network, according to Emma Carrasco, chief marketing officer for NPR. They were also selected for geographic diversity. NPR is backing the campaign with a $750,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, awarded last year.

Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, is holding a free taping of a pilot episode for an experimental radio variety show, Scott Simon’s Wonderful Town. The taping will take place Feb. 26 at the bar Bell House in Brooklyn, N.Y., where NPR’s pub trivia program Ask Me Another is recorded, and will feature comedian Jim Gaffigan, musician Julian Velard and other guests. Tickets are already sold out. NPR spokesperson Emerson Brown told Current the taping is “an experiment,” and that while Simon and the network’s programming staff are likely to tape one more event based on feedback from the Feb.

Andrew Russell, a veteran pubcasting executive with more than 18 years’ experience at both PBS and CPB, is moving to PBS SoCal in Orange County, Calif., as chief operating officer. “Andy brings vast experience in strategic programming content, new business development, and digital, interactive media for public TV and radio, making him the perfect person to help drive our growth and guide our strategic direction,” said PBS SoCal President Mel Rogers said in the announcement. Russell is currently PBS’s senior vice president for strategy and research. He manages audience and content research and strategy for national programming, as well as corporate strategy.

Up against the ratings powerhouse that was Super Bowl XLVII — PBS’s Downton Abbey not only held its own, but came in second place for the night. PBS and WGBH cited Nielsen Overnight data in reporting that Downton drew a 4.4 household rating Feb. 3.  Average audience ratings for the first five episodes of Season 3 of the Masterpiece Classic miniseries have been 72 percent larger than the viewership of the first five episodes of Season 2, which aired last winter. Nielsen said the Super Bowl, which the Baltimore Ravens won over the San Francisco 49ers, was viewed by an estimated 108.4 million people, making it the third most-watched program in U.S.

PBS “struck social media gold” Sunday night when it tweeted during the Super Bowl’s half-hour power outage that viewers should switch to Downton Abbey instead, reports Paid Content, a site that covers online business models. The tweet read: “This might be a good time think about alternative programming. #SuperBowlBlackOut #WeHaveDowntonPBS.” Kevin Dando, PBS’s director of digital marketing and communications, told the site that the timing was perfect, because the weekly online Downton discussion was taking place. As soon as Dando tweeted the suggestion, “within seconds, we saw hundreds, then thousands, of retweets.” It quickly became one of PBS’s top two re-tweeted posts.

This post was updated at 4:50 p.m. on Feb. 4 Marketplace Senior Business Correspondent Bob Moon is leaving the American Public Media show after his position was eliminated in a budget-cutting move, according to a memo released to Current. Moon, a 12-year veteran with the public radio series covering business and finance news, has served as an occasional fill-in host for Marketplace, Marketplace Morning Report and Marketplace Money. Before joining the Los Angeles-based production in 2000, Moon covered international news for The Associated Press for 20 years; he also served as White House correspondent for the wire service’s broadcast division.

Royal Aills, a former station manager of Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA), is the new general manager of KRSC-TV at Rogers State University in Claremore, Okla. He begins work Feb. 18. He replaces Dan Schiedel, who is now executive director of OETA. Aills spent seven years at OETA, from 1988 through 2005. Since then, he’s worked as general manager of KWBH-TV and the Faith Channel, both Tulsa religious broadcasters. Most recently he was a sales executive with Cox Communications. Branded as RSU-TV, it is one of only six non-PBS member public TV stations nationwide that receive CPB funding, and is the only full-powered pubTV station licensed to a public university in Oklahoma.