Public broadcasting stations are getting into the action with musical and tasty bets on Sunday’s Superbowl XLVII, which pits the Baltimore Ravens against the San Francisco 49ers. WTMD-FM in Towson, Md., has “thrown down the pigskin” to KALW-FM in San Francisco, in what GM Steve Yasko is calling “the biggest musical bet in football history!” If the Ravens win, KALW promises to play Baltimore bands at the end of local news programming for a week. If the 49ers are victorious, WTMD will air bands from the City by the Bay during its Live Lunch for one week. “Not only do we have the better football team,” Yasko brags, “we got the bigger, better Bay.”

Amazon announced today it has struck a deal with PBS to make its online video streaming service, Prime Instant Video, the exclusive subscription streaming outlet for Downton Abbey. Beginning June 18, Prime Instant Video will be the only subscription streaming service where viewers will be able to watch Season 3 of the smash Masterpiece Classic program. The first and second seasons of the show are currently available on Amazon as well as on rival subscription streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, but will migrate exclusively to Prime on an unspecified date “later this year,” according to a press release from Amazon.

The former executive director of Oregon’s Jefferson Public Radio has filed a lawsuit against Southern Oregon University and the Oregon University System alleging blacklisting and breach of contract in his March 2012 dismissal, among other claims. SOU dismissed longtime JPR chief Ron Kramer after a university audit found a conflict of interest between his roles as both head of JPR and as executive director of the JPR Foundation, a related nonprofit that had undertaken restoration of historic properties. Yet the university had previously approved of Kramer’s dual role, the lawsuit claims. According to the lawsuit, SOU first proposed in February 2012 that Kramer should resign as executive director of the Foundation.

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler is weighing in on the controversy over an underwriter on Nova’s recent program, Rise of the Drones. Earlier this week, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) complained that the report was sponsored in part by Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the unmanned aircraft. In response, WGBH said it “fully adheres” to funding guidelines. Getler writes in his latest column that he’s received around 700 comments generated by the FAIR “Action Alert.” “In cases such as this one,” he writes, “it always seems to me that it is journalistically proper, and much less costly in the long run, to give transparency the benefit of the doubt — when common sense tells you there might be the perception of a conflict or question — than not to do so.”

Michael Sullivan, a television producer whose name has run near the top of credit rolls of Frontline almost continuously since 1987, has exited the PBS investigative documentary series. His position as executive producer for special projects has been phased out due to a funding shortfall that the series’ top executives describe as temporary. The veteran producer oversaw high-profile titles produced by filmmaker David Sutherland, including The Farmer’s Wife, the 1998 epic documentary series chronicling the struggles of a Nebraska farming family, and Country Boys, the 2006 series following two teenagers growing up in West Virginia. Sullivan also spearheaded work on Sutherland’s latest film, Kind Hearted Woman, to be  co-presented on PBS by Frontline and Independent Lens April 1 and 2.

John Howe, senior producer of the Salt Lake City–based station operated by the University of Utah, won four of KUED’s Emmys: three for Five Rivers Five Voices (environment program/special, photographer and writer) and one for Horses of the West: America’s Love Story (director). Nancy Green, Joe Prokop and Cheryl Niederhauser were honored in the historical documentary category for Utah’s Freedom Riders, while producer Carol Dalrymple won for Climb for Life: A Legacy in the public/current/community affairs program/special category. William Montoya, Bill Gordon and Kevin Sweet received Emmys for audio for Utah Vietnam War Stories: Escalation, while Navigating Freedom, produced for KUED by students from Spy Hop, was tops in the student long form category.

Newman’s Own Foundation, established by actor Paul Newman with proceeds from his line of grocery products, is giving $2.4 million in grants over two years to 13 public broadcasting stations and organizations. Connecticut Public Broadcasting, which Newman considered his local station, will receive $250,000. Getting $200,000 each are American Public Media / Minnesota Public Radio, CPB, KCET in Los Angeles, KCTS in Seattle, NPR, KETC in St. Louis, WNET in New York City and WHYY in Philadelphia. Recipients of $150,000 are Detroit Educational Television Foundation, WPBT in Miami and WSHU in Fairfield, Conn. And $100,000 goes to WAMC in Albany, N.Y.

Voice of OC, the nonprofit investigative news agency in Orange County, Calif., is expanding its partnership with PBS SoCal. Voice of OC Editor-in-Chief Norberto Santana Jr. will appear weekly on KOCE-TV’s news program, Real Orange. “It’s a natural partnership,” said Mike Taylor, news director at PBS SoCal, in the Jan. 17 announcement. Santana said the partners hope to “give the public a front seat at public policy, not only after it’s being made but before it’s being made.” PBS SoCal is the primary PBS member station for Los Angeles, the second-largest media market in the nation. This article was first published in Current, Jan.

Several public-interest media organizations filed comments with the FCC regarding its October 2012 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for spectrum incentive auctions to clear bandwidth for mobile devices. Deadline for input was Jan. 25. The 45-page filing from the Association of Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS stresses that auction rules need to ensure the public’s universal access to television service. It also recommends that licensees have at least three years to complete transition to any new channel assignments; that the FCC take “every reasonable step” to avoid off-air time; and that the agency seek funding from Congress for a public education campaign.

O. Leonard Press, who founded Kentucky Educational Television in 1968 after lobbying the state legislature for 10 years, has received the 2012 Vic Hellard Jr. Award recognizing his distinguished public service. The award lauded Press was for launching innovative live coverage of state General Assembly in 1978 and for his long track record of supporting programming that exemplified the KET tagline, “Bringing Kentucky Together.” “We are so pleased that Len Press is being recognized with this award,” said Shae Hopkins, KET executive director. “Through his vision and hard work, he created and established KET as Kentucky’s only broadcast network and one of the nation’s preeminent public broadcasting services.

The African-American Public Radio Consortium has added a new music show to its line-up of nationally distributed programs. Beginning in mid-March, WKCC in Kankakee, Ill. will syndicate a two-hour version of Friends of the Blues show  co-hosted by volunteer programmers D’Arcy “Shuffle Shoes” Ballinger and James “Dr. Skyy Dobro” Walker. The program is offered free to AAPRC through the PRSS ContentDepot. WKCC began exploring a distribution partnership with APPRC after the Public Radio Super Regional conference last November, said Mike Savage, g.m.  “There was a big push for collaboration and I thought, ‘Instead of contacting stations individually maybe I should look for a group that can reach out to many stations,” Savage said.

When Scott Finn begins his new job as executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Feb. 1, he faces an uphill task of re-energizing a network that has been beset over the past several years by funding declines and conflicts over its governance.