Bill Siemering, an early organizer of National Public Radio and its first program director, looks back on his career in an email interview with University of Chicago Professor David Galenson on Huffington Post. Siemering recalls his earliest memories of radio: “In the two-room country school outside of Madison, Wis., twice a day the teacher turned on WHA, the ‘oldest station in the nation’ at the University of Wisconsin and we’d listen to programs from the Wisconsin School of the Air. Prepared with an instructor’s manual, our teacher guided us through science, nature, social studies, music and art all by radio. From first grade on, I regarded radio as a source of information and imagination.”

House Republican Don Young, the 39-year veteran representative from Alaska’s at-large district and a longtime backer of public broadcasting, told the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board of directors Tuesday that the field would be more likely to find support in Congress if it presented itself in a more effective manner to its Hill critics. To strengthen public broadcasting’s case, Young stressed the importance of communicating directly with elected officials rather than staff members, and recommended emphasizing the extent to which public broadcasting relies on private funds and donations. “Can we help you? Yes. But you’re going to have to have a better selling program on the Hill,” Young said on the second day of the CPB board meeting, after declaring, “I am a Republican and I support public broadcasting.”

Patricia Cahill is the new chair of the CPB Board, with Elizabeth Sembler as vice chair. The two were elected to the one-year terms by the board at its meeting today (Sept. 11) in Washington, D.C. Cahill, who lives in Kansas City, Mo., was appointed to the board by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in August 2009. She previously served as vice chair. She has worked in pubradio for more than 40 years, retiring earlier this year as g.m. of KCUR-FM in Kansas City. Cahill also was a member of the board of directors for NPR, and is a past-president of Public Radio in Mid America.

Kentucky Educational Television is partnering with Eastern Kentucky University as it offers students a chance to speak with astronauts aboard the International Space Station early next yer. NASA selected the university as one of only six downlink sites for the Jan. 11, 2013, event, which will take place at the school’s STEM-H (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and health) Institute. KET will make the session available through its online resources for teachers and students, and will produce related digital learning resources. “KET’s participation in the downlink and surrounding activities will strengthen existing partnerships and open up new possibilities,” said Jaleh Rezaie, the STEM-H Institute’s interim executive director.

Masterpiece has a new national corporate sponsor, Ralph Lauren. It’s the first time the American design firm is underwriting a pubTV program. Sponsorship messages will begin on Sept. 30 on Upstairs Downstairs. The company is planning to create unique spots for the various titles in the Masterpiece series. “To have Ralph Lauren choose Masterpiece as their first TV sponsorship is an incredible tribute to our series,” said Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton at WGBH Boston. David Lauren, e.v.p. of advertising for Ralph Lauren Corp., said they are “proud to be associated with Masterpiece and public television.” Masterpiece lost its longtime underwriter, Exxon Mobile, in 2004.

The FCC is circulating internally its framework for upcoming spectrum auctions, with a vote on the recommendations expected at its Sept. 28 public meeting. Chair Julius Genachowski said in a statement that the commission “is poised to take an important step toward pioneering the world’s first incentive auctions and freeing up significant spectrum for mobile broadband.” Congress approved giving the FCC power to conduct the auctions early this year (Current, Feb. 28) to clear bandwidth for the growing number of mobile devices. Each television station may choose among three options: give up entirely its license to broadcast on a TV channel of 6 MHz bandwidth, keep only part of its 6-MHz channel and share the rest with another station, or swap its UHF channel (which wireless companies would want) for a VHF channel (less desirable for digital transmissions).

WUSF Public Media in Tampa, Fla., has acquired Health News Florida, an online nonprofit daily news service that covers health issues statewide, the station announced on Sept. 10. Former Wall Street Journal reporter Carol Gentry founded the site in 2006. Gentry also covered health and medicine for the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) and the Tampa Tribune. “This is such a significant milestone for WUSF Public Media,” said JoAnn Urofsky, WUSF general manager, in the announcement. “Health News Florida will position us as a leader across the state when it comes to reporting on healthcare.

The Association of Public Television Stations and NPR have assumed co-management of the 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting website, which organizes grassroots support for public broadcasting funding. APTS President Pat Butler told the CPB Board at its meeting Monday (Sept. 10) that the two hope to “super-size” the effort by reaching out to other organizations. The site, launched in December 2010, has helped generate hundreds of thousands of emails and calls to Congress to save federal aid for pubcasting. Its original co-managers were APTS and American Public Media. APM told Current in a statement: “APM, APTS and NPR have agreed that NPR and APTS — the national organizations responsible for representing member stations — will now co-lead 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting.

CPB’s financial analysis on alternative funding sources for public broadcasting, prepared by consultants at Booz & Co.  and delivered to Congress in June, has had little impact on lawmakers’ views about continuation of CPB’s annual federal appropriation to date, CPB staff reported during a Sept. 10 board meeting  in Washington, D.C. In the report, analysts for Booz examined a range of options for replacing CPB’s federal aid — from selling commercial advertising to tapping spectrum auction proceeds or selling pay-channel subscriptions, among others. They concluded that withdrawal of federal aid would have a “cascading debilitating effect,” starting first with stations serving rural areas and ultimately leading to collapse of the public broadcasting system.

Did you hear the one about how This American Life host Ira Glass gave an Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter $101 for asking him a question during a Sept. 9 appearance in Portland? Well, there’s a bit more to it than that. The Oregonian has an explanation here.

Israel “Izzi” Smith signs on at NPR in November as director of programming. His predecessor in the job is Eric Nuzum, who was promoted to v.p. of programming earlier this year. Smith has worked as a pubmedia consultant for almost 15 years, helping to introduce and manage programs such as Radiolab, PRX’s The Moth Radio Hour and State of the Re:Union. “Izzi is a true ‘connector,’ always trying to link good ideas, people and stations to serve audiences in bigger, more inclusive ways,” Nuzum wrote in a Sept. 5 memo announcing the hire to NPR staff. Smith’s primary responsibilities will be working with programs as well as on-air fundraising and promotion teams.