Here’s a bit of positive news during this ominous economic time. A huge increase in grant support enabled WGBH to have a very strong ’08. Grant commitments grew year-to-year a hefty 70 percent to $121.8 million, from $71.7 million, as of Aug. 31, 2008. Many were PBS grants; its commitments to WGBH jumped to $83.8 million in 2008, from $28.3 million in ’07. “We had our best year in a long time last year,” Ben Godley, WGBH executive v.p., told The Boston Business Journal.

Marketplace Morning Report host Scott Jagow is departing as on-air host to become lead blogger for the APM show’s website. He’ll also be host of its weekly podcast, After the Bell.

“When you reach the end of an experience, it is right to ask, ‘What have I learned?’ ” mulls Weekend America host John Moe. “And after five years of shows, fair question. What I’ve learned is patriotism.” Read the rest of his comments bidding farewell to the APR show and its listeners.

Vivian Schiller, NPR’s new c.e.o., tells the American Journalism Review in a profile that her career as a tour guide in the Soviet Union prepared her for managing at media companies. “I think when I retire I’m going to write a book called Everything I Know I Learned as a Tour Guide, including how to lead the conga line.” On the subject of NPR’s future, she says: “I’ve been proselytizing a little bit about the incredible opportunity that NPR has that no other media organization has, to create a constellation of hyperlocal sites that provide inhabitants of communities with national news, local news and information tools for their communities.

In a speech to FCC staff (PDF) this week, Acting Chairman Michael Copps stressed cooperation within the agency and transparency for the public. “The spectrum is theirs and the rest of us are stewards,” he said. In the weeks ahead, he later added, “our three most important priorities will be, as you have heard me say already, DTV, DTV and DTV.” However, he also said, “At this point, we will not have — we cannot have — a seamless DTV transition,” due to “a patchwork of disjointed efforts.”

NPR’s Juan Williams is “America’s most two-faced senior black correspondent,” writes Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman. (The “senior black correspondent” bit is a borrowed Daily Show joke.) Norman notes that on Fox News, Williams has joined the chorus of alarmist voices criticizing Michelle Obama. “Ironically, Williams probably considers his slander a form of racial tough love,” Norman writes. “I wonder if he secretly believes that knocking the first lady will earn him an invitation to the next soiree the president has with conservative commentators.”

At least one senator is fairly certain the DTV delay House bill will pass next week. Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar is a supporter of the date change from Feb. 17 to June 12. “This is more than just about just watching TV for fun,” she told C-SPAN’s Communicators series on Jan. 30.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is hosting an online discussion, Planning Special Events During a Recession, at noon on Feb. 3. Possible topics: How can you make your event seem worthwhile in the current economy? What steps can you take to promote your event? What can you do to ensure that an event’s participants will become active donors and volunteers? Stop by to post your questions, a transcript will be available after the discussion.

Do you know a terrific public radio engineer? Nominate him or her for the annual Engineering Achievement Award, presented by the Association of Professional Radio Engineers. Former honorees include the late Wayne Hetrich, one of NPR’s 30 original employees. The honor will be presented at the annual NPR Labs/APRE Engineering Dinner in Las Vegas later this year. Deadline for nominations is March 1.

Dusty and the Big Bad World, a play by Cusi Cram, writer for the PBS Kids series Arthur, opened last night in Denver. The satire, billed as “a wildly humorous story about bigotry and the censorship of ‘Dusty,’ a public television children’s series about a dust ball,” was inspired by Cram’s experience with “Buster-gate,” the national controversy about a segment of the Arthur spinoff Postcards from Buster that featured a girl in Vermont with two gay moms. PBS dropped the episode but many stations still aired it. In the play, the magic dust ball is caught between liberal and conservative forces and his pubTV producer has to choose between sacrificing her principles and keeping the show on the air.

The former accounting manager at WGBH-TV in Boston is facing charges of embezzling nearly $500,000 from the station. Philip McCabe, who worked at the station from 1987 to 2007, allegedly used the station’s money to pay personal bills over a nine-year period. He is charged with two counts of making false entries in corporate books and two counts of larceny over $250, according to the state attorney general’s office.

RGV Educational Broadcasting Inc., in Harlingen, Texas, may lose the $700,000 annual grant it receives to run KMBH-TV and KMBH/KHID-FM. William Gillette of the CPB Inspector General’s office told the board of directors on Jan. 26 that in more than 20 years in operation, it hasn’t formed community advisory groups, a federal requirement for PBS and NPR stations. The IG’s office also said that Monsignor Pedro Briseño, KMBH’s president, CEO and g.m., had been signing documents for years stating that the stations were complying with federal laws. For background, see Current’s May 2008 story.

President Barack Obama’s $800 billion-plus economic stimulus package has passed the House. The bill includes around $6 billion funding for broadband improvement and building-out projects. Senate passage could come as early as next week.

The House has voted down a bill that would have delayed the DTV transition date until June 12, The Associated Press reports. The vote, 258-168, fell short of the two-thirds threshold needed for passage. GOP legislators contend a delay would confuse consumers as well as trouble wireless companies and public safety agencies waiting to use their incoming spectrum. The Senate unanimously approved the bill on Jan. 26.

CPB has canceled its annual National Leaders Meeting after hearing that many of the invited professional and lay leaders would not be able to attend in March because of fiscal problems. “Clearly, it is not the time for ‘business as usual,’” CPB President Pat Harrison wrote to invitees. CPB will go online to achieve some of the meeting’s objectives, she said. Participants in a two-hour online “dynamic inquiry” will discuss how public service media can most effectively serve the public. The meeting had been scheduled for March 18-20 in Washington, D.C.