From 1,452, now there are 10. And they’re hot to talk. The online casting call created by Public Radio Exchange — part of CPB’s Public Radio Talent Quest — last week announced 10 finalists who advance to Round 2 of its nationwide competition to find new pubradio hosts. Each finalist gets $500, a blog and another chance to demonstrate what PRX calls “hostiness.” The competition at www.publicradioquest.com will intensify at each step in the contest ahead, although it was no breeze to survive the first round with more than 1,400 contestants. Since its start in April, the contest has become something of an obsession for many participants, keeping the site abuzz with interactivity, with some posting comments in haiku and limericks.

Public Radio Talent Quest announced 10 semi-finalists in its contest for new pubradio on-air talent. Contestants whose entries received the most online votes are compiled here and the judges’ favorites are here.

WETA-FM’s recent switch to an all-classical music format is paying off big time, the Washington Post reports.

Commissioners Kevin Martin (chairman) and Michael Copps aren’t happy about today’s court action. “I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that ‘shit’ and ‘fuck’ are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience,” Martin said in a statement. Copps warned that any broadcaster “who sees this decision as a green light to send more gratuitous sex and violence into our homes would be making a huge mistake.”

In potential tide-turning win for broadcasters, a federal appeals court in New York threw out FCC profanity rulings against Fox and ordered the commission to provide better justification for its controversial “fleeting expletives” policy, Broadcasting & Cable reports (PDF of ruling here). The decision was narrow in focus but casts broader doubt on the legal sustainability of the FCC’s holding that “fuck,” “shit” and their derivatives are presumptively indecent, regardless of context. The commissioners first staked out that position in the 2004 Bono decision, which, coupled with Congress’ later ten-fold fine level hike, left broadcasters more skittish than ever about airing edgy content (related story and timeline).

Faith Salie’s quick humor and willingness to express astonishment Valley-Girl style (‘Oh my God!’) gives Fair Game a “loosey-goosey” unpublic radio sensibility, according to the New York Times.

Youth Radio‘s recent move into new headquarters allows the organization to pursue plans to expand its media training program and production output, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Don’t miss your chance to vote in the first round of Public Radio Talent Quest, an online search for new on-air hosts. Voting closes tomorrow, June 2.

Non-profit leaders in Salt Lake City, including KPCW-FM founder Blair Feulner, have “figured out a way to get rich running companies that don’t make money,” writes Salt Lake Tribune columnist Rebecca Walsh. “The United Way scandal it’s not. But it’s similar.” In 2005, Feulner was paid nearly $180,000 while the station ran a $600,000 deficit and its “low-wage journalists . . . [begged] for listener donations” twice a year.

Deutsche Welle, Germany’s overeseas broadcaster, now offers “DW-TV News” one-minute hourly newscasts for cellphones in English or German, the Association for International Broadcasting reports. It offered phonecast updates on World Cup soccer in 30 languages. Click for DW’s download or streamed video. Some U.S. pubcasters are reaching toward mobile audiences, Current found last year.

New York’s WNET, Twin Cities PTV and WNED in Buffalo, NY, are among the most recent winners of National Endowment for the Humanities grants, the agency announced today. The grants to 118 applicants total $17.5 million.

NPR and other webcasters asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit court to a stay the controversial royalty hike a panel of federal copyright judges ordered in March, Variety and others report. (See also, the Radio and Internet Newsletter.) The new rates are scheduled to go into effect in July. NPR also filed an affidavit on behalf of public radio claiming that most pubradio stations are not able to make the calculations required by the proposed per-performance standard. On Wednesday (5/30) the network notified the court that it would appeal the copyright board’s decision. “It is crucial that relief be provided because in only 45 days – and counting – public radio stations which reach a broad audience will be forced to operate under commercial broadcaster rules and pay commercial-level royalties, and we still have no idea how much that amount is or even how to calculate it,” spokeswoman Andi Sporkin said in a statement.

Peggy Girshman, managing editor of NPR’s Newsroom of the Future, has taken a new job at Congressional Quarterly, according to an internal memo posted on Mediabistro. Earlier this month, CQ hired Bruce Drake, former NPR News v.p., to run its consumer publishing business.

Open Source’s appeal for listener donations prompted blogger Doc Searls of Linux Journal to write about the hassles involved in contributing to public media. Searls heads a Berkman Center project that is looking for ways to “short-circuit” the flow of listener contributions through public stations.

Open Source, the innovative two-year-old show that melds traditional radio with online interactivity, posted an S.O.S. appealing to fans for financial support last week. “We love what we’ve built with you here,” wrote host Christopher Lydon. “We need your help to keep this community alive.” The show lost its major backer, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, last year and has been struggling financially since, reports the Boston Globe.