The public stations in Austin, Texas, honored public broadcasting pioneer Robert Schenkkan over the weekend with a celebration of his 90th birthday, reports the Austin American-Statesman. Schenkkan helped to create Austin’s KUT-FM and KLRU-TV, and also defended public broadcasting against a defunding threat from President Nixon in the 1970s. “Bob Schenkkan is a hero to me and everybody else in public broadcasting,” said Jim Lehrer. “He gave us life and then he saved us.”

Longtime Pacifica host and reporter Larry Bensky announced last week that he will retire from the network at the end of April. In his farewell letter, he cites frustration with the state of the network: “As I see it, the so-called ‘democratization’ of our local and national governance structure has not enhanced our effectiveness as a media outlet, or as a force for peace and social justice. In fact, despite the best intentions of a few people involved, Pacifica’s current governance and administration is a wasteful, counterproductive, and far from transparent distraction.”

Public radio’s Open Source has received a $250,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support its integration of radio and the Web. “If you’re not familiar with Radio Open Source, this is an approach worth at least serious consideration, and perhaps outright emulation, by broadcasters elsewhere,” writes Poynter blogger Amy Gahran.

The Public Radio Program Directors Association has started a blog.

Media consultant Amy Gahran asks why most public broadcasters don’t allow their web visitors to donate via PayPal: “Seems to me that Paypal [is] a friendlier, less intrusive way to start and build a donor relationship than forcing people to labor through a form and immediately become a member.”

A longtime volunteer host on Maine Public Radio has silenced himself after network execs disapproved of his politically flavored commentary, reports Village Soup. “The guidelines set me up so I have to fail,” the host says. “If I don’t say anything, they can’t get rid of me.”

The Public Radio Exchange has launched the website for its Public Radio Talent Quest. (More on the Talent Quest.)

In a memo to his newsroom, Los Angeles Times Editor Jim O’Shea describes this week’s installment of Frontline‘s “News War” as “simplistic and excessively negative.” The documentary, which aired on Tuesday, examined the newspaper’s struggle to continue covering national news as shareholders press for lower costs and higher profits. [Via Romenesko]

PBS Teachers, a web portal serving up educational content from both PBS and local stations, went live today. The site includes a new guest-hosted blog, Media Infusion.

Sue Schardt shares thoughts inspired by last week’s Integrated Media Association and Beyond Broadcast conferences. “This was the first time I’d heard so many people admitting — in the halls, not on the podiums — that they’re afraid,” she writes.

Merlin Mann shares five terrible fake pledge-week specials. “Surviving members of every 50s doo-wop band fight to the death with clubs — shirtless and totally coked-up — in massive Thunderdome-like arena.”

PubTV groups that received three big federal Ready to Teach grants are paying substantial sums to for-profit subcontractors, Education Week (registration required) reports in tomorrow’s issue. Mary Ann Zehr’s article doesn’t criticize the decisions but points to them as examples of increased outsourcing to for-profit researchers. PBS and WNET both turned to Hezel Associates for evaluation of their edtech projects; the Syracuse, N.Y., company is expected to bill $8 million total. Rocky Mountain PBS is subcontracting $1.75 million or about 35 percent of its grant to Digital Directions International. In contrast, Education Week says, Alabama PTV subcontracted to nonprofits EDC and Boston College.

The broadcast tower of Iowa Public Radio’s KHKE-FM collapsed recently, falling prey to “an inch-think coating of ice and 30-40 mile per hour winds,” says IPR’s Todd Mundt. The network is putting up an interim low-power antenna while it determines how to pay for rebuilding.

Listeners to WFAE-FM in Charlotte, N.C., spend more time with their station than listeners to any other station in the country, reports the Charlotte Observer. They listen to WFAE an average of 7.8 hours a week. Miami’s WLRN is second with a Time Spent Listening index of 7.3 hours.

In a stunning and suspensefully narrow turn of events, dog owners outpledged cat owners in this year’s Pet Wars event on Montana Public Radio, winning by just 13 votes. The cats won last year by 32 votes, reports the Great Falls Tribune.