The Minneapolis Star-Tribune profiles Minnesota Public Radio and its president, Bill Kling. (Reg. req.)

Tucker Carlson is apparently spoiling for a rematch with The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart after Friday’s much-publicized live spat on CNN’s Crossfire. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the bow tied commentator has invited the fake newsman to appear on this Friday’s Unfiltered on PBS. “I have a low opinion of the things Jon said, but I’d like to give him a chance to explain it in an environment where he can talk,” Carlson said. No word from Stewart. Comedy Central execs, who said the network has received 12 times the usual amount of e-mail this week as a result of the face-off, doubt Stewart will accept the offer.

CPB has awarded more than $9 million to 133 public radio stations to help them convert to digital broadcasting.

If you missed the Stewart/Carlson bout on Crossfire, Slate‘s Surfergirl links to a video clip of the exchange.

Community leaders in West Palm Beach have coalesced to develop a take-over bid for WXEL, reports the Sun-Sentinel.

PBS and Sesame Workshop share a 30 percent stake in the new digital children’s channel announced today with Comcast and Hit Entertainment, according to the Guardian. The Times reports on why Rob Lawes, the Hit Entertainment chief who forged the partnership, is now leaving the company. Current reported this spring on negotiations to create the channel.

At least half a dozen pubcasters will proceed to the Nov. 3 FCC auction of FM construction permits. The agency has released a list of the broadcasters and their minimum bids (PDF), the CPs they’re pursuing (PDF) and other info.

The Washington Post‘s Lisa de Moraes reports from ringside on the Crossfire slap-down. Part One: Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and PBS’s Tucker Carlson call each other colorful names you’ll only hear on cable TV. Part Two: Robert Novak and James Carville call Stewart “uninformed” and worse on Monday’s Crossfire, and Stewart retorts from The Daily Show.

The Chicago Tribune‘s Steve Johnson reviews Bob Edwards’ new show on XM and also sizes up the changes to Morning Edition since Edwards left. (Reg. req.)

Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times says Bill Moyers, who leaves his PBS show at the end of December, “has used Now as a razor-sharp scythe for laying bare issues rarely scrutinized by his media peers.” Moyers is quoted about the new PBS talk shows hosted by conservatives: “In my 33 years at public broadcasting, it’s the first time I’ve seen shows that were clearly created for ideological reasons.” (Open only to registered seven-day Times subscribers or Calendar Live subscribers.)

“Nearly as splashy, flashy and phantasmagorical as the American art form it celebrates, Broadway: The American Musical is the TV equivalent of a grandly panoramic coffee-table book.” Washington Post critic Tom Shales reviews the six-part mini-series debuting tonight on PBS.

Terry Gross tells the Boston Phoenix that interviewing guests by phone makes it less likely she’ll gush. “I’ve learned the hard way that that’s really not a very productive thing to do,” she says.

“It’s one thing to get knocked off the air by a show that’s better than yours, but it’s another to get knocked off by a show whose only reason to exist is a numbers argument,” says Ira Glass of Weekend America in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. (Reg. req.)

Mark Glaser sizes up podcasting, satellite radio and other technologies that could shape radio’s future, checking in with Public Radio Exchange to boot.

A WXXI exec tells the Rochester City News why his station won’t carry Pacifica’s Democracy Now: “On our air, it would be swaying our balance. Our integrity as an alternative, non-polarized station would be harmed.”