Sound Portraits Productions, led by independent radio producer David Isay, has just posted a study guide to be used in classrooms, along with its “Youth Portraits” series of stories.

Dottie Talmage, who managed KVNF-FM in Paonia, Colo., for seven years, died Oct. 28 at the age of 51.

Columnist Mona Charen accuses NPR of being liberal and anti-Israel.

Christopher O’Riley, host of public radio’s From the Top, confesses his admiration of Howard Stern in a Minneapolis Star-Tribune profile.

Independent radio producer Robin White has a website for his documentary Giving Back the Owens.

WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C., upset listeners yesterday when it accidentally rebroadcast a taped show that included “breaking news” about the start of the area’s sniper shootings.

Public radio programmers say a new classical music study will help them improve their service to listeners, according to the latest Eastern Public Radio Newsletter.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the opening of NPR’s West Coast production studios. Hosts Neal Conan and Scott Simon will contribute to NPR’s Nov. 5 election coverage from the new studios.

NPR has promised veteran reporter Daniel Zwerdling another year of work, but colleagues are still asking what management’s decision to eliminate his old job signals about the network’s journalistic priorities. Zwerdling will contribute NPR reports to PBS’s Now with Bill Moyers, taking a job previously held by Emily Harris. Harris is NPR’s new Berlin correspondent. Zwerdling can move into another job if the Now partnership ends, but he says the grant-funded Science Desk opening pays 25 percent less than his current salary. NPR’s Oct. 9 decision to lay off Zwerdling stunned many of his colleagues, who say his highly produced investigative reports embody their journalistic mission.

Gwen Shaffer, a former reporter for WHYY, writes in the Columbia Journalism Review about a “partnership” that compromised environmental reporting at the Philadelphia station.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors adopted this statement in November 2002, according to CPB. I. Local Services and Content Strengthen the value and viability of local stations as essential community institutions by improving their operational effectiveness and fiscal stability, and increasing their capacity to invest in and create sustainable services and content that will advance their local mission. To achieve this Goal, CPB will pursue the following objectives: A. Measure the value of local service as perceived by the intended beneficiaries-Conduct research to understand how various media are used by the audiences stations serve or hope to serve in the future, and how the pattern of use is changing as new platforms and media emerge.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors adopted this statement in November 2002. I. Local Services and Content Strengthen the value and viability of local stations as essential community institutions by improving their operational effectiveness and fiscal stability, and increasing their capacity to invest in and create sustainable services and content that will advance their local mission. To achieve this Goal, CPB will pursue the following objectives: A. Measure the value of local service as perceived by the intended beneficiaries-Conduct research to understand how various media are used by the audiences stations serve or hope to serve in the future, and how the pattern of use is changing as new platforms and media emerge.

Public radio journalist Jeremy Scahill is now in Baghdad producing IraqJournal.org. Some of his pieces are also airing on Democracy Now!.

Online petitioners are urging NPR to fire reporter Nancy Marshall after she reported that only 10,000 protestors marched against war in Iraq Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C. Marshall’s figure falls far short of numbers provided by police and organizers, who estimated a turnout of somewhere between 75,000 and 200,000. You can hear Marshall’s report. [Via randomWalks.]

“PBS president Pat Mitchell refuses to pledge allegiance to pledge drives” in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Gail Shister. This isn’t the first time a PBS president questioned the tactics that stations use to generate viewer contributions, and not the first time that Mitchell has discussed her concerns with the press.