Want to ask questions of the Space Shuttle Endeavour crew? PBS NewsHour, Google and YouTube are teaming up to give viewers that opportunity. The astronauts will respond to questions submitted by the public in a live interview to be moderated by NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien at 2 p.m. Eastern May 2 (subject to change, of course, as weather or technical problems could delay the launch or interview). Participants may submit video or text questions by following a link at the show’s website, clicking “submit a question” on its YouTube Channel, or sending a Tweet using the hashtag #utalk2nasa.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) board, meeting in Washington in two weeks, will probably decide to go ahead with plans to develop a new standard for TV broadcasting in the next five to 10 years, reports TVNewsCheck’s Harry Jessell. That will enable stations to broadcast more programming, more reliably to more places. But for viewers, it probably will also mean another messy transition similar to the June 2009 switch from analog to digital. Jim Kutzner, PBS’s chief engeineer and the ATSC’s next-gen planning committee, says it’s time. “If you don’t start now, many years down the road you’ll be in the same place.”

Frontline is concentrating on repositioning the investigative show for a “post-broadcast future,” reporting and packaging information in a multiplatform, digital-centered way. “As we expand to a year-round series and publish on more platforms — print, broadcast, radio, online — it’s become a whole new game,’’ Executive Producer David Fanning told the Boston Globe in a story today (April 26). They’re working to retool the show’s content for devices like the iPad while breaking news 24/7. “Taking weeks or months to polish a story will no longer be the norm,” the paper noted.

CPB’s older sister in the federal grantmaking world, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, died a month ago in the midst of the federal budget upheaval and finally posted its own obit yesterday, saying it will continue to monitor past grants to make sure grantees fulfill their obligations. Ellen Rocco, g.m. of North Country Public Radio, says PTFP gave vital assistance to the regional broadcaster, which now covers the northern, rural one-third of New York state with 33 transmitters: “We simply couldn’t have done it without them,” Rocco wrote in her blog today. “Or, it would have taken several decades longer, so perhaps people in Old Forge or Newcomb or Glens Falls would be waiting until 2020 to hear our station.”

KCET has completed the sale of its historic Sunset Boulevard studio lot to the Church of Scientology for an undisclosed sum. Al Jerome, president of the station that left PBS in January, said it will remain on the property for another year.

PBS and NPR were among news outlets that gave the Storify website a test run before its public launch today (April 25), according to the New York Times. Storify is one of several new sites (including Storyful and  Tumblr) that are developing ways to help journalists sift through online content and publish the most relevant information. NPR Twitter guru Andy Carvin, who recently drew raves from the online world for his social networking coverage of revolutions in the Middle East and northern Africa, first used Storify to cover the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in January. “It quickly evolved into looking at how people were discussing the media coverage surrounding it and its potential political impact,” Carvin, senior strategist on NPR’s social media desk, told the Times.

WNET in New York City has submitted a bid to manage the television side of the New Jersey Network, “and is expecting to hear back next week,” the Wall Street Journal is reporting (third item).The network has been in play since last year (Current, July 6, 2010), when Gov. Chris Christie decided the state must end its $11 million subsidy due to budget constraints. The Journal says other pubcasting stations interested in the network include WHYY in Philadelphia, and local groups such as WBGO, the Newark NPR affiliate. Transfer of NJN has been set for July 1.

    April 25, 2011 PTFP to Shutdown Grant Round CancelledOn April 15, 2011, the President signed Public Law 112-10, The Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, which provided no funding for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) in Fiscal Year 2011. As a result, NTIA will not process applications it has received or award any additional grants under the PTFP. NTIA has begun the orderly shutdown of PTFP and will destroy copies of all applications received for the FY 2011 grant round upon the shutdown of the program. NTIA will continue to monitor PTFP grants it has previously awarded to ensure that taxpayer funds are utilized in the most responsible and efficient manner.

Louisville Public Media’s WFPL is replacing its local midday talk program State of Affairs with Here & Now, the nationally syndicated show from WBUR in Boston. With the switch, WFPL plans to put more emphasis on in-depth news reporting and interviews that can be aired within Here & Now and other national programs. The local news inserts “will be sort of like State of Affairs interviews except they will be a little shorter,” Todd Mundt, chief content officer, tells the Louisville Courier-Journal. “This allows us to delve into topics that maybe wouldn’t get an hour but they’re still important.”

NPR News is reporting new details about detainees from the U.S. military’s Guantanamo Bay prison. A series of investigative reports, mined from secret documents leaked last year to WikiLeaks, were published last night on NPR.org; NPR correspondents Tom Gjelten, Dina Temple-Raston and Margot Williams will report more findings on NPR News programs throughout the day. The New York Times, which received the cache of classified military documents from an anonymous source, shared them with NPR. Huffington Post reports behind-the-scenes details of the race among major news outlets to publish their findings from the WikiLeaks Gitmo documents. Both the New York Times and NPR benefited from the expertise of Margot Williams, a former Times reporter now working in NPR’s investigations unit.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors has elected David Ensor, former NPR reporter, as the new director of Voice of America (VOA). Ensor’s more than 30-year career includes reporting for the All Things Considered team in the 1970s, along with a winning a National Headliner award. He’s been director of communications and public diplomacy for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, since January 2010 and will join VOA in June.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of American Public Media’s The Splendid Table, will now also contribute to the Huffington Post. She’ll write a weekly question-and-answer column for readers looking for culinary advice.

Bill McCarter, president and g.m. of WTTW/Channel 11 in Chicago for 27 years before retiring in 1998, died of complications from cancer Thursday (April 21). He was 81. Dan Schmidt, who succeeded McCarter as president and c.e.o. of Window to the World Communications, told his staff in an email Friday: “Bill left an indelible mark on WTTW, WFMT and public media nationally,” according to Chicago media columnist Robert Feder. Before joining WTTW, McCarter ran WETA-TV in Washington, D.C., and was chairman of the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS). He also spent time at WHYY in Philadelphia and WNET in New York.

KQED is offering quite the thank-you gift to listeners: A Pledge-Free Stream. Beginning today (April 21), fans who donate at least $45 online before May 5 will receive access to a special programming stream to listen to KQED Public Radio on a computer or smartphone without interruption for the duration of the May fund drive. “This is, we hope, only a step toward alternative funding models that generate significant donor revenue and enable uninterrupted access to great programming,” Donald Derheim, station c.o.o., said in a statement. “We’re hopeful that what KQED does here in the Bay Area will spread everywhere to the benefit of public radio listeners around the world.”

Vivian Schiller may no longer be president of NPR, but that isn’t stopping her from making news with her views on public radio. “You are now competing in the big leagues and are no longer the scrappy underdog,” she said, addressing her remarks to former colleagues during a speech at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center Wednesday (April 20). “You must become your own disruptors. If you don’t aggressively reach out to new audiences on new platforms, someone else will. There is no such thing as lasting media loyalty, especially in this age of media promiscuity.” She also said public radio needs to “let go of the nostalgia” of the craft.