A House subcommittee is proposing that CPB take $100 million from its fiscal year 2004 appropriation of $380 million to pay for digital conversion and public TV’s new interconnection system. CPB says that would result in a possible 26 percent cut in operating grants to public TV and radio stations.

Tavis Smiley’s NPR show has taken off, but some listeners who aren’t black feel excluded. Network ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin considers their complaints.

The Onion reports that a college-radio DJ in Illinois believes he has a huge fan base. “Though ‘Rock Blossom’ is heard mainly by his girlfriend and a handful of friends who request songs while they get stoned, Haley said his show is distinctive because of his personality,” the paper says.

NPR and WOI Radio in Iowa will co-sponsor a radio-only debate with the Democratic presidential candidates Jan. 6, 2004.

The Pacifica radio network has begun moving back to its spiritual home of Berkeley, reports the Daily Planet.

The foundation of KBPS-FM in Portland, Ore., will buy its independence from the city’s school board. Public Radio Capital, which represented the station’s foundation during negotiations, was profiled earlier this year in Corporate Board Member.

The FCC should force commercial broadcasters to fund their local public brethren, argues Rich Hanley on MSNBC.com.

The new head of drama for Britain’s Channel Four plans to reposition the broadcaster as the “punk rock star” of TV drama, shifting away from big-budget period epics, reports the Guardian.

“Sure, Reading Rainbow is good for you, but is it any good?” A Seattle mother writing for the New York Times thinks so.

Filmmaker Michael Moore unexpectedly chipped in to help KVMR-FM in Nevada City, Calif., raise some cash during its fund drive. (Last item.)

There’s hope for public broadcasting in the upwelling of citizen opposition to FCC deregulation of commercial TV, broadcast historian Robert McChesney said in a keynote address at the PBS Annual Meeting June 7. “It’s this movement of an aroused and engaged citizenry that really is the future that will genuinely expand and enhance public-service media in the United States,” McChesney asserted. Dereg became a matter of public debate as the FCC adopted new rules June 2, loosening limits on station ownership. A single company can now own stations reaching up to 45 percent of the country’s population, up from 35 percent (and the real reach permitted is greater, since the FCC by policy counts only half of UHF viewers).

Portland’s KBPS is moving to buy its FM station from the city’s public schools for $5.5 million. The school board will vote on the sale Monday.

WMHT in Schenectady laid off four on-air radio staff yesterday in an effort to break even financially. The station had already laid off 16 employees last month.

Maryland’s Salisbury University will not sell WSCL-FM, but wants to strengthen the public radio station’s ties to campus, reports the Salisbury Daily Times. A university English teacher says WSCL has been “snobbish” and “stand-offish,” the paper reported.

WYPR-FM in Baltimore has grown since buying its independence from Johns Hopkins University a year ago, but has it been at a cost? “Public radio is increasingly treating its listeners as consumers, including at WYPR,” says consultant John Sutton in The Baltimore Sun.