During her first appearance at a regional pubradio conference, NPR President Vivian Schiller told station executives that NPR.org should not be perceived as competing with stations, according to PRPD President Arthur Cohen. Addressing station concerns about being “bypassed” by NPR’s digital distribution strategies, Schiller described her goal to build a “constellation” of station websites that combine local news with NPR’s international and national content. Cohen’s blog post from yesterday’s Public Radio in Mid America meeting summarizes Schiller’s observations after her first month in the job and describes “a refreshing enthusiasm and optimism in her tone.”

Stations that want to end analog service by Feb. 17, the original DTV transition date, now have a Feb. 9 deadline to inform the FCC. Stations must also air at least 120 PSA’s between now and Feb. 17 telling viewers of the transition. These rules are contingent on the president’s signature on the date-delay bill, which is expected soon.

Public broadcasting revenue could decline some $418 million in FY09 alone, according to a CPB preliminary report presented at its January meeting in San Francisco (PPT). It estimates a potential drop of $292 million for pubTV (16 percent of revenues) and $126 million for pubradio (13 percent). Some 21 percent of stations with operating budgets under $10 million are considered financially “fragile” in the report; of those, 70 percent are community licensees. CPB’s next board meeting is March 17-18 in Washington; more comprehensive details are expected then.

Worldfocus, the new international news program from WNET/WLIW is “being blamed for deep layoffs at the stations,” reports the New York Times. “Some employees, none of whom would speak publicly for fear of angering management,” blame parent company WNET.org’s spending on the new venture–$8 million, which came from company’s operating budget–for the loss of about 80 jobs two weeks ago. Many of the layoffs were in the local programming department. Neal Shapiro, president of WNET.org, told the Times the layoffs were unrelated to Worldfocus. Instead, he cited declining underwriting and foundation funding as well as a decrease in endowment earnings and member support.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is asking TV stations to “put consumers first” when considering switching from analog to digital before the new deadline of June 12. The senator, who heads up the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said in a statement: “While broadcasters are still permitted to move forward on Feb. 17, and some will do so, I hope that many will think of the needs of their customers and carefully weigh their options. This bill gives them an opportunity to stay the course through to June 12 until more help can be put in place.”

After Congress approved the DTV delay bill, longtime pubcasting supporter Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) former chair of the Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee, told Broadcasting & Cable: “I applaud the passage of this necessary legislation. It is unfortunate that Congress had to take additional action on this issue, but the prospect of leaving millions of consumers in the dark was simply unacceptable. This was a foreseeable problem and should have been anticipated and acknowledged by the Bush administration long ago. However, the Bush administration simply left us with insufficient time to make the needed adjustments on a national basis without this short, one-time delay.

The House has voted to delay the digital TV transition until June 12, reports the Washington Post. President Obama has said he will sign the bill immediately.

Microsoft, Google and Dell are among tech firms collaborating to create a database of occupied channels in the TV white spaces spectrum. The White Spaces Database Group is helping the FCC identify current channels to avoid interference from wireless broadband devices new to the spectrum. Other members of the group: Comsearch, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and NeuStar.

“Our goal right now is nothing less than to completely replace radio with this whole new thing called personalized radio,” said Tim Westergren, chief strategy officer for the online music service Pandora, during an appearance at the monthly Social Media breakfast in Cincinnati. Pandora launched in November 2005 and has yet to earn a profit, Westergren said, but it “now has more listeners in major markets than many large radio stations, according to industry measurements; and the numbers are continuing to skyrocket,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

An investigation continues into the murder of a former public broadcaster, Sheila A. Kline, in Carlisle, Pa. Kline, 45, had worked at WGBH in 1991 and ’92, according to a station spokeswoman. Police say Kline’s body was found by a trash hauler about 6 a.m. Jan. 23 in a downtown alley near a parking garage. An autopsy determined that she had been strangled. Her obituary says was a writer and had worked in production for the Boston station.

More than 60 percent of TV stations could turn off their analog signal before a June 12 deadline without interfering with other signals, and “most” of the remaining stations “may” also be able to do so, acting FCC Chair Michael Copps said in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its Internet and Telecom Subcommittee. Looks like the bill to delay the DTV transition date will be debated — for one hour — before the House on Feb. 4.

WMFE is cutting 15 jobs and canceling The Arts Connection program due to falling revenue. The job losses at the Orlando station are 28 percent of its staff. Station prez Jose Fajardo said departing staffers include a radio reporter, two receptionists, a program scheduler and one person from engineering, membership and finance. The staff also must take two weeks of unpaid leave, and employer-matching retirement funds have been stopped for “the foreseeable future.” Other measures include scaling back janitorial services, cell phones and supplies. It’s the second time in five months the station has laid off staff; in October 2008, 10 positions were hit.

The transcript for Planning Special Events During a Recession, an online chat for nonprofit fundraisers, is now available at The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s website. One question: What, if anything, are you changing about your events specifically because of the recession? Part of the answer from Jim Leighton of the Children’s Cancer Research Fund in Minneapolis: “We need to be sensitive to the fact that in a down economy lavish events may be seen as inappropriate.”

In the Loop, a Minnesota Public Radio show that reviews the week’s news with seriousness and satire, has lost its Friday evening time slot. The show, hosted by Jeff Horwich, will continue as a digital-only podcast and blog. In a posting to Facebook fans, Horwich described some “upsides” to the decision: freedom from deadlines and from worries about turning off “your typical core 55-year-old public radio listener” and “the traditionalists in our own company.” The Twin Cities Daily Planet published Horwich’s explanation to Facebook fans in full and compared the show to the Bryant Park Project, NPR’s short-lived experiment in targeting a “generally younger, less stodgy audience” with multimedia elements and interactivity.

Annoyance is building nationwide over AT&T’s treatment of PEG channels (public, educational, and government). Its U-Verse IPTV system lumps all the public access programming — everything from city council meetings to local middle-school plays — on Channel 99. Viewers then must click to install an application and find their community in a list. The Chicago Tribune says the channels are “consigned to a digital ghetto.” FCC complaints have been filed, and at least one attorney general, in Illinois, is investigating.