The project solicits questions from listeners about Chicago to investigate on-air.

Updated Feb. 13 at 4 p.m. to add KNME-TV among stations impacted. Management at WNMU-TV, a Marquette, Mich.-based pubTV broadcaster, said it had identified the hacker behind a zombie hoax that compromised the Emergency Alert System on that station as well as others in the Upper Peninsula, Montana, New Mexico and parts of Wisconsin. Viewers expecting to see news programming around 4 p.m. on Monday on WNMU were instead treated to an emergency ticker warning that the dead had risen and had begun attacking the living. Another pubcaster, KENW in Portales, N.M., was also hit by the hoax. Pubcasters weren’t the only ones hit, an ABC affiliate in the area also  had its system hacked during the evening broadcast of The Bachelor.

A PBS NewsHour report on population growth and food scarcity in the Philippines prompted an increase in donations to the PATH Foundation Philippines Inc., an organization with a pilot program promoting family planning in rural areas of the Southeast Asian country. The report explored the foundation’s community-based approach of making contraceptives accessible to villagers who want to limit the size of their families. The story, which aired in January 2012, was produced as part of the public media collaborative project Food for 9 Billion, and has also been used by educators to set up discussions of the links between population and the environment.

Unedited interviews with the subjects in Rock & Roll, the acclaimed 1995 PBS series from WGBH and the BBC, are now available online as streaming video, with support from the Grammy Foundation and WGBH Media Library and Archives. More than 26 million viewers watched Rock & Roll when it originally aired over five nights, according to the station. The programs examined rock’s evolution from the 1950s through the ’90s. In a February 2008 update to its 1995 story, Current wrote that the series “contained so many musical clips that the producers apparently didn’t want to spend what it would take to extend their broadcast rights.

KPCC Program Director Craig Curtis is departing Southern California Public Radio after 12 years, according to a station memo posted online by LA Observed. Russ Stanton, KPCC vice president of content, said in the memo that Curtis “oversaw the transformation of KPCC’s programming from its music [and] news format into the 24/7 news and information programming we deliver today.” Curtis’s last day is Friday. Update: Curtis confirmed the news of his departure for Current, saying that the decision to leave was his and that it was “time for a change” at KPCC. “I feel good about where KPCC has come and where it’s headed, and I feel good about me heading out now,” he wrote in an email.

The FCC has “quietly revealed” the methodology it will use for repacking television channels after upcoming spectrum auctions, reports TV Technology. The agency just released a new version of its OET-69 software, called TVStudy, which will perform interference analyses for repacking. OET-69 is based on the Longley-Rice signal propagation model — also known as the irregular terrain model — which TV Technology refers to as “an analog-era methodology that yielded shortcomings when applied after the DTV transition.” And according to Broadcasting & Cable, the National Association of Broadcasters this week expressed concern to the FCC over a proposed change to the Longley-Rice model, which the FCC may update to reflect 2010 Census population data.

As one of the most popular podcasts of all time, Public Radio International’s This American Life has had to deal with its fair share of imitators and parodies over the years, and many other podcasts have appropriated the “This American…” moniker to draw attention to their own audio. On Feb. 5, SF Weekly spotlighted one such effort that was reportedly getting heat from Glass and his attorneys over trademark violation: This American Whore, a podcast covering sex workers’ issues, created in November 2012 by Siouxsie Q, a San Francisco sex worker. Siouxsie Q first tweeted on Feb. 1 that she had been instructed by TAL‘s lawyers to change her podcast’s name within five days.

The gala premiere of Makers: Women Who Make America brought out A-list celebs Wednesday at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. The online/on-air project from PBS and AOL is building an archive of short interviews with dozens of influential women, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,  sex educator Dr. Ruth Westheimer, domestic doyenne Martha Stewart and media maven Oprah Winfrey. The broadcast documentary debuts Feb. 26 on PBS. Luminaries at the gala premiere included feminist activist Gloria Steinem, who inspired series creators Dyllan McGee, Betsy West and Peter Kunhardt to chronicle the influence of the women’s movement; NBC’s Katie Couric; Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates; actresses Kyra Sedgwick and Diahann Carroll and Murphy Brown Director Diane English.

NPR has launched a three-month multimedia marketing campaign that aims to increase audience for stations in four markets around the country. The campaign runs the gamut of media, including billboards, social media and print, TV and digital ads. Participating stations are KERA in Dallas; WFYI in Indianapolis; KPBS in San Diego; and WMFE in Orlando, Fla. NPR chose the stations based on their opportunity to grow audience and their eagerness to work with the network, according to Emma Carrasco, chief marketing officer for NPR. They were also selected for geographic diversity. NPR is backing the campaign with a $750,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, awarded last year.

Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, is holding a free taping of a pilot episode for an experimental radio variety show, Scott Simon’s Wonderful Town. The taping will take place Feb. 26 at the bar Bell House in Brooklyn, N.Y., where NPR’s pub trivia program Ask Me Another is recorded, and will feature comedian Jim Gaffigan, musician Julian Velard and other guests. Tickets are already sold out. NPR spokesperson Emerson Brown told Current the taping is “an experiment,” and that while Simon and the network’s programming staff are likely to tape one more event based on feedback from the Feb.

Andrew Russell, a veteran pubcasting executive with more than 18 years’ experience at both PBS and CPB, is moving to PBS SoCal in Orange County, Calif., as chief operating officer. “Andy brings vast experience in strategic programming content, new business development, and digital, interactive media for public TV and radio, making him the perfect person to help drive our growth and guide our strategic direction,” said PBS SoCal President Mel Rogers said in the announcement. Russell is currently PBS’s senior vice president for strategy and research. He manages audience and content research and strategy for national programming, as well as corporate strategy.