Here’s a look at the Voice of San Diego’s innovative membership program, “a unique model that raises community engagement to a new level while helping to bring in a different revenue source to the news organization,” according to The Hub, an online resource for nonprofit journalism from the Investigative News Network. Members select one of four levels, each with a different set of benefits such as invitations to member coffees. The program is now in its fifth week and has 1,172 members, with a goal of 5,000 by the end of the year. “It’s a little bit more aggressive than traditional public radio’s definition of members,” said Scott Lewis, c.e.o.

Alvarado, a former APM and CPB exec, is joining the Center for Investigative Reporting The nonprofit news organization announced on May 2 that Alvarado will serve as chief strategy officer and work to expand membership, engage diverse audiences and increase revenue for the San Francisco–based center, the nation’s oldest nonprofit investigative reporting organization. Alvarado also will take a leadership role in the center’s upcoming Knight Foundation–funded YouTube investigative channel. Alvarado departed in March from American Public Media, where he served as senior v.p. for digital innovation for two years. In 2009, he led efforts to bring more diversity and digital innovation to public media as a CPB senior v.p.

As part of This American Life‘s live show last night, comedian and frequent TAL contributor Mike Birbiglia wrote and directed a 6-minute comedic short film featuring Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. The film — “Fresh Air 2: 2 FRESH, 2 FURIOUS” — stars Gross, parodying her hyper-formal interviewing style to great comedic effect. Ira Glass is a producer of the short, and Glass has also collaborated with Birbiglia on the upcoming film “Sleepwalk With Me.” Incidentally, today marks the 25th anniversary of the day Fresh Air became a daily national NPR program.

Here is the letter from Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, to members of Congress in response to letters circulating in the House and Senate to defund public broadcasting, from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.): I thought it might be a good time to bring you briefly up to date on what public broadcasters are doing in service to their communities and your constituents, and what we’re doing to perform these services more efficiently and comprehensively with the help of advances in technology, business practice and community partnerships. In the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957, President Eisenhower had a vision of public broadcasting as “educational television,” enriching the understanding of America’s students in many academic disciplines, with a particular emphasis on engaging students in science, technology, engineering and math to meet the challenges of the space race and the Cold War.

The Women’s NBA team the Connecticut Sun has signed a broadcast deal with Connecticut Public Television, which earlier this week lost an 18-year agreement to air University of Connecticut women’s basketball games. The Boston Globe is reporting that CPTV will air 23 Sun games this season. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Current has obtained a copy of the letter from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) seeking to defund CPB, now circulating in the House for signatures of support. It is addressed to Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), chair of the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the subcommittee’s ranking member. Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.) has authored a similar letter in the Senate. May 9, 2012 Dear Chairman Rehberg and Ranking Member DeLauro, It has come to my attention that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is requesting a $445 million advance appropriation for FY2015.

Programs airing on PBS received 51 Daytime Emmy nominations, second only to ABC, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced on Wednesday (May 9). PBS received 37 nods; APT and NETA shows, 14. Among multiple nominees were Sesame Street with 16; Electric Company, six; and Curious George and Design Squad, two each. PBS programs dominated Outstanding Children’s Animated Program, Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series, Outstanding Directing in a Children’s Series and Outstanding Writing in a Children’s Series, and PBS swept all four nominations in the New Approaches — Daytime Children’s Award category. The Daytime Emmy Awards will be presented on June 23 from the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

Dick Batchelor, a former Florida state representative, has incorporated Orlando Community Television Corp. to partner with Independent Public Media in the purchase of WMFE-TV, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Batchelor declined to name other individuals involved because a deal has yet to be finalized. He owns the Dick Batchelor Management Group consulting firm, is a political analyst on local television and describes himself as “a very big fan of PBS.” IPM, formed to purchase struggling pubTV stations in order to save the noncom spectrum, has made a bid on WMFE-TV, which has been for sale for a year.

Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) are collecting signatures from colleagues on Capitol Hill on letters asking Congressional leaders to defund CPB, reports Broadcasting & Cable. Both have previously sponsored bills to end CPB support. “As you know, our country is more than $15 trillion in debt,” the letter says. “We simply cannot afford to continue funding all of the programs that we have in the past.” Despite his longtime opposition to federal pubcasting funding, Lamborn last year appeared in a fundraising video for Rocky Mountain PBS.

Independent Lens and POV, the PBS series at the center at a dispute about public TV’s commitment to independent film, are moving to Monday nights, PBS’s highest-rated evening. The schedule change, which takes effect Oct. 29, will be the second in a year for the documentary showcases. After PBS uprooted the indie film series from their longtime Tuesday timeslot last October, station carriage and viewing audiences dropped in the new Thursday-night slot  (Current, March 12). This latest move to Mondays at 10 p.m. (Eastern) will position the shows to begin winning viewers back. Ratings powerhouse Antiques Roadshow leads PBS primetime on Mondays, and PBS will be putting a lot of promotional power behind Market Warriors, a new series slated for 9 p.m.

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton? Mandalit del Barco? Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson? Douali Xaykaothao? Help decide the best name in public radio.

Eyetronics Media & Studios, which last year announced a $50 million production deal with KCET in Los Angeles, “has been reduced to a tiny operation that has been late on some of its bills,” the Los Angeles Times is reporting. Four people who worked for the Encino, Calif.-based firm told the newspaper that they and others had gone without pay for as long as six weeks during the last year. And a representative for the landlord said owner Dominique Bigle owes several months’ back rent. Bigle’s attorney denied some of the claims to the newspaper, saying that employees “have been fully compensated,” that Eyetronics is “unaware of any ongoing disputes or claims” and that any rent owed is due to the landlord’s failure to properly maintain the building and provide security.

Here’s a lyrical look at NPR Senior European Correspondent Silva Poggioli’s everyday life in Rome, from the Boston Globe: “In Rome, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli covers crises and eats well.” And what a life it is! “Campo de’ Fiori is still Poggioli’s favorite place to shop,” the Globe reports. “On a sunny spring day, a street musician tightens his bow, a small group of nuns floats by in their gray habits, and Poggioli, in a long cardigan in hues of garnet and orange, with a scarf casually wrapped around her neck, heads for a vendor she knows well. Claudio Zampa, co-owner with his brother, Massimo, of Da Claudio a Campo de’ Fiori, greets Poggioli with a warm ‘Carissima!’

WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, is marking quite the milestone this year: 90 years on the air, reports The Lantern, the college paper of licensee Ohio State University. Tom Rieland, g.m., said the former WEAO (Willing Eager Athletic Ohio) was one of only a few pioneering educational radio stations in the country. “The programming was almost all live and included broadcast of lessons by faculty at Ohio State, farm news and musical concerts,” Rieland said. Now there’s WOSU-TV, a PBS member station, and two radio stations, 89.7 NPR News and Classical 101. In 2010 the station moved its full-time news service to 89.7 after its all-news AM station failed to attract listeners (Current, Aug.

Connecticut Public Television is losing its broadcast rights to University of Connecticut women’s basketball, which has been a huge ratings winner for the station for the past 18 years (Current, Dec. 12, 2011). In a four-year, $4.5 million deal, the university selected SportsNet NY to show the games, according to NBC Connecticut. “This new agreement with SNY will bring UConn women’s basketball to more Husky fans than ever before throughout the region and the nation,” UConn President Susan Herbst said in a statement.  “Obviously we are devastated and disappointed that they went with a New York-based firm,” CPTV President Jerry Franklin told NBC.