CPB is compiling an online list of 9/11-related pubcasting programming airing during the next several weeks. Spokesperson Nicole Mezlo told Current that the list is being updated as information comes in from stations and organizations around the country. Content includes two live presentations: A City Reimagined: Voices of 9/11 in Poetry and Performance, an evening of spoken-word performances of first-hand accounts of the day the terrorists struck the World Trade Center, and On Being‘s panel discussion, a collaboration with the Trinity Wall Street Church St. Paul’s Chapel at Ground Zero. The list also highlights local activities at stations.

WVPT in Harrisonburg, Va., is hoping an online talent contest helps them raise money to restore state cuts to their budget, reports the Augusta Free Press in Waynesboro, Va. Viewers can post videos showcasing their unique abilities at TALENT WAR$ @wvpt. Visitors view the films, select their favorite and “vote” for it by making a donation to WVPT on the site. Every dollar donated equals one vote for the video. The three participants with the most $1 votes by Jan. 3, 2012, win a first place award of $3,000; second place, $2,000; and third place, $1,000. As of July 1, cuts in state funding for pubcasting resulted in a loss of more than $200,000 for the station, said David Mullins, president and g.m.

A new memoir by Bob Edwards, the NPR personality whose 2004 ouster as Morning Edition anchor roiled public radio, is being offered as a free e-book download through Sept. 9, a week before the print edition’s release. “A Voice in the Box,” published by the University Press of Kentucky, recounts Edwards’s radio career, including his collaborations with NPR colleagues and sportscaster Red Barber, whose weekly appearances on Morning Edition were a keystone of Edwards’s 25 years as host. “You can think of this as the ultimate pledge drive premium considering most public radio supporters already have plenty of coffee mugs and tote bags,” says Edwards.

NJTV’s lack of live coverage of Hurricane Irene whipped at least one state lawmaker into a froth, according to the Star-Ledger. Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), who opposed to the state’s decision to allow WNET to take over the former NJN, said NJTV officials should be embarrassed. “Its absence was glaring and unacceptable during a time of great crisis,” Burzichelli said in a statement Tuesday (Aug. 30). “NJTV promised to focus solely on New Jersey, but residents got nothing from them during the hurricane.” WNET President Neal Shapiro issued in a statement in response: “As we said in June, our video gathering capability and distribution wouldn’t be ready until after Labor Day.

Three years after its sale to a new community licensee, KCPW-FM in Salt Lake City is under the gun to raise $265,000 by Sept. 30. Wasatch Public Media financed most of its $2.2 million purchase of the NPR News station with a short-term loan from National Cooperative Bank; now the lender wants to get out of the business of public radio financing, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Donors who backed the 2008 purchase reneged on their pledges during the recession, KCPW President Ed Sweeney tells the Tribune. “The challenge we have is how often can you ask your donors for help,” he says.

  PBS Hawaii has received a $5 million grant from the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation to build a new facility in Honolulu. The station said it has an “urgent need” for the space as it is losing its lease at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, its home for the past 40 years. The commitment brings PBS Hawaii past the midway point in its $30 million capital campaign. In traditional island style, PBS Hawaii rolled out the announcement with a visual story. A Moanalua High School student, part of the station’s innovative Hiki No journalism program, introduced “A Tree Grows on Nimitz Highway,” a short video about the life of the late Clarence T.C.

From time to time, “the definition of public broadcasting and public service media should be reviewed,” writes Adam Powell, of the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. “The opportunity is immense.” In his post today (Aug. 31), Powell returns to the original 1967 report of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television to examine how the system is living up to its responsibilities. One point: “Over the air, the mission of experimentation has largely atrophied,” Powell writes. “The PBS prime time schedule is filled with programs that are decades old, so there is little room for innovation or for new programs of any kind.”

PBS viewers writing to ombudsman Michael Getler want more diversity (“I am tired of giving money to a station that simply refuses to represent any race except for the white race”) and Bill Moyers (“How interesting that you have room for endless showings of Antique Roadshow … but no time slot for Bill Moyers!”) on the air.

WXPR-FM in Rhinelander, Wisc., is moving into a new building next year, it announced Monday (Aug. 29), joining a growing trend of pubcasting stations shifting to downtown locations. A capital campaign, “Hear the Future,” raised more than $400,000, and two local businessmen are donating 75 percent of the building cost. There’ll be space for four studios — a longtime station goal — and a new community features editor. The building has a news history: It used to house the Rhinelander Daily News. WXPR Station Manager Mick Fiocchi says the goal is to start remodeling “after the first of the year.”

MHz Networks is adding two English-language channels from China to its lineup in the Washington, D.C., metro area starting Oct. 1. CCTV News carries headlines, business, money and travel; CCTV Documentary runs cultural, historical, nature docs and more. “The addition of CCTV programming in D.C. opens a full-time window into China for all the residents of the region through free over-the-air and cable TV distribution,” said Fred Thomas, MHz c.e.o, in a press release.

Looking to expand the pool of companies that place underwriting spots on public radio stations, Boston’s WBUR unveiled results from its first-ever study demonstrating that sponsorship credits deliver a return on investment for corporate underwriters. Online surveys by Lightspeed Research, conducted in two waves since October, measured substantial gains for both new and continuing sponsors across 12 different product categories — including banks, supermarkets, health care and auto services. WBUR Station Manager Corey Lewis, who initiated the research, said the results demonstrate that public radio underwriting can compete with and even outperform advertising campaigns on three metrics: influencing customers’ purchasing frequency, perceptions of quality and consideration of a company for future purchases.

WUNC radio in Chapel Hill, N.C., is coping with signal loss at two transmitter sites due to Hurricane Irene: WBUX in Buxton, N.C., is located on the Outer Banks, just off Cape Hatteras; and WURI is at Manteo, N.C., on Roanoke Island, between the mainland and barrier islands. “We cannot even call the transmitters because the phones are out” as of Monday (Aug. 29) morning, Nandini Sen, WUNC director of technologies and engineering, told Current. “We’re just waiting. In the meantime we’re in touch with emergency personnel to figure out when can come in.” Highway 12 south of Rodanthe, where Buxton is located, “looks like it’s part of the ocean” due to flooding, Sen said.

The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium are the first to use WQED Multimedia’s iQZoo, a QR (quick response) code project that provides visitors with audio clips, PBS videos and information about animals via a free smartphone app. It becomes available to all pubcasting stations in September, reports the Pittsburgh Business Times. WQED Multimedia developed iQZoo in-house, funded by a grant from PBS Interactive, said Jennifer Stancil, who heads up educational partnerships at the station. “We wanted to create something that could be relevant to kids in the moment when they’re asking questions and studying elephants and orangutans and polar bears, and provide the answers through PBS videos in a way never done before,” Stancil said.

A movement against hate crimes called Not In Our Town, spawned by a 1995 documentary on PBS, has come to represent many things. To the executive producer, NIOT is a way to help viewers counter incidents of bigotry and violence. Public broadcasting stations use it to reach into diverse communities in meaningful ways. A media scholar sees NIOT as a laboratory to breed and study methods of engagement. Most importantly, to citizens frustrated by community issues that seem impossible to resolve, NIOT suggests a way to make a difference in the lives of their neighbors. “To me, this is a prime example of public media at its best,” said Michael Isip, v.p.

David Brancaccio will helm Marketplace Index, a new weekday report that will “psychoanalyze” economic trends based on what happens in the financial markets each day. The series, piloted as a four-minute segment, combines reporting, critical analysis and interviews with financial experts and newsmakers. It launches today on Minnesota Public Radio news stations and KPCC in Pasadena, American Public Media’s California affiliate, and is being syndicated to public radio stations nationwide. It will also be distributed as a podcast, available every weekday at 4:45 p.m., from this new website. “No one is in a better position than Marketplace to address rising anxiety about the economy,” said JJ Yore, v.p.