Mary Jane Wilson, 67, former program director at WKAR-TV in East Lansing, Mich., died June 26. She served as director from 1989 until her retirement in 2006. “Those of us who were lucky enough to have Mary Jane as a friend know that she was the real deal,” said Carrie Corbin, former program manager at WGVU in Kalamazoo, Mich., who called Wilson “a programmer who would do anything for you.” “Many was the time that Mary Jane dropped off a tape at the bus station on Friday afternoon to meet our 6 p.m. broadcast after we had a machine failure,” Corbin said.

WKAR, public TV and radio, has switched overseers at Michigan State University in East Lansing, as of Friday (July 1). It’s now part of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, the school announced. Effective July 15, Gary Reid, g.m. of student station WDBM and a senior academic specialist with the college, will become WKAR’s acting director of broadcasting. Reid also just won the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’ 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. He will replace DeAnne Hamilton, director of broadcasting services since 2003 and a member of the PBS Board. Hamilton “will lead several special projects, including one with the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities,” MSU’s statement said.

The New Jersey Network signed off for one last time at midnight Friday (July 1), several years after the state announced it would no longer fund the pubcaster. The Star-Ledger reported its final moments: “The broadcast cut to a small room of empty cubicles. The lights turned off, and a small, blue NJN sign glowed on the back wall. The screen faded to black. ‘New Jersey Network. April 5, 1971 – June 30, 2011.’ ” The paper includes a video link to that last segment, a five-minute overview of NJN’s history. Also as of Friday, 130 staffers are out of work.

The future of the 35-year-old Radio Information Service, a volunteer reading program for listeners who are blind or visually impaired, remains uncertain under pending ownership changes at WDUQ-FM, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. About 800 persons subscribed to the service in 2009, when the nonprofit that ran it folded. “This is not our program, but we are willing to help and donate the subcarrier to broadcast the programming,” said Lee Ferraro, g.m. of WYEP, one of the partners set to acquire WDUQ. He said RIS will be broadcast at least through July. “The RIS isn’t out there broadcasting people telling jokes for entertainment purposes,” said Lillian Wolff, an RIS volunteer for 16 years.

Lawmakers rebuked South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for vetoing $5.9 million in state funding for ETV, the statewide network of public TV and radio stations, taking three separate votes on June 29 to restore all of the subsidies. Legislators then proceeded to override nearly all of Haley’s vetoes, adding more than $200 million to programs that the governor had targeted with her veto pen, according to the State, the Columbia-based daily newspaper. House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham — a Republican, like Haley — delivered an angry speech on the House floor, complaining that Gov. Haley reneged on an agreement to restructure state funding for ETV.

The news staff at KSFR in Santa Fe, N.M., continues reporting on the wildfires that knocked out the station’s tower last week. Newscasts are only streaming online, “which is a big blow,” KSFR reporter Charles Maynard told WBUR’s Here & Now, because the station has the largest radio news department in the state. KSFR’s tower is on the Pajarito Mountain in the area of the Las Conchas fire near the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Robert Gutierrez is the new president and c.e.o. of KMBH in Harlingen, Texas. The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, which owns RGV Educational Broadcasting, announced the appointment Thursday (June 30). Gutierrez is the third person to hold the position in two years, notes the Valley Morning Star. He succeeds John Ross, who resigned in April after four months as interim president and c.e.o, and before that, the controversial Monsignor Pedro Briseño (Current, March 16, 2009), who was removed and reassigned to full-time parish ministry in April 2010. Gutierrez formerly worked as director of sales and marketing for Gateway Printing & Office Supply Inc.

WGCU, one of the Florida stations coping with total loss of state funding, will leave a radio staff position empty and cut back on locally produced segments, reports the Naples News. That troubles listener Barbara Winsloe. “They don’t want to start cutting their programs because it means they’re going to lose listeners,” Winsloe said. “There’s nothing I’ve ever heard come out of that building that isn’t educational and just dandy.” WGCU is losing about 10 percent of its budget but should be able to avoid layoffs. It’s cutting the Your Voice radio documentary from four times a year to three, FGCU Sports Report will go from weekly to monthly and the TV station will produce two documentaries this year instead of its usual three or four.

Catherine McManus, senior vice president and chief philanthropy officer at WMFE in Orlando, Fla., is leaving the station on July 8. She’s accepted a position as chief development officer at Camp Boggy Creek, one of Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Camps for seriously ill children, in Eustis, Fla., reports the Orlando Sentinel. She is the daughter of Stephen McKenney Steck, the top executive at WMFE for decades who stepped down as president on Jan. 1, 2006. WMFE-TV is awaiting news on its pending sale to religious broadcaster Daystar Television (Current, April 18).

WTTW in Chicago has a new chief operating officer, Greg Cameron, formerly its e.v.p. and chief development officer. He will continue to oversee development efforts for the organization, WTTW said in a statement, in addition to managing day-to-day operations for WTTW and 98.7 WFMT. Before arriving at the station in 2008, Cameron was deputy director and chief development officer at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He’s also worked as director of foundation and corporate relations at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Montclair University may have lost its bid to take over management of the New Jersey Network, but it’s still moving ahead with plans to offer state-focused broadcasting, according to NJBiz. “Our interest in this hasn’t declined,” University President Susan Cole said. “We are going to continue to build our capacity in media and communications, even if we do it without a television license. We’ll just move directly to a multimedia platform, to the Internet, and skip a step.” NJN’s transfer to a nonprofit subsidiary of WNET/Thirteen passed its final hurdle on Monday.

“You can sit around talking about stuff,” says Ralph Jennings, retiring g.m. of Fordham University’s WFUV-FM, “or you can just get it done.” The New York Times profiles Dr. Jennings as he prepares to leave the station he managed for 26 years, transforming it from a student-programmed outlet into a CPB-qualified public radio music station employing 30 full-time professional staff and nearly 90 students. With 300,000 weekly radio listeners and 30,000 tuning in online, WFUV now ranks among the top 25 public radio stations in the country, the Times reports. Chuck Singleton, program director who has guided WFUV’s newsroom, music schedule and digital content strategy, steps in as interim g.m.

The FCC is taking a close look at third-party funding relationships at KUSF in San Francisco, the college radio station that KUSC in Los Angeles took over in January as part of its proposed $6 million signal expansion into the Bay Area. In a letter of inquiry released today, June 28, Audio Division chief Peter Doyle requested documents and detailed answers to 15 questions about KUSF operations under KUSC’s Classical Public Radio Network, which converted the student-programmed outlet on 90.3 FM into a full-time classical music service after the deal was announced. CPRN is operating the station under an interim contract while the FCC reviews the license transfer proposal.

Colorado Public Radio is launching a new music station on 1340 AM in the Denver metro area and online beginning this fall. The programming will focus on current contemporary music, “including notable releases of the past 15 years and the earlier music that inspired it,” the station said in a statement. Mike Flanagan, g.m. of KVCU/Radio 1190 at the University of Colorado Boulder, will manage the new station. Flanagan has more than 30 years of experience in radio, including eight years with CPR in the 1990s as an on-air and Midday Mozart music host. CPR will continue to broadcast news on 90.1 FM and classical music 88.1 FM.

The waiting game continues for the sale of  PBS affiliate WMFE in Orlando, Fla., to Daystar Television, which is pending with the Federal Communications Commission. “There are no current updates to report regarding our application before the FCC,” Jose Fajardo, president and CEO of WMFE, said in an email to the Orlando Sentinel Tuesday (June 27). “Beginning July 1, WMFE-TV will be scheduling V-me on its primary channel and The Florida Channel as one of its SD channels.” The station will have 23 employees after Friday, a drop from 35 last October.