Native Public Media has asked federal policymakers to extend the construction permit deadline for tribal groups to launch new noncommercial educational FM radio stations. The Federal Communications Commission awarded CPs for 38 tribal stations under its 2007 NCE filing window, potentially doubling the number of outlets broadcasting to Native communities. “Because of the economic recession, and threatened cutbacks in federal funding to NTIA’s Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, many of those permits are at risk of expiring,” Loris Taylor, NPM executive director, said during an April 5 Senate hearing on broadband policy. “If these permits expire, the opportunity for reapplying is not likely to arise for many years to come.”

The nonprofit investigative news unit California Watch is distributing “Ready to Rumble,” a coloring and activity book to help kids prepare for an earthquake. It’s part of “On Shaky Ground,” a 19-month investigation into the seismic safety at K-12 public schools in the state that reveals the Division of the State Architect approved at least 20,000 school buildings that lacked the final safety certification required by law. Underwriters for the coloring book, available in English, Spanish, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese and Vietnamese, include KQED public radio and Public Insight Network. California Watch partners include the PBS NewsHour.

Here’s a look at public broadcasting funding from a unique point of view: a fiscal conservative who is also a social libertarian. Bill Shireman heads up Future 500, a nonprofit that works to “transform fruitless ideological battles by redirecting corporations and stakeholders to understanding the systemic roots of problems and their solutions.” In his piece on Huffington Post, he admits there are plenty of good reasons to get government funding out of media. “But the realist in me — the one that actually listens to both commercial and public media — sees something different.” “The overwhelming onslaught of advertising leaves us impoverished, when it comes to thoughtful, humane programming,” he writes.

PBS President Paula Kerger, Frontline Executive Producer David Fanning and Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! will address the National Conference for Media Reform, kicking off today (April 8) in Boston sponsored by Free Press. Other speakers at the three-day event include U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, and craigslist founder Craig Newmark. More than 2,500 participants are expected at the confab, which features some 80 interactive sessions on topics including journalism, public media, technology, innovation, policy, arts, and social justice, along with musical performances and film screenings. Can’t attend? Free Speech TV will be streaming live, and check out the conference website.

The nonprofit St. Louis Beacon, housed inside the city’s PBS member station KETC (Current, March 30, 2009), has received $2.6 million in gifts and pledges. “These gifts don’t eliminate our need to fund raise by any means,” said Beacon g.m. Nicole Hollway. “We see it as an infusion of capital. These gifts give us the resources to invest in areas that tie directly to earned revenue.” The money will go toward business and technology infrastructure.

Christy Carpenter, a former vice-chair of the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is the new c.e.o. of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute in Morrilton, Ark. Carpenter recently served as e.v.p. and c.o.o of the Paley Center for Media, overseeing operations in New York and Los Angeles, and is a member of the KCET Board of Directors. Carpenter was appointed by President Clinton in 1998 to the CPB Board.

While many PEG (public, educational and government access) channels are going dark nationwide, the city of Albany, N.Y., is creating a new one. The Common Council approved assembling an 11-member Public, Education and Government Access Oversight Board for the development and operation of a public-access studio in the basement of the Albany Public Library’s main branch, reports the local Times Union. “Residents have clamored for a public-access outlet in the city since its last station, also located at the library, shut down in the 1990s amid city budget cuts,” the paper notes.

The Virginia Senate voted to partially restore funding for public broadcasting yesterday, rejecting Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to cut $1.7 million supporting educational programming of the state’s public TV stations, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Instead, aid to Virginia pubcasters will drop 10 percent. The governor’s proposal to slash pubTV state subsidies by 50 percent was approved by the Virginia House of Delegates. WVPT President David Mullins told WSHV-TV News that his station, which serves Harrisonburg and the Shenandoah Valley, would have lost grants totaling $305,000.

American Experience has chosen 40 student Freedom Riders who will travel the original bus route of the legendary civil-rights activists who used public transportation to challenge segregation in the South in 1961. The students reflect the original Freedom Riders group, PBS said in a statement today (April 7): They are culturally diverse, come from 33 states and the District of Columbia, and attend various schools from community colleges to the Ivy League. All were selected through an essay competition with nearly 1,000 entries. From May 6-16, they’ll retrace the route of the original Freedom Rides from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, accompanied by filmmaker Stanley Nelson, several original Freedom Riders and others along the way.

“Any budget-cutter or culture warrior hoping to rig an argument that federally funded television exists to serve the coastal elite need only have told her audience get a load of Vine Talk, debuting this month on PBS,” writes Troy Patterson in Slate today (April 6). On the show, host Stanley Tucci and other celebs (such as writer Nora Ephron and actors John Lithgow and Julianne Moore) sample various wines, as a sommelier answers their questions and provides advice to them and the studio audience. Don’t miss the comments below the review, such as: “I think this article makes a great point — PBS’s programming is generally geared towards the intellectual, more refined, probably wealthier crowd.

NPR’s former President Vivian Schiller told an audience at the Paley Center For Media that she was forced to resign even before its board had watched the entire undercover sting video that prompted her departure on March 9. She was interviewed on Tuesday (April 5) by Pat Mitchell, former head of PBS. “The timing was, the edited video hit at about ten o’clock,” Schiller said. “They released the two-hour version, I think it was about two o’clock in the afternoon. We rushed to get a rush transcript. But even a rush transcript — it was two hours, it takes two hours, at a minimum.

Reverberations from the impending sale of primary PBS affiliate WMFE in Orlando, Fla., continue. Secondary stations WDSC at Daytona State College and WBCC in Cocoa, run by Brevard Community College, are taking a wait-and-see approach. WDSC officials said they are “too busy trying to keep their own station going to consider taking on more programming from WMFE,” reports the News-Journal in Daytona Beach. A statement from WBCC-TV said it is “considering all options.” A PBS spokesperson told the paper that the local stations, not PBS, will make the decision as to which will be primary.

“Save NPR! But please, put PBS out of its misery.” That’s quite the provocative headline, and the Slate piece by columnist and author Mark Oppenheimer continues to rack up comments. Oppenheimer said while PBS was a powerhouse early in its existence, “today, it can be difficult to find what ambitious, interesting programming there is on PBS. Earlier this month, I tuned in a few times and was greeted by Antiques Roadshow, a doo-wop concert that I have seen before while channel-surfing, and — several times — the financial advice of Suze Orman. From those glimpses, it seemed that an average evening on PBS had all the intelligence of VH1 and all the youth appeal of CBS.”

Patrick Butler, in his speech at the annual Capitol Hill day sponsored by the Association of Public Television stations this week, had some good news for the station leaders gathered in D.C. to lobby their legislators. “A very senior Republican in the House of Representatives has told me in recent weeks that the [Democratic Rep. Earl] Blumenauer amendment to continue funding public broadcasting would have passed the House — with significant Republican support — if it had been properly offered under the rules of debate on HR 1.” The amendment was killed on a procedural vote just before midnight on Feb.

Five staffers were laid off on April 1 from WMFE-TV in Orlando, Fla., the same day it announced the station was sold to a Christian broadcaster, pending FCC approval. Around eight more positions also will be affected in the coming weeks, Lorri Shaban of TW2 public relations in Orlando told Current. She declined further details. The station also had a two-week staff furlough and wage freeze in October 2010, and laid off 28 percent of its employees in February 2009.