NPR’s handling of the Juan Williams controversy holds the No. 3 spot on the 16th annual year-end “Top 10 PR Blunders List,” compiled by San Francisco’s Fineman PR. It ranks behind BP’s reaction to its disastrous oil spill, and Toyota’s decisions after its massive recall. “Although [NPR] commentator Juan Williams raised eyebrows when he told Bill O’Reilly of FOX News’ The O’Reilly Factor that flying on airplanes with overt Muslims made him nervous, it was NPR that took the damaging reputational hit,” the list notes. It faults NPR President Vivan Schiller for firing Williams over the phone and later hinting that he had psychological problems.

Think it’s cold where you are? A Nebraska Educational Television crew endured 35-degrees-below-zero temperatures when they shot Tuesday’s (Dec. 28) Nova episode, “Secrets Beneath the Ice.” Since 2005, scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have journeyed to Antarctica to drill through ice and rock to find clues to what might happen if the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans continue to warm. Producer Gary Hochman, videographer/editor Brian Seifferlein and senior audio engineer Jim Lenertz traveled from Lincoln, Neb., to McMurdo Station on the frozen continent, landing on 26 feet of ice. Little thermometers that came with survival gear couldn’t register low enough. Cameras froze.

Robert J. Shuman, president of Maryland Public Television since 1986, announced last week that he’ll retire at the end of June. The state-operated network operates Thinkport.org, one of the more active public media sites for K-12 education, and produces MotorWeek, among other national programs. Shuman succeeded Raymond Ho, who was fired in 1985 after an unsuccessful drive to establish MPT as an international coproducer. The network later lost its major national production when Louis Rukeyser rebelled at PBS/MPT plans to refresh Wall Street Week, and new version without him failed to take hold. MPT took a shot at a nightly newscast, but NewsnightMaryand didn’t find ongoing funding and ended in 1991.

KOCE, soon to be PBS SoCal, will not carry Independent Lens, Charlie Rose and Nightly Business Report as of Jan. 1, when it becomes the Los Angeles market’s primary PBS station. The New York Times reports that viewers will need to turn to KLCS in L.A. or KVCR in San Bernardino to view the programs. Mel Rogers, KOCE president, said the scheduling decisions were made due to existing commitments.

KCET station execs told the Los Angeles Times that an institutional bias within PBS favoring East Coast stations marginalized its contribution to the system. But critics counter that the station, departing PBS on Jan. 1, 2011, “squandered its potential” of its Hollywood location for productions. PBS favors the “big three” — WETA, WGBH and WNET — which creates an “oligarchy” that means not only KCET but also medium and smaller PBS affiliates are unfairly blocked from getting their productions on the PBS schedule, KCET execs say. But LA media watchers insist that KCET simply didn’t produce competitive programming. WNET in New York contributed 125 hours to PBS last year; WGBH in Boston, 135 hours; and WETA in Washington, D.C.,

Your Current blogger has been looking for the perfect holiday item for you, and leave it to PBS NewsHour to provide it: “Hallelujah! A Global Mash-up of Handel’s ‘Messiah’.” It stars a worldwide array of musical participants including the NewsHour staff as well as contributions from PBS member stations KTWU in Topeka, Kan.; WOSU in Columbus, Ohio; and Smoky Hills Public Television in Bunker Hill, Kan.

Pending FCC approval, the University of Georgia will transform its commercial TV station WNEG to a public station to be named WUGA, the university announced Thursday (Dec. 23). It is entering into a programming management partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting. The university acquired the station in October 2008 to serve northeast Georgia and offer laboratory experience to students. It will still do so. Day-to-day operations will be under a director of television who will report jointly to the university’s vice president for public affairs and the director of GPB Media, which will provide core programming.

As KCET in Los Angeles departs the PBS system on Jan. 1, it’ll have a reorganized management team in place. The Los Angeles Times is reporting the changes; the station is expected to formally announce the changes Dec. 27. According to the newspaper: — Deborah Hinton, e.v.p. of operations and c.f.o., will be replaced by Camille Gonzalez, the present controller. — Mary Mazur, currently head of programming, becomes c.o.o., a new position. Moving up to programming chief is Bret Marcus. — Susan Reardon, general counsel, will be chief development officer. Her previous position will be filled by June Baldwin, now director of legal and business affairs.

To all our faithful RSS readers, happiest of holidays!

The general manager at WDAV-FM/89.9 in Davidson, N.C., Benjamin Roe, will depart to marry one of the station’s “high-profile hosts,” reports the Charlotte Observer today (Dec. 24). Roe said that he and Jennifer Foster, the station’s midday announcer, plan to marry sometime in 2011. He departs the post Jan. 14, and will work on contract into the summer. He arrived at WDAV in 2008 with more than 25 years of experience, including serving as NPR’s director of music and music initiatives. Roe also was a Grammy and Peabody Award-winning producer. Foster will continue her work as host and producer.

When the Center for Public Integrity partnered with American Public Media’s Public Insight Network (PIN) in November, “we weren’t quite sure what to expect,” writes Cole Goins, the center’s deputy web editor, “but the initial results in just two months have been tremendous.” The PIN comprises more than 90,000 participating “citizen sources” that have signed up to help reporters nationwide. So far, the center has reached out to the sources for two stories: looking for persons living near coal power plants, and others whose credit card use has changed over the past year. In all, reporters received about 230 responses offering valuable information and generating several stories.

WQLN Public Media in Erie, Pa., filed suit Wednesday (Dec. 22) against the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority in an effort to receive proceeds from the Presque Isle Downs and Casino. The nonprofit is seeking to be named a “dedicated regional asset,” which is required to be eligible for the funds. The suit claims that WQLN meets the criteria established by the authority, which includes county assets “that have a strong history of service to the community, a large operating budget and a regional audience base.”

Five public broadcasting projects won 2011 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards. The silver batons are among the most prestigious honors in broadcast journalism. PubTV and radio winners are: — KCET, Los Angeles, for “Up In Smoke,”“Protected or Neglected: Workplace Safety” and “Hung Out to Dry?” — NPR and Laura Sullivan for “Bonding for Profit.” —  P.O.V. and Geoffrey Smith for “The English Surgeon.”— West Virginia Public Broadcasting and Trey Kay for “The Great Textbook War,” distributed by PRX.— WGBH, Frontline and reporter/videographer Najibullah Quraishi, for reporting on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Jan.

Art Timko is retiring after 42 years at WEMU, Eastern Michigan University’s pubradio station. Timko, 64, started at WEMU as a student in January 1968, when he enlisted served in Vietnam. He returned in 1970 for graduate school, finished that year, and started working at the station again. “I was hired in August of 1971 as a producer and have been here ever since,” he told AnnArbor.com, adding that he has no regrets about working at just one station for his entire career. Molly Motherwell, the station’s general manager/marketing and development director, will be interim executive director during the search for Timko’s replacement.

The William Penn Foundation has approved a $2.4 million grant for a Networked Journalism Collaborative project in Philadelphia, based in part on input from the American University School of Communication’s J-Lab. Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab, announced the grant in her blog. A c.e.o. search begins in January. The money will come in a three-year grant to Temple University to create a center to incubate a new organization to produce original journalism, aggregate other news, and support the city’s growing group of news websites. J-Lab’s mapped the Philadelphia news ecosystem in late 2009. “Philadelphia has become a hotbed of journalistic networking and innovation,” Schaffer noted.