Several staffers at WPBT2 in Miami may be still asleep this winter Tuesday afternoon, after staying up overnight (Dec. 20-21) for a unique event: The station presented a live stream of the lunar eclipse, along with an online chat. The full eclipse of the moon was also a perfect time for a 30-minute episode of its revamped Star Gazer series that directed folks to the web activities. Three chatrooms were full of visitors within five minutes, and the station now has about 1,000 new Facebook friends. “It was a remarkable night and the feedback has been terrific,” Neal Hecker, v.p.

Jim Packard, longtime radio sidekick to host Michael Feldman on Whad’Ya Know?,” is retiring at the end of January. He’s also a familiar voice to Wisconsin Public Radio listeners; he’s been there since 1981. So the popular show is searching for a new (temporary) Packard, literally, with its “Being Jim Packard” contest. (“If you can say . . . ‘That’s One Right’ you could be me on Whad’Ya Know? for one fabulous day. To quote Michael, you could get in on the ground floor of radio and stay there, much as I have.”) Entries are due Jan. 12, 2011, and the winner will be announced on the Jan.

Tavis Smiley is severing his producing partnership with KCET in Los Angeles, and will collaborate instead with WNET/Thirteen in New York city beginning in January. WNET President Neal Shapiro told station staff in an e-mail: “Tavis will celebrate his 20th year in broadcasting in 2011, and we are truly privileged to have the opportunity to work with him as he continues to bring his nightly half-hour talk show to PBS stations across the country.” Smiley said in November that he had not been aware of KCET’s plans to drop its PBS membership in January. UPDATE: WNET issued a press release today (Dec.

Hey, how about sharing some station seasonal cheer in the Current blog for the next couple weeks? We’ll start with this feature from KERA in Dallas, where for more than three decades a Scrooge puppet has been hurling insults at NorthPark Center mall shoppers during the holidays. KERA’s Stephen Becker talked to John Hardman, the voice behind the grump. Is your station covering a fun tradition in the community, or planning any special events? Let us know. And don’t forget to send along photos!

Debra Aliano, a fundraising executive for Colorado Public Radio and former g.m. of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s radio and television stations, died in October after a six-month battle with cancer. She was 57. Aliano joined CPR in late 2007 as executive director of development and major gifts. Under her leadership the public radio network’s major giving revenue grew by more than 50 percent, according to CPR. She also managed a 2008 donor event featuring NPR journalist Robert Siegel that raised more than $100,000 toward operations expenses. Aliano was a native of Omaha, Neb., and began working at the University of Nebraska’s KVNO classical radio and UNO Television in 1992.

Cookie Monster’s campaign to host Saturday Night Live didn’t work — but did get him on the show. He made an appearance on Dec. 18 next to host Jeff Bridges at the opening of the popular NBC show. What did Cookie want for Christmas, Bridges asked. “An iPad!” Cookie replied, quickly changing his mind to “A cookie!” Of course. Cookie Monster and Bridges also sang a duet, check it out.

Of 276 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more residents, 256 of them — that’s 93 percent — televise routine meetings of one or more of their governmental bodies on PEG (public, educational and government access) channels, says Rob McCausland on the Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age blog. McCausland, who has been involved in community access television since 1979, continues mining facts in his comprehensive study of PEG channels nationwide. Check out his ever-growing database. Local cable access channels have been struggling in recent years as support wanes: Since 2005, some 600 community access stations have shut down, according to the Alliance for Community Media.

It’s official: After nearly 10 years on Capitol Hill, the Local Community Radio Act has passed both the House and Senate and now heads for the president’s signature. The House approved it Friday (Dec. 17) and the Senate, on Saturday. Free Press released a statement that said in part, “Woo hoo!” The law will repeal restrictions on the LPFM (low-power FM) spectrum approved by Congress in 2000 at the request of commercial broadcasters. The restrictions limited the frequencies available to LPFMs to every fourth frequency instead of every third. When low power FM was approved by the FCC in 2000 (Current, Jan.

MJ Bear, a former vice president for online at NPR and a founding board member of the Online News Association, died Friday (Dec. 16) in Seattle after battling leukemia for seven months. At the time of her death she was based in Vienna for Microsoft as an executive producer in central and eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. She was 48. Bear ran NPR online operations from 1996 to 2001, as manager and director of new media services, and vice president for online. She created more than 35 NPR.org websites; acquired online properties such as Fresh Air with Terry Gross; and created the web-only music destination All Songs Considered.

KOCE in Orange County, Calif., stepping up to the primary station role in the L.A. market in January, will now be known at PBS SoCal. It’s launching a new website where viewers can find the schedule for their fave shows. KOCE used to be secondary to KCET in the second-largest media market, but that station is dropping its PBS membership — and all PBS programming — as of Jan. 1 (Current, Oct. 18).

Actor Patrick Stewart had no idea the Screen Actors Guild nominations were to be unveiled Thursday (Dec. 16) so he was especially stunned when his name was among them, for his title-role work in the Great Performances presentation of “Macbeth.” “That is always the nicest way to receive good news,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “When you’re not expecting it and it comes, it’s especially pleasing.” His was PBS’s sole nomination. (Image: PBS)

NPR’s Howard Berkes won the November Sidney Award for a seven-month investigation into Massey Energy, which owns the West Virginia Upper Big Branch mine where 29 miners died in April (a Dec. 13 Berkes piece on Massey here). One finding: NPR obtained court documents and state and federal records citing persistent and widespread safety violations. Berkes spearheaded a team of NPR journalists that included Susanne Reber, deputy managing editor of investigations; producer Robert Benincasa; and reporter Frank Langfitt. Berkes conducted a dozen on-air stories for NPR about Massey, and wrote or co-wrote another 15 pieces for the NPR website.

According to Nielsen ratings, PBS Kids had four of the top 10 spots in children’s programming among kids 2 to 5 years old for September, October and November. Curious George was ranked No. 1 in September and tied for the spot in November. And The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That was No. 1 in October. Results are based on national ratings for PBS and select competitive cable networks (Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, the Hub, Nickelodeon, and Nick Jr.) and unique program names for shows telecast at least three times each month.

There’s been lots of coverage of Sesame Workshop’s recent news out of China. But Hollywood Reporter has the coolest photo. Interesting story, too, of the Workshop’s history in the country, from the movie “Big Bird in China” in 1983, through Sesame Street’s run on Shanghai TV from 1998 to 2001.

CPB is continuing its work to support the burgeoning collaboration among the three PBS member stations in Los Angeles (Current, Aug. 9, 2010) with an RFP for an organizational consultant. Deadline is quickly approaching: Jan. 3, 2011.