The Pittsburgh foundations that bought a 60-day option on the sale of WDUQ last month have withdrawn their nascent bid for the public radio station. The group sought to recast the NPR News and jazz station as a public media news service for the Pittsburgh region, but recently decided that there wasn’t enough time to complete its analysis and solicit community feedback before the July 2 deadline. The Heinz Endowments, one of four community foundations involved in the planning, announced the decision yesterday. Duquesne University wants at least $10 million for WDUQ, the city’s most-listened-to public radio outlet. It’s unclear whether any bidders are willing to pay that amount.

R.L. Stine, author of the hit children’s book series Goosebumps, is among the judges for the PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest — which has already generated 25,000 entries from 87 stations nationwide, according to PBS. The contest, co-sponsored by WNED-TV Buffalo/Toronto, encourages children from kindergarten through third grade to create illustrated stories. Also on the 14-judge panel is six-time Emmy winner Marc Brown, creator of the character Arthur of book and PBS program fame; Ann M. Martin, author of the mega-hit series The Baby-sitters Club; and Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Winners will be announced in July.

Longtime ABC News Political Director David Chalian joins the PBS NewsHour on July 6, the show announced today. As its political editor, Chalian will direct the NewsHour’s political coverage across all platforms and manage the editorial content from the NewsHour’s congressional, White House, and Supreme Court beats. He will also serve as an on-camera political analyst and will appear in regular political webcasts on the Online NewsHour, as well as develop original digital political content.

An audit of the Educational Broadcasting Authority in West Virginia (PDF) released to state legislators Wednesday (June 9) concludes that by operating two supporting nonprofits with separate bank accounts it may not be following state requirements, reports the Charleston Gazette. Among the findings: That EBA employees do not have the authority to fundraise and provide administrative support for Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation (both those groups have no employees). And while the EBA may receive donations, its employees cannot solicit donations on state time. Auditors put forth a series of recommendations, including that the two nonprofits “operate as complete and separate entities” with different missions and finances “to protect the financial rights of the state and persons affected by the agency’s activities.”

Thirteen staffers “will be leaving PBS,” network President Paula Kerger said in a memo to the system today (June 9). “The entire PBS senior management team actively participated” in the decisions, she added. Departments affected include marketing and communications, interactive and general counsel.

In a hearing today (June 9) on Capitol Hill, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski asked Congress for its assistance in reclaiming spectrum for mobile broadband, reports Broadcasting & Cable. The request came during the House Appropriations Committee Financial Services Subcommittee testimony on the FCC’s 2011 budget. Genachowski said the spectrum giveback (background, Current, Feb. 8, 2010) was good for all parties involved — broadcasters, viewers and the government — but the feds need to move quickly to head off a looming spectrum shortage. Congress needs to okay use of some proceeds from the spectrum auction to compensate broadcasters.

On community station KFAI-FM in Minneapolis, The Takeaway, the live drivetime news show from Public Radio International that launched in April 2008, will go head-to-head with the powerhouse Morning Edition from 5 to 8 a.m. starting June 30, writes David Brauer, MinnPost’s media reporter. He says The Takeaway “is like Morning Edition in a hoodie: more casual, younger-skewing, and international, but hardly the rush to the barricades” that Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! provides. (Democracy Now! will follow The Takeaway at 8.) KFAI, feeling pressure to draw a larger audience and maintain its CPB grant, is moving music to make room for news.

Published online only. Next print edition includes many of these items. Kutzner chairs team to look beyond today’s DTV standard Jim Kutzner, PBS chief engineer, is chairing a team of the Advanced Television Systems Committee that will think ahead about the country’s next-generation broadcast TV system — “probably five years out” from today, he says. Ideally, the next system would be compatible with broadcasters’ and viewers’ present hardware, Kutzner told Current, but advances in modulation and compression technology are coming so fast that much improved technology will be within sight within a few years. The Next-Generation Broadcast Television Team, nicknamed PT-2, “will explore potential technologies to be used to define a future terrestrial broadcast digital television standard,” ATSC said in a release May 21 after its annual meeting in Arlington, Va.

There’s a new pubradio music station today: Vermont Public Radio’s Classical 90.1 WOXM, which signed on this morning (June 8). It launched with a performance by pianist Annemieke Spoelstra live from Middlebury College. The station brings VPR Classical to more than 83,000 listeners in most of Addison County. VPR also finalized its purchase in May of WCVR 102.1 FM, based in Randolph; that should begin broadcast this summer, also as VPR Classical. It’s Vermont’s only classical music network featuring local hosts. Station spokesperson Michelle Jeffery told Current the station has been in the process of bolstering its classical offerings since 2007, when VPR split its news and music services.

The controversy over Idaho Public Television’s request to film in a federal wilderness area is spreading. The Associated Press via the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., reports that pro-wilderness groups say that filming within areas such as the 2.3-million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, which IPTV has been doing for 30 years, may not reflect “appropriate stewardship” of the lands. IPTV’s show Outdoor Idaho annually follows students doing conservation work within the wilderness. Last month its cameras were denied access by a U.S. Forest Service supervisor, who said theirs was a commercial enterprise. That decision was reversed after Gov. Butch Otter and Republican U.S.

For the first time, two video games will use a cover to actually hide buttons on the Wii Remote. “Elmo’s A-to-Zoo Adventure” and “Cookie’s Counting Carnival” games from Sesame Street will use the plush cover (Elmo, right) to make the Nintendo control less confusing for youngsters, the Associated Press reports. “We will be the first to introduce such an aid,” said Scott Chambers, Sesame Workshop senior vice president of media distribution. “We’re doing it so that preschoolers can play and learn from these Sesame Street games without feeling frustrated with the controller.” The two titles are also the first Wii games from Sesame Workshop.

The video gaming community is going bonkers in anticipation of a PBS special airing July 31 and through August. And it’s no wonder: According to the Video Games Live website, the 90-minute orchestral performance includes “never before televised live musical performances from the Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Halo, Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, God of War, Civilization, Chrono Cross, StarCraft and Guitar Hero franchises, including a musical journey through Classic Gaming.” It describes the show as an “immersive concert event” featuring music from the video games along with “synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience!”

Wisconsin Public Television’s LZ Lambeau “welcome home” outreach for Vietnam veterans and their supporters last month was judged so successful that pubcasters in Texas, Oklahoma and Michigan are planning similar tributes to service members. The National Center for Community Engagement has scheduled a webinar June 23, and soon there’ll be a CPB-funded LZ toolkit For the Wisconsin network’s three-day event, May 21-23, some 70,000 vets and supporters reported to the landing zone, Lambeau Field, home field of the Green Bay Packers. WGVU in Grand Rapids, Mich., has already scheduled LZ Michigan for July 3. “It’s a perfect fit for local stations, to get us into the community,” said Timothy Eernisse, development manager.

Registration is now open for the June 23 webinar on LZ Lambeau from the National Center for Media Engagement. The event, a belated welcome home to Vietnam vets, was the largest single outreach in public broadcasting, with around 70,000 participants over three days last month. At least three stations are now planning similar or scaled-down tributes; the webinar will feature reps from sponsoring station Wisconsin Public Television offering advice. A CPB-funded toolkit also is coming up.

The Daily Record of Parsnippany, N.J., today (June 6) takes an in-depth look at the challenges facing NJN pubTV and radio. It reports that state aid is drying up, staff cuts are “a near certainty” and a draft plan is attempting to “reinvent” the New Jersey Network. “A radical restructuring of NJN appears likely, and it’s not clear what the station will look like when it’s done—and whether a not-for-profit, independent charitable media organization can survive, let alone thrive,” it says.