Wilmington, N.C., was the first community in America to discontinue analog broadcasting. Now it’s the first to test a municipal WiFi network using white spaces between DTV channels, reports Broadcasting & Cable. So far the city has been using white-space wireless cameras for traffic and surveillance in a park and highway; soon cameras will also check water levels. And there’ll be public WiFi in a park and school. The city is being assisted by Spectrum Bridge, a real-time online marketplace for radio spectrum. That firm is supplying a spectrum database to prevent interference with local TV stations.

Writer Conor Friedersdorf of True/Slant compiled a list of the best journalism he encountered in 2009. This American Life, the only public radio program to appear in on it, turns up 10 times. TAL‘s reportage is cited in several categories–exceptional storytelling, investigative journalism, and media criticism, among others, and more often than any other publication. Friedersdorf acknowledges that there’s a lot of great work that he misses every year. “[T]his isn’t an infallible account of journalism’s best, but I aim to make it the best roundup that any one person can offer, one of these years I intend to do better than the committees who pick the Pulitzer Prizes and National Magazine Awards.

Now that baseball spring training is under way, eager fans are counting the hours until opening day. While spectators will be eating hot dogs in the bleachers, some PBSers will take to the field in their National Adult Baseball Association (NABA) league. KCET/Los Angeles President and CEO Al Jerome (at left in photo) formed the California Blue Jays team in 2002 and recruited athletic talent from around the system, including the strong double-play combination of shortstop Lloyd Wright (president and CEO of WFYI/Indianapolis, Ind., right in photo) and second baseman Andy Russell (senior v.p., PBS Ventures, center in photo). Former team members have included Mel Rogers of KOCE/Huntington Beach, Calif.,

“Peer teaching is at the heart of Youth Radio,” Jacinda Abcarian, executive director of the Oakland-based media program, tells San Francisco Chronicle. “You don’t get that school-like feel; there are no adults talking down to you.” In a feature noting the organization‘s 10th anniversary, music journalist Ben Fong-Torres reports on Youth Radio’s growth from a tiny storefront operation in Berkeley to a media training ground that has served “some 10,000 urban kids,” produced news reports for NPR and other major news outlets, and established radio streams for musical expression and health concerns.

New episodes of the 1970s PBS hit Upstairs, Downstairs are coming to Masterpiece in 2011 as part of a co-production deal with BBC World Sales and Distribution, Americas, the partners announced in a press release today. There’ll also be a 21st-century version of Sherlock Holmes, and three Aurelio Zen mysteries about a fictional Italian detective. The original Upstairs, Downstairs won seven Emmys including a best actress for Jean Marsh; she’ll recreate her role of Rose the parlor maid. The three-part series will be set in the same house. The new episodes take place in 1936, advancing the storyline that left off in 1930.

PBS won three Writers Guild of America Awards on Saturday night, which honored outstanding achievement in television, radio, news, promotional writing and graphic animation during the 2009 season. Frontline’s “The Madoff Affair” took the Documentary–Current Events honor; American Experience won for “The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer” for Documentary–Other Than Current Events; and Bill Moyers Journal scored in the News–Analysis, Feature of Commentary, for its segment “A Private War: Expose: America’s Investigative Reports.” Announcements were made in simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles (Writers Guild, West) and New York City (Writers Guild, East). A list of winners is available at the Writers Guild website.

Jennifer Ferro is the new g.m. of Los Angeles’ KCRW-FM, following her formal approval by the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees Saturday. “Jennifer epitomizes the perfect mix of traditional public radio experience and the strategic and creative new media thinking that will be critical to KCRW’s continued success in the years ahead,” said Chui L. Tsang, president of the college, in a press release. KCRW is licensed to the school. Ferro joined KCRW in 1991 as a volunteer arts reporter and since 1997 worked as assistant g.m. to outgoing station chief Ruth Seymour, who announced her retirement in November.

PubTV and radio in Minnesota are in for less funding if Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposed budget is adopted, according to the Duluth News Tribune. The plan puts forth some $1.4 million reductions for TV, and for radio, $287,000 in service grants, $100,000 in equipment grants and $250,000 of equipment grants for Minnesota Public Radio; indie KUMD 103.3 FM in Duluth would also be subject to those cuts. WDSE-TV station manager Al Harmon told the paper that would mean staff cuts at the station and the end of some local programming. Harmon said state grants make up about 10 percent of WDSE’s operating budget, and 20 percent of the salaries for the station’s 30 employees.

Thanks to a pair of Joe Paterno’s trademark black glasses, Penn State Broadcasting is $9,000 richer. The much-loved Penn State University’s football coach donated the glasses for the station’s Connoisseur’s Dinner and Auction. WPSU seems to be working its way around the much-loved coach’s body, already having auctioned autographed khaki pants, white socks, sneakers and neckties from several bowl games.

Next summer’s annual weeklong CPB/PBS Producers Academy, led by top TV production specialists, will accept applications through Tuesday, March 23, 5 p.m. Experienced indie and station-based producer/writer/directors are eligible for scholarships that cover the cost of the workshops, room and board in Boston, June 19-25. Details and app form are online at PBS.org. Questions go to PBS and CPB, not WGBH: Kathryn Lo of PBS and Angie Palmer of CPB.

Preparing for a bond issue this spring to finance construction of its new headquarters, NPR got a vote of confidence from two of the big-three bond rating agencies, the network said in a news release yesterday. Standard & Poor’s gave NPR an AA- rating and Moody’s gave it a comparable Aa3. Both are high-grade ratings, the fourth of 20 or more grades. Last March, NPR bought the site seven blocks east of its present home and is planning a new seven-story, 330,000-square-foot structure incorporating about two-thirds of an old historic-landmarked warehouse. NPR plans to break ground next fall and occupy the building by mid-2013.

The FCC officially launched its inquiry into future news and information needs of communities at its meeting in Washington yesterday, Broadcasting & Cable reports. Steve Waldman (right), special adviser to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, has been working for several months to assemble a cross-agency team and begin gathering information. The first formal group workshop will be March 4. Waldman said that discussion would be TV and radio stations, adding that there had been a “newspaper centrism” to past media discussions.

A bill in the Florida Legislature would amend a statute that limits state money for public broadcasting only to stations under the purview of CPB. It adds “nondenominational television stations licensed by the FCC as full-power educational broadcast stations”as eligible for funding via the State Board of Education. “What this bill would do is open it up to a larger group of licensees,” said Sandra Ceseretti, g.m. of WSRE at Pensacola Junior College. “It could be community or perhaps religious licensees that are nondenominational. It would take the current infrastructure and grow it, perhaps to another 200 new licensees.” As the college’s newspaper, the Corsair, reports, that could dilute funding to existing stations, causing problems WSRE.

The FCC has granted an extension to APTS, CPB, NPR and PBS for comments on the report, “The Future of Media and Information Needs of Communities in A Digital Age.” The deadline, originally March 8, is now May 7. The G4 told the FCC the delay was necessary because of the “wide-ranging nature” of the topics involved. Also, the organizations are planning regional town meetings to solicit viewpoints of community leaders and broadcast station execs. FCC order here (PDF).

At a public meeting in Washington today, the FCC previewed part of its upcoming report to Congress on a National Broadband Plan. The focus was the “national purposes” portion of the plan, “designed to support America’s competitive advantages in key sectors of the economy and society,” according to an FCC press release (PDF) with details of the presentation (a more specific report, also in PDF, here). The agency discussed potential solutions for challenges in areas including health care technology, education, energy, jobs, public safety and civic engagement. A final report is due to Congress in mid-March.