David Pogue, who’s hosting a four-part Nova for fall 2010 on materials science (working title: Stuff), has a cool Flickr set of his weekend adventures on a Navy aircraft carrier. (Don’t miss shots of the production team.) This segment will be on steel. The production team is also blogging its behind-the-scenes work at Inside Nova. That blog has been a “big hit,” says Nova spokeswoman Carole McFall. “I think people really enjoy hearing about what’s in the pipeline directly from our researchers and production teams.”

Wondering what the heck a PublicMediaCamp is? The next National Center for Media Engagement can help out with that. Its next Peer Webinar, at 2 p.m. Eastern this Wednesday, is “PubCamp 101.” Presenting will be Jonathan Coffman, PBS’s product manager, social media; and Peter Corbett, an event expert and CEO of iStrategyLabs. They’ll cover the history of PubCamps, why PBS and NPR are involved, and how to create a local PubCamp. Sign up here.

PBS has 15 Writers Guild of America nods — more than any other broadcast or cable TV channel — for outstanding achievement during the 2009 season. Frontline took all six nominations in the documentary and current events category. In the documentary other than current events category, all six slots also went to pubcasting, five for American Experience and one for National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Bill Moyers Journal scored two nominations in news analysis feature or commentary, and Sesame Street also took two spots in children’s episodic and specials. The nominations are from both the Writers Guild of America, West, and Writers Guild of America, East.

Boston’s public radio landscape shifted Dec. 1 when WGBH moved all of its classical music programming to WCRB 99.5 FM and adopted a news/talk-dominated format for WGBH 89.7. The change, made possible by WGBH’s $14 million purchase of the commercial classical station from Nassau Broadcasting Partners, marks a strategic redirection for the Boston pubcaster that’s known throughout the world as the top producer of television programming for PBS. Its radio service, with a 100,000-watt signal extending far beyond Boston, had tried for decades to satisfy both music lovers and NPR news audiences. Like pubradio licensees in other major cities, WGBH now looks to super-serve both sets of listeners and attract new ones with two distinct formats.

Modeled on programs like Americorps and Teach for America, the Public Media Corps will hire local residents as “fellows” for yearlong residencies at public broadcasting institutions. Their job there will be to identify local issues and use multiple media platforms to spark vigorous community engagement on the issues.

Those calling for more local news from public media — and those experimenting with new ways to provide it — should examine a business model devised for commercial television more than 30 years ago. PM Magazine was an evening primetime news and entertainment show ...

PBS is raising tent-poles to reinvigorate its primetime lineup. Over the next one to three years, it will shrink down a number of as-yet-unidentified series to high-profile special events, then use the freed-up production money and schedule space to nurture new shows it hopes will mature into icons.

Looking to lift up your midday radio audience? Try some uplifting music. That’s a lesson from 10 classical radio stations that have been jiggering their midday playlists with help from a listening study backed by CPB and conducted by the Public Radio Program Directors Association. Eight of the 10 stations saw their midday audiences grow after changing their mixes of music — some grew quite significantly — and the two that lost audience suffered only very small declines. The study began in 2007 when researchers hired by PRPD played 150 half-minute samples of classical pieces for test audiences in four cities.

So what will journalism and, for that matter, all content look like in five years and how will it be delivered? It will all come together on devices resembling the rumored iTablet ...

The number was a compromise between the House’s $40 million figure and the Senate’s $10 million.

Stations struggling with mounting deficits often cut jobs, but the shears rarely lop off the highest rank as they did at WHQR in Wilmington, N.C., a year ago.

Interestingly, PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler didn’t receive any comments from viewers on the revamped PBS NewsHour, he reports in his latest column (well, one that was “not for posting”). Getler, who calls himself “a devoted watcher” of the program, writes of its latest incarnation: “I, personally, found the first few days of the new format and approach to be a distinct improvement. The program seemed to have more zip and energy, faster paced, with good interviews and without the always predictable language that introduced the show in the past.” The new version, with its online anchor Hari Sreenivasan, kicked off Dec.

Penn State Public Broadcasting has created an interesting web site filled with documentaries by student war veterans, “Back from Iraq: The Veterans’ Story Project.” Eight students completed a special class for them last semester, “Narrative, Oral History, New Media Technologies,” at Penn State University’s main campus that taught the vets documentary filmmaking. They chronicled their experiences in their docs. Among the vets is a Marine machine gunner, a surface warfare fire controlman and an intelligence officer. Support for the project was provided by CPB.

Washington Week’s Gwen Ifill chatted with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last night. One revelation: Pubcasters on her show “are seated hours before we begin, just to have a chance to stare at each other.” Who knew?

CPB has expanded the list of conferences for professional development small-station grants. Staffers at public TV stations receiving nonfed financial support of $2 million or less may attend various conferences in 2010. Want to go to NETA in January? Or the PBS tech conference, or Showcase? There’s a rolling deadline to apply for no more than two $1,500 grants per year for professional development.