David Fanning, the founding executive producer of PBS’s Frontline series, gave this talk in 2009 as the annual James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting sponsored by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. Thank you, Geoff Cowan and Dean Wilson, for your kind words, and especially for your invitation to come here to the Annenberg School to give the annual Loper Lecture. This also gives me a chance publicly to thank Jim Loper, for the years of work he gave not just to KCET but as a leader in public broadcasting. It’s an honor to be invited in his name.

Sesame Street’s Grover now has his own app. And Grover’s Number Special is the first official Sesame Street app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It includes original Sesame video and “encourages visual discrimination, counting and number recognition,” according to a Sesame Workshop press release. In it, restaurant waiter Grover catches and counts ingredients to whip up a meal for an impatient customer. Users tip their device back and forth to help Grover catch the foods. “Oh, it is so much fun,” Grover said in the release. “Please play my little app–the customer is getting very hungry!” It’s $2.99 from from the App Store or iTunes.

Peconic Public Broadcasting, which recently purchased WLIU pubradio (Current, Oct. 13, 2009; background, Aug. 24) from Long Island University, has won approval for the station to remain in its current studios through March 31, according to the East Hampton Press. The purchase is expected to be finalized in January so the extension provides time to find a permanent location.

WNET.org and Brooklyn web developer Tierra Innovation Inc. promoted their WordPress CMS Toolkit at the regional WordCamp NYC last week. Their first four freely available, open-source plugins for WordPress are available online now and “lots more” are coming, says Tierra President Jamie Trowbridge. Also coming are templates for a content management system abstracted from the ones used by WNET.org to build 50 sites for its shows, stations and projects, Trowbridge tells Current. Outside of West 33rd Street, Dallas’s KERA recently used the toolkit to build a site for KXT-FM, its new sister station (“Music to the Core”), and Chicago’s WTTW created one for its coproduction with Brian Boyer, Retirement Revolution.

Public broadcasters will be well-represented at the FTC’s upcoming summit, “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?”, Dec. 1 and 2 in Washington. The confab will explore issues such as the economics of journalism in print and online, new business and nonprofit news models, and ways to reduce journalism costs without sacrificing quality. Panelists announced by the FTC so far (PDF) include pubcasters Joaquin Alvarado, CPB’s senior veep for diversity and innovation; NPR head Vivian Schiller; Jon McTaggart, senior veep and COO, American Public Media; Alisa Miller, president and CEO, Public Radio International; and Jason Seiken, senior veep, PBS Interactive.

WFYI’s studios in Indianapolis co-star in a new MasterCard holiday ad. David DeMumbrun, station director of production operations, told Current a scouting crew visited local commercial stations, but when they got to the state-of-the-art pubcasting studios (opened in August 2008), “they found nirvana.” The spot stars Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (hence, the filming location) and How I Met Your Mother actress Alyson Hannigan. Hannigan’s part in the ad was filmed at the studio and Manning’s in an Indy home. What a production day it was on Oct. 13 at WFYI: The ad’s cast and crew numbered around 155. Director of photography was Russell Carpenter, who shot the big-screen Titanic.

PBS last week told the FCC that pubcasters should be allowed to continue their multiplatform efforts and and that over-the-air DTV is important to that work, reports Broadcasting & Cable. It’s an important argument as the FCC decides how to free up spectrum for wireless broadband. “The free and universal nature of over-the-air broadcasting enables PBS and its member stations to ensure that virtually every household has access” to content, PBS said in FCC filings and in a meeting with FCC staffers. On Nov. 3, APTS representatives also discussed pubcasting spectrum issues with the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis.

MontanaPBS is just $20,000 away from its $1.3 million goal for an over-the-air broadcast tower for viewers in the Great Falls area, reports the Great Falls Tribune. Currently, Great Falls may be the largest American city without an over-the-air PBS signal. Sally Newhall, co-chair of the “Tower to the People” fundraising effort, said the project has a construction deadline of the end of the year, and an October 2010 deadline to match a $75,000 Murdoch Foundation grant. “I feel really positive about it,” Newhall added.

Maxie C. Jackson will become president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters in January. He succeeds Carol Pierson, who is retiring after 12 years as head of NFCB. Jackson is now senior director, program development, for WNYC in New York, where he has worked on the launch of the morning news program The Takeaway, on program planning and audience development. He previously served as p.d. for WETA-FM in Washington and acting g.m. of WEAA in Baltimore. He is a member of the board of the Development Exchange and Eastern Region Public Media and former board member of the African American Public Radio Consortium.

An anonymous donor is providing a $5 million challenge grant backing the Minnesota Public Radio Enterprise News Fund, a “permanent fund for significant enterprise news gathering,” announced MPR President Bill Kling during MPR’s Future of News Summit. The summit, convened at MPR headquarters this morning, is examining new models for local and regional news. An afternoon panel on the role of daily newspapers and online start-ups that are helping to fill gaps in local news coverage, is about to begin. Watch and participate online here.

Kentucky’s budget director warned several state last agencies Friday to plan for a possible 6 percent spending cut, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. But topping a list of those exempt from the reductions is Kentucky Educational Television. Others are public universities, K-12 schools, prosecutors, public defenders, Medicaid and mental health services. KET Executive Director Mac Wall told Current that its position on the list makes the point that if a station invests in local services such as education, its value to the community “goes up dramatically.” Its EncycloMedia site for teachers and students just surpassed five million hits since 2005, Wall noted.

Detroit Public Television is the Best-Managed Nonprofit in that city, as chosen by Crain’s Detroit Business. The publication cites DPT’s programming shift to five areas “critical to the region,” children/education, arts/culture, energy/environment, health/safety and jobs/leadership — while reducing its operational costs by $2.4 million. “With the way the media landscape has changed over the last few years, there’s more and more of a need for a station committed to public engagement and (local) public information,” Rich Homberg, president and general manager, told the paper. The station also closed out a $22 million capital campaign and brought in more than $1 million in new funding.

The American Society of News Editors is conducting a public discussion on news ethics in the evolving media ecosystem during its conference this week, “Journalism Ethics: Public Trust Through Public Engagement.” Topics include: Differences in how citizens and journalists view journalism values; when anyone can be a publisher, what distinguishes a journalist?; and new ways of partnering with the public. Some 25 editors, scholars, students and members of the public will interact at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism starting at 10 a.m. today. Follow along on the website’s streaming video, or on Twitter at hashtag #TalkEthics.

WKNO in Memphis is up and running in its new 44,000 square foot facility, reports the Commercial-Appeal. The sleek building houses two television studios, two closed-captioning suites, three radio studios and three editing suites. It’s nearly twice the size of WKNO’s former home, which has been on the south campus of the University of Memphis for 30 years.

The FCC yesterday okayed WGBH’s purchase of classical WCRB 99.5 FM from from Nassau Broadcasting Partners, the Boston Globe reports today. WGBH revealed in September it was bidding to buy the Waltham, Mass., station so it could convert 89.7 FM, with a mix of NPR programs, classical, and jazz shows, to an all-news talk format. Classical music will shift to 99.5 FM. The purchase puts WGBH-FM in direct competition with Boston NPR News powerhouse WBUR.