WLIU-FM 88.3 at Long Island University has secured a reprieve, if only for a two more months, reports The Southampton News. University officials recently announced that it would stop funding the station on its Stony Brook Southampton campus on Oct. 3, the day its lease expired, and put it up for sale. Wally Smith, station manager, said that a negotiated agreement will allow WLIU to continue broadcasting at least until Dec. 3. Smith is forming a nonprofit corporation to raise funds to purchase the station’s licenses and equipment; he also hopes to keep the same staff. LIU Chief Financial Officer Robert Altholz told Current: “As much as I and others love the station, it’s running a deficit”–more than $1 million for the fiscal year ending Aug.

Could CPB have avoided the public collision of wills over one of the America at a Crossroads documentaries that tainted its $20 million project in 2007 about the post-9/11 world? Determining that, in effect, was the assignment that Cheryl Halpern, then chair of the CPB Board, gave more than two years ago to the corporation’s semi-autonomous inspector general, Kenneth Konz. Back then 10 members of Congress also had asked CPB and its IG to determine what kept the program, Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center, from airing among the first batch of Crossroads shows on PBS. The lead producer of the film, Frank Gaffney, a defense think-tank president and former Pentagon official, had gone public with his dispute.

The America at a Crossroads series and the 2007 standoff and furor over one of its documentaries, Islam vs. Islamists;, had its roots in the period of Republican dominance of the CPB Board. See related story. 2003 February 2003 CPB President Bob Coonrod names Michael Pack as senior v.p. for TV programming without search or usual hiring process. September 2003 Staff briefs CPB Board on America at a Crossroads idea. Also: Board elects Kenneth Tomlinson as chair. 2004 January 2004 With Coonrod leaving as president, CPB Board offers the job to Patricia Harrison, assistant secretary of state and onetime co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

CPB has issued an RFP for research studies to evaluate the tent-pole pubTV programming strategy along with awareness, attitudes and usage among certain audiences. Deadline is Sept. 7.

Now here’s a unique partnership: Antiques Roadshow and Martha Speaks. In the season premiere of the pup-ular PBS Kids show on Sept. 14, Martha’s favorite “stinky” napping chair ends up on the Roadshow (photo courtesy WGBH/Susan Meddaugh). Appraiser Noel Barrett lends his voice (and face) to the episode, which teaches young viewers words such as antique, donate and valuable. One amusing moment in a preview clip on YouTube: The elderly Mrs. Demson, upon hearing that well-known PBS tagline “. . . and viewers like you, thank you,” responds, “Hmph. You’re welcome.”

The production team on the BBC drama Being Human is taking baby steps toward going green, earning praise from the Center for Social Media at American University. There are now recycling bins on the set and in offices, and staffers are working on using less paper for scripts and call sheets, reports blogger Andrew Buchanan. He adds, “OK, it won’t make the series carbon neutral, but it’s a great first step. . . . It would be great if all productions everywhere go carbon neutral as soon as possible, but entrenched behavior and customs take a while to change.” The center offers a Code of Best Practices for Sustainable Filmmaking for ideas on how to go green.

Pubcasters’ memories of Julia Child keep proliferating like profiteroles in Paree. Here’s one from Jim Lewis of Oregon-based fundraising consultants Lewis Kennedy Associates: Back in 1985, Child was receiving an honorary doctorate in humane letters from her alma mater, Smith College in Massachusetts. She agreed to attend a donor event at WGBY, thanks to a former classmate and friend of the station, Charlotte Turgeon. “As general manager,” Lewis told Current, “I was given the honor of driving Julia from Northampton down to our studio in Springfield.” Child’s husband Paul was in front next to Lewis; Turgeon and Child were in back.

If anyone doubts the power of Hollywood and its well-trained media machine, note what the New York Times reports this morning: Within days after Columbia Pictures launched an affectionate bio of Julia Child by an expert screenwriter and featuring two highly likeable stars who draw free publicity from a zillion magazine, blog and TV reports, the 48-year-old book at the heart of the plot is selling far better than ever before. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Child and co-authors, was selling 22,000 copies a week, more than in any entire year in its history, the Times reported. A Barnes & Noble exec said the $40, fatty and fat (750-page) book sold seven times as many copies in a month as in a typical year.

Vote by Sept. 4 on panels you’d like to attend at any of the three South by Southwest conference-festivals to be held in Austin, Texas: interactive, March 12-16; film, March 12-20; music, March 17-21. Example: Jacob Harris of the New York Times wants to hold a panel “Shut Up and Code! (Hacking the Future of News)”: “Talk is cheap. Talk about the future of news is cheaper still, especially since so little leads to action.” To enter competitions: The interactive festival will accept entries Oct. 16 through Dec. 18 (entry fees escalate). The film festival will accept short or feature-length entries Nov.

A self-described conservative watchdog group is suing the FCC to release documents related to the delayed DTV transition. Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in U.S. District Court for District of Columbia says an adviser to President Barack Obama stood to benefit from the delay, which slowed up Verizon’s new broadband network to compete with Clearwire. The lawsuit also alleges that documents the FCC did provide to the group were highly redacted, and other documents were withheld.

Comparison of previous webcasting royalty deal with new terms negotiated under the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009

Now that public broadcasting has a webcasting royalty deal with the recording industry, local pubcasters are learning what it requires of them. Many are asking: Is this something we can live with?

Documentary filmmaker Deborah Kaufman writes in The San Francisco Chronicle of her fears that what she sees as the increasing attacks on controversial films may signal a return to the “culture wars” of the 1990s (Current, Dec. 12, 1994). She recalls working across the hall from Marlon Riggs, director of Tongues Untied, which sparked a furor for PBS at that time (Current, June 24, 1991). “Often forgotten in these battles,” she points out, “are the many thousands in the audience hungry for knowledge, political debate and unfettered creativity who continue to line up at theaters from Melbourne to Edinburgh, Tokyo to San Francisco.”

Denver’s KBDI-Channel 12 has stirred up local discussion with recent pledge content. Joanne Ostrow, arts and entertainment columnist for The Denver Post, writes that the station “aired controversial documentaries promoting conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and claiming taxes are unlawful. Answering the phones during the pledge drive were conspiracy believers who reportedly encouraged callers to believe.” KBDI Membership Director Shari Bernson told Ostrow that her goal in selecting pledge shows is to provide a forum for many different viewpoints and present things not seen on other stations. 9/11: Pressed for Truth was one of KBDI’s top five fundraisers in the past year, and it plans to repeat it in September.

Talk show host Diane Rehm fell and cracked her pelvis yesterday and will be off the air for several weeks. Guest host Susan Page told listeners of the injury on this morning’s edition of The Diane Rehm Show.