KUNC in Greeley, Colo., is dealing with “an unauthorized, local signal that has been sending out brief, spurious signals” and disrupting the NPR member’s Denver transmission, according to a letter to annoyed listeners from g.m. Neil Best. Station engineers continue to search for the source; meanwhile, the station is switching to satellite delivery service.

Former NPR science editor David Malakoff, who pleaded guilty in March to a felony child pornography possession charge, will not go to prison, a U.S. District Court judge decided Thursday. Instead, Judge Ellen Huvelle sentenced him to five years’ probation, 600 hours of community service and registration as a sex offender for 25 years. Evidence was found that he had illicit materials on his NPR computer between April and June of 2008; he resigned from NPR that June. Malakoff said he was raped as a boy and was attempting to relive the experience. Huvelle also ordered Malakoff to write a letter to the subject of one of the pornographic videos that showed a young girl being raped by her father.

Public broadcasters scored 26 nods in primetime Emmys announced today, including American Masters and American Experience competing for Outstanding Nonfiction Series. New theme music by John Williams for Great Performances, which debuted March 25, also is on the list for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. Entire list is here (PDF).

A report to WTTW’s board of trustees and staff in Chicago revealed that the three pledge drives during the fiscal year ending June 30 were 11 percent below what had been budgeted, according to Chicago Sun-Times media and marketing columnist Lewis Lazare.

A Google Analytics blog post provides a peek inside PBS’s Web development strategy. Amy Sample, PBS Interactive web analytics director, discusses how analysis of users’ video viewing behavior on PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org led to the development of the PBS Video and PBS Kids Go! sites. Future research includes working to gauge impact of online content on TV viewing, and tracking online donations.

The sentencing process began yesterday for former NPR science correspondent and editor David Malakoff, who pleaded guilty in March to a felony child porn possession charge after evidence was found that he possessed illicit material on his NPR computer between April and June 2008. A young woman whose rape at 10 years old was the subject of one of the videos on Malakoff’s computer is working with the prosecution. Malakoff resigned from NPR that June. He could receive more than eight years in prison and will be sentenced Thursday. A biography of Malakoff is here (scroll down). NPR told Current in an e-mail: “This is a legal matter involving a former employee, and as such we have no comment.”

A three-party radio deal announced today in New York will bring WQXR, a classical music station operated by the New York Times Company, under the ownership of WNYC. The agreement involves a frequency swap with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, which will take over the 96.3 FM frequency where WQXR now broadcasts classical music. Pending FCC approval, WQXR will move to a weaker signal on 105.9 FM and program classical music as a service of WNYC. The Times Company will receive $45 million from the sale, $11.5 million of which will be paid by WNYC for the WQXR license, transmission equipment, call letters and website.

PBS dominated the News & Documentary Emmy Award nominations (PDF) announced today, with 41 nods. Closest competitors are CBS with 23, and 13 each for ABC and HBO/Cinemax. POV scored 10 nominations; Frontline, seven; and Nova, four. One strong category: Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story/Long Form, with PBS taking four of five spots. Winners will be announced Sept. 21 in New York City.

Outgoing acting FCC chair Michael Copps, in an interview with Multicast News, reveals the commission is working on a notice of inquiry on the future of broadcast journalism. A broad discussion on the state of journalism in America “is something to take a little while. You are going to need to assemble the best brains, and people from different sectors of the communications world and let them come and reason together and see if they can help us chart a path to a media future,” Copps said.

CPB has awarded a $2 million grant to Radio Bilingue to design and develop a multiplatform English language program service for young Latinos in Los Angeles. Radio Bilingue, which produces and distributes Spanish-language news and cultural programming airing on stations in the U.S. and Mexico, will take several months to develop programming before launching the new service in 2010. “Los Angeles sits at the juncture of diversity and new media and this is an opportunity to create a national model for public media innovation,” said CPB President Patricia Harrison in a news release. “This service, developed by Radio Bilingue, will serve and represent a new community of listeners through fresh and innovative content.”

KCSM in San Mateo, no longer a PBS member station due to financial woes, “plans to fill the PBS void” by airing more local shows including its Spotlight! series, in which high-school filmmakers create three- to five-minute flicks, according to The Daily Journal. Some of the aspiring movie mavens are as young as 14. They’re mentored by a staff of pros including producers, screenwriters and special-effects experts and get to premiere their work on KCSM.

PBS is expanding its weekly feed of The Electric Company to each weekday starting Sept. 7, reports Variety. The show, which kicked off in January, is currently the top performer on the PBS Kids Go! Block this year, and has streamed more than 10 million videos at its website.

PBS and impreMedia will stream NewsHour’s feed of Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor this week, translated into Spanish. The feed will run on impreMedia’s website, according to a joint statement issued today. Arturo Duran, CEO of impreMedia Digital, noted in the statement that this is the first time in the Supreme Court’s history that a potential justice grew up speaking Spanish.

For three years, Pittsburgh lawyer, law professor and political analyst Joseph Sabino Mistick has co-hosted WQED’s Roddey v. Mistick, a local political debate show. But now he’s written a revealing column for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review regarding the recent WQED layoffs that he thinks “will surely put an end to my role” at the station. Among his claims: “With six executives making six figures-plus … the station’s layoffs include a janitor, a mailroom clerk and a part-time graphic artist who is a single mother.” Furthermore, “This may no longer be a rank-and-file town, but we still have that sense of fairness and equity that was nurtured over generations.

Newsweek reports that USA Network CEO Bonnie Hammer’s first TV job was in 1974 at WGBH on Infinity Factory. Among her duties, the mag says: “Scooping up excrement from one of the show’s costars, a sheepdog.”