Are you filmmaker with dwindling funds? The Independent has a good tips for surviving the recession while keeping your project going. As writer Sean Jones notes, “Many of these point the way to a new, sustainable business model that could bring independent film increasing relevance and financial promise as the economy recovers.” On interesting idea is documentarian Shelly Frost’s Make a Movie Studios, which teaches kids how to create their own films. For $99, kits include everything from a script to props list and shoot schedule.

“Dinosaurs are extinct. So should be the CPB,” says Phil Fretz, an editorial page writer for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. Fretz thinks the corporation was necessary in 1967 to create programming diversity. “But now I have an Internet radio that picks up thousands of stations, subscription-free and with crystal-clear reception,” he says. He’d rather the government save the $400 million annual appropriation.

For its coverage of health care reform legislation being drafted on Capitol Hill, NPR News launched Dollar Politics, a series examining how lobbyists seek to influence the debate. The reportage includes an NPR.org crowdsourcing project, “Turning the Camera Around,” that starts with a panoramic photograph of the audience attending a June 17 Senate hearing where lawmakers began working on the overhaul. Reporters Peter Overby and Andrea Seabrook did some legwork to identify a few of the lobbyists in the photo and they turned to the audience for help in naming others. “The response so far has been practically ecstatic–at least in the blogosphere and the Twitterverse,” Seabrook says in this Q&A with Poynter Online.

Antiques Roadshow Asian art appraiser James Callahan stunned Jinx Taylor — and made her extremely happy — when he estimated her collection of Chinese jade was possibly worth more than $1 million. That beats the previous Roadshow record of $500,000 last year in Palm Springs, Calif., for a 1937 abstract painting. Taylor brought the pieces to the taping in Raleigh, N.C.; her collection was from the Chien Lung reign from 1736-1795. Callahan said the value of the pieces depends on the market for them in China. The government often wants to buy back such pieces.

Phase I of the American Archives Pilot Program is about to begin. Oregon Public Broadcasting, overseeing the Archive project (Current, April 13) , has selected 25 pubcasting stations. Each will receive up to $10,000 to “locate and inventory video and audio content for the archive prototype,” according to a statement from OPB. The massive effort hopes to preserve aging historical television and radio content. The stations chosen are “a relevant representation of both radio and TV stations both geographically and in terms of the type of content they bring to the pilot project,” said Patricia Lanas-Espinosa, CPB’s project manager for digital media strategy, in the statement.

Mediavore, the blog launched seven months ago by Todd Mundt and Graham Griffith, posted its 1001th entry today and marked the occasion with a special post challenging public broadcasters to think more broadly about their roles as curators of online content. Mediavore’s singular purpose is to point readers to the best public media content on news and cultural topics of the day but, as Mundt notes, there is plenty of room for other pubcasting outlets to take up this work. “The technology we have today puts nearly everything that every radio and TV station produces in the hands of anyone who wants it,” he writes.

Two NOW episodes on controversial issues drew the attention of PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler as well as many viewers. One show, in the wake of the murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, examined whether such attacks could be considered domestic terrorism. Another dealt with mounting debts taken on my millions of college students.

Reps from nearly 30 media outlets including NPR and PBS member station WNET are attending next week’s Watchdogs at Pocantico confab, “Building an Investigative News Network.” The “conference on new models for watchdog journalism” is co-sponsored by the Center for Investigative Reporting and Center for Public Integrity–its director, Bill Buzenberg, is a veteran of NPR and American Public Media. “The conclave is unprecedented, and its goals ambitious,” writes blogger Ken Doctor, a media analyst and 21-year veteran of Knight Ridder. Investigative journalism is a hot topic among pubcasters, who been discussing taking on more of a watchdog reporting role as newspapers die off (Current, March 2).

The Senate on Thursday approved the chair of the FCC and head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. Julius Genachowski replaces acting FCC head Michael Copps, who will return to his commissioner spot. Genachowski may be sworn in soon enough to preside over the FCC’s next public meeting on July 2. His background includes work as a telecom and technology adviser to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as well as experience in law, business, politics, communications and new media. Larry Strickling will now oversee the NTIA with the title of assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information. NTIA advises the White House on communications policy; a current focus is developing guidelines for distributing the $4.5 billion in broadband stimulus money.

Radio Bilingue is producing special coverage of Las Americas, the Latino musical component of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival that began this week on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Today’s webcast, streaming here, features Maestros del Joropo Oriental, masters of a distinct musical tradition from Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, and Arpex, whose “big harp” music is an influential predecessor of the Mexican mariachi tradition. Linea Abierta, Radio Bilingue’s Spanish-language call-in show, is also producing daily coverage of the festival. Radio Bilingue’s coverage continues through June 29; podcasts of performances and talk programs from earlier this week are here.

KCET has detailed to Current its recent cutbacks. Station President Al Jerome said in an emailed statement that a total of 12 full-time and part-time employees are eliminated, including two senior staffers. There’ll be salary reductions of 3.5 percent to 11.7 percent based on current salaries; those affect only exempt employees and senior management. Nonexempt employees will instead have furloughs of one, five or 10 days during fiscal 2010, based on salary range. Employer retirement plan contributions are suspended indefinitely. Jerome cited reasons including a fiscal 2010 budget projected to be $5 million less than this year, as well as the station’s PBS dues, which, he said, have increased by 40 percent over the past four years.

New application deadlines and other details for America’s Media Makers: Development and Production grants are now available online through the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Public Programs website. The division funds adio, television and digital projects in the humanities intended for public audiences that “explore stories, ideas, and beliefs that deepen our understanding of our lives and our world.” Try to apply early at Grants.gov; it’s recently been slowed by a large number of applications. The next two deadlines for the grants are Aug. 26 and Jan. 13, 2010.

Penn State Public Broadcasting WPSU is canceling two TV programs and reducing the staff by eight positions. Gone are Scholastic Scrimmage, a high-school quiz show, and Common Ground Lobby Talks, an audience-participation public affairs offering. While the station faces potential state funding losses of $850,000 if Gov. Ed Rendell’s budget passes, “that is only the most severe and immediate challenge; we must also confront the potential reduction of other revenue sources,” said Ted Krichels, associate vice president for Penn State Outreach and general manager of WPSU. “Those include community support and production revenue.” The station’s 2008 project, Liquid Assets, (Current, Sept.

An open mic at D.C.’s WAMU picked up an off-air conversation that included the f-word, reports DCRTV (scroll down), a website that covers Washington and Baltimore TV and radio. American University made two on-air apologies, citing “technical difficulties.” Station spokeswoman Kay Summers told the site’s Dave Hughes, “The matter has been dealt with internally through discussions with those involved. Not our finest hour, to be sure, but mistakes happen.” The expletive aired during Bob Edwards Weekend.

The Three Nons (nonsectarian, nonpolitical, noncommercial) of pubcasting are the subject of the latest PBS ombudsman column by Michael Getler. He’s received more than 100 e-mails on the PBS Board’s decision to ban new sectarian programming on primary channels.