NPR is planning a gathering to remember pubcaster Sheryl Flowers (right), who died Monday at age 42 after an 18-month battle with breast cancer. The event will be at 5 p.m. June 15. Anna Christopher, NPR spokesperson, said details are still being finalized. Flowers was a longtime executive producer of The Tavis Smiley Show on public radio and television, and current director of communications for Smiley’s production company. In an audio statement on the show’s website, Smiley called Flowers “the creative force, the genius most responsible for making me sound a whole lot smarter than I am.” A full obituary will run in the June 22 issue of Current.

“The Mosque in Morgantown” filmmaker Brittany Huckabee hopes it helps audiences realize the similarities and differences between religions because “that’s pretty important in a time when Americans are trying to engage with the larger Muslim world, to understand what’s going on here at home inside the often closed doors of mosques.” The film, part of the America at a Crossroads project, premiered at the Metropolitan Theater in Morgantown, W.V., last night. It centers on Asra Nomani, who entered the mosque to pray in the main hall where only men were allowed. Her move caused reactions through the mosque there as well as others across the country.

PBS is ordering an additional 26 episodes of its popular WordGirl program on PBS Kids GO! That brings the total number of half-hour shows to 78.

One of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s transmitters, hit by lightning last week, is up to full power again — just in time to be shut down permanently on Friday for the DTV transition. “That’s kind of the joke around here,” Everett Helm, director of engineering, told the Gazette-Times in Corvallis, site of the transmitter. Helm said this was a rare occurrence: The lightning appears to have caused carbon to form inside the antenna’s electronics, which caused the equipment to heat up slowly and eventually short out over the weekend.

Looks like a possible PBS reality show, Agents of Change, probably won’t happen, according to D.C.’s The Hill newspaper. Producer Gabe Gentry had contacted at least two U.S. Reps about participating. The program would follow teams of young supporters conducting nationwide town halls to determine issues of concern. The teams would help draft legislation, the public would vote on what bill they most wanted, and lawmakers would take it from there. But one government watchdog found the idea “wholly inappropriate” and said it would “would undermine the credibility of the institution.” At least two legislators expressed interest to Gentry awhile back, but he’s finding no support now.

WDUQ in Pittsburgh launched its year-end fundraiser last week with a special appeal to its listeners: forgo thank-you gifts for your contribution and the NPR News and jazz station will send 10 percent of the pledge to NPR. General Manager Scott Hanley, who announced the special fundraising appeal during the NPR Board meeting last month, said he has a “six-figure problem to resolve” in closing the station’s year-end budget gap, but folks at WDUQ are “very concerned about what is happening at NPR.” As much as the station’s supporters “love coffee mugs and tote bags, they love NPR more.” Prior to the campaign’s launch on June 4, Hanley blogged about the cutbacks undertaken at NPR this year, adding: “The most stable source of income for NPR is fees for programs from stations like WDUQ.

Gather.com, the social network in which American Public Media holds a controlling interest, announced yesterday that it has secured $5.3 million in equity financing. Investors include Allen & Company, American Public Media, former chief executive officer of Lotus Development Corporation Jim Manzi, former Hill Holiday chief executive officer Jack Connors, Kevin McClatchy, Andrew Tobias and the Gerace family. The Boston-based company benefited from a big surge in “engagement marketing” bookings, according to this news release. The investors’ cash will “fund operations at its current run rate through to profitability expected in early 2010.” Paidcontent reports that Gather has raised “at least $25 million over the years since being founded in 2004.”

KERA in Dallas will launch a Triple A public radio station in the nation’s fifth largest market with its purchase of 91.7 FM, a noncommercial radio frequency owned by religious broadcaster Covenant Educational Media under the call letters KVTT. The deal, announced today and billed as the largest radio transaction of 2009 to date, was brokered by Public Radio Capitol and partially financed by its Public Radio Fund. Other lenders include National Cooperative Bank and FJC, a public foundation that offers a special loan program for nonprofits. With a potential audience of 5.5 million listeners in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan region, the transaction is a major expansion for public radio’s Triple A format, according to Erik Langner, who has been working on the deal since January 2008.

“The Prenups: What Filmmakers and Funders Should Talk About Before Tying the Knot” is an informative new site “dedicated to improving communications and collaborations among filmmakers, funders, strategists and advocates,” according to the Center for Social Media, which advises the project. Money people, policy people and film people each bring different skills, needs, concerns and assets to collaborations, the center says. The Prenups explores why some funder/maker relationships thrive, while others don’t.

Now the Red Cross is getting involved in the final DTV transition, which occurs June 12. In a press release, the group said the switch from analog to digital signals “will have a real effect on the disaster preparedness plans of many people who have relied on small portable televisions with antennas for emergency communications in a disaster.” Those sets won’t work without a converter box, as Broadcasting & Cable points out. The FCC issued a statement (PDF) instructing viewers to connect a battery-powered digital-to-analog converter box to continue to receive emergency warnings in a power outage.

Remember Budget Hero? That’s the interactive national budget game launched in May 2008 by American Public Media. Players use the same economic model and data as the Congressional Budget Office, choosing from among more than 160 policy options to try to balance the budget. The game caught on quickly: Within three weeks it had been linked in at least 100 blogs. Since its inception about 10 percent of players, around 15,000, left enough anonymous data to do some crunching. David Rejeski, director of the Serious Games Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in D.C., offers up some interesting stats.

Wisconsin Public Television is cutting five positions. Gone are three unfilled slots, and two contracts that will not be renewed, James Steinbach, WPT director of television tells WisBusiness.com. Travel expenses have also been cut. One of the network’s flagship shows, the half-hour weekly magazine In Wisconsin also shrinks from 19 new episodes per year to 13. Steinbach cited the ongoing recession and state budget woes. Milwaukee Public Television, distinct from the Wisconsin network, also has frozen hiring and salaries, reduced use of freelancers, and dropped programs with no underwriting support, says Ellis Bromberg, g.m.

Now pubcasters can keep up with the Association of Public Television Stations through its Twitter account and Facebook page. Jeffrey Davis, vice president of communications, said in an email to Current that APTS will use Twitter to update stations on legislative and regulatory hearings, press conferences, projects of importance and other tweets. On its Facebook page, visitors can read APTS news updates, post links and comments, and find out about hearings and other events. Davis said APTS hopes both will “enhance the presence of APTS in the online community.”

Michael Kinsell imagined that his Michael’s Enchanted Neighborhood show would replace Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on public television. Instead, Kinsell and his dream ended up on The Museum of Hoaxes website, which tracks “dubious claims and mischief of all kinds.” For at least the past 18 months, the young San Diego man took his plans to a sequence of top entertainment pros, pitching a gala fundraising concert that would pay tribute to the late Fred Rogers while presenting Kinsell as Rogers’ successor. Though the event fizzled last month, leaving an empty concert hall in the San Diego suburb of Escondido on Sunday night, May 31, Kinsell had demonstrated he could come from nowhere, win the assistance of others and nearly reach the spotlight.

CPB has announced it will be accepting applications for Round 14 Digital Distribution Fund grants from qualified noncommercial educational TV licensees for Priority One: Digital Television Transmission Facilities and Priority Two: Digital Master Control Services projects. More information is now online.