WMVY radio on Martha’s Vineyard has successfully raised $600,000 to continue programming on the web for another year, reports The Martha’s Vineyard Times. After nearly 30 years, the station lost its 92.7 FM spot on the dial when Boston’s WBUR acquired its signal late last year.

Dan Schiedel, the new executive director of the Oklahoma pubcasting network, on Monday asked the state legislature for a 50 percent increase in state funding for the upcoming fiscal year — despite some lawmakers still calling for the entire elimination of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, reports The Associated Press. OETA, which got some $3.8 million in state funding during the last two fiscal years, wants a $2 million hike for items including statewide satellite distribution, expanded state legislative coverage and increased employee benefits. State support covers about 36 percent of OETA’s budget. The chairman of the Senate budget committee that oversees the funding said he wants to give the agency time to develop other sources of income before cutting its budget.

This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. Felipe “Phil” Estrada Olvera Jr., a former interim vice president of engineering at Oregon Public Broadcasting, died Jan. 19 of complications from cancer. He celebrated his 55th birthday just six days earlier. Olvera began his career at ABC station KVEW-TV in Kennewick, Wash., working his way to assistant chief engineer. In 1992, he moved on to what was then Eastern Oregon State College in La Grande, Ore., to take over as an ED-NET teleproductions engineer. He arrived at  Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland in 1995, starting out as a maintenance engineer and progressing to interim v.p.

This article has been updated and reposted with additional information. Stanley Karnow, whose book Vietnam: A History became the basis of the critically acclaimed 13-hour PBS documentary, Vietnam: A Television History, died Jan. 27 at his home in Potomac, Md., reports the New York Times. He was 87. “Unlike many books and films on Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s and the nightly newscasts that focused primarily on America’s role and its consequences at home and abroad,” the Times noted, “Mr. Karnow addressed all sides of the conflict and traced Vietnam’s culture and history.” The WGBH series premiered on PBS in 1983, and was re-edited to 11 hours for rebroadcast on American Experience in 1997.

The National Endowment for the Arts will be holding a webinar Jan. 29, 1-2 p.m. EST, to provide guidance for applying to their Media Arts grant opportunities. Applicants have a shot at earning up to $100,000 in individual grants. The webinar registration link can be found on the NEA’s website.

Dear Readers, I wanted to take a moment to remind you about Current’s Reader Survey. Not that long ago, Current Newspaper and Current.org became a part of our family as a new center at the American University School of Communication. We take our role in managing Current very seriously, and look to you to help shape the future direction of this important industry resource. For over thirty years, Current has been the independent news and information source for public media professionals. We intend to build upon its strong foundation by adding additional editorial bandwidth and online resources to further serve you.

The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, a group of 39 broadcasters willing to sell spectrum rights, filed comments with the FCC on Thursday. Among its recommendations, reports Broadcasting & Cable, is that the FCC make the upcoming spectrum auctions more attractive to stations by not limiting wireless bidders, or restricting which stations may share spectrum after the auctions are complete. “We told the FCC that when they think about what they’re going to pay these willing stations, they should think about the value of the spectrum for the wireless, not the broadcasting business,” coalition Executive Director Preston Padden told Ad Week.

The Association of Independents in Radio is joining forces with Independent Television Service for the next round of funding for Localore, the $2 million innovation initiative that pairs independent producers with public stations. Boston-based AIR spearheaded the first year of  Localore with funding from CPB, the National Endowment for the Arts and two foundations. Localore projects include a multimedia look at the impact of the oil boom in North Dakota and an alternate-reality game challenging students to stay in school, Ed Zed Omega. On Wednesday, AIR and San Francisco-based ITVS said they would partner to support a second phase of development for selected Localore projects.

Colorado Public Radio is adding an arts news bureau and online arts hub, using a $900,000 grant from Denver’s Bonfils-Stanton Foundation. Max Wycisk, station president, said the grant will “transform the organization” by providing its first full news bureau and expanding music coverage. The grant will fund three full-time staffers for three years: An arts editor and two full-time reporters, one specializing in broadcast reports and the other in digital content. Coverage will include previews and stories about cultural organizations, funding and sustainability of the arts, and arts in education, as well as reviews, interviews, audio and video performances and events calendars.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed cutting state aid to public television and radio by 42 percent in the next two fiscal years. State policymakers allocated $1.04 million to Kansas pubcasters for fiscal 2013. Under the budget proposal unveiled by Republican Gov. Brownback Jan. 16, the total subsidy would drop to $600,000 annually in fiscal 2014 and 2015. Gov. Brownback has previously targeted for public broadcasting even deeper spending cuts: for fiscal 2012, he sought to completely eliminate state aid. Last year he budgeted $600,000 for pubcasting, but legislators increased the appropriation to $1.04 million. In his latest budget, the governor calls for public broadcasters to continue to push for self-sufficiency.

Ashlie Wilson Pendley, a senior producer at Georgia Public Broadcasting, has resigned to protest the station’s decision in December to hire a former state legislator at the suggestion of Gov. Nathan Deal. Pendley detailed her decision to leave the station, where she has worked since 1997, in a letter to GPB President Teya Ryan, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In the letter, Pendley said former Georgia Sen. Chip Rogers’ salary of $150,000 is “more than  any other Executive Producer, more than many of the Vice Presidents — and all in a time when budget cuts are deep and the rank and file have been told there is no money.

The host of WTTW’s popular restaurant review Check Please! series, which spawned several local versions across the pubcasting system, is departing after 10 years. Alpana Singh is leaving the Chicago program to devote more time to her own new restaurant, The Boarding House, where she is also Master Sommelier. Singh took over hosting duties in the third season of Check, Please! from its original host, Amanda Puck. Previously Singh had worked as Master Sommilier at Everest, and director of wine and beverage for Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, a major local restaurant company. V.J. McAleer, WTTW senior vice president of production, said the station would begin a search for her replacement soon.