Robert F. Schenkkan, who worked with President Lyndon Johnson on the 1967 act that established CPB and was one of “the Six Pack” of early pubTV station managers who provided counsel on the membership design of the Public Broadcasting Service, died Wednesday (Feb. 9) in Austin, Texas, of complications of dementia. He was 93. Top public broadcasters were quick to pay their respects. Jim Lehrer, anchor and editor of PBS NewsHour, told the Austin American-Statesman, “He was the first to understand the immediate meaning and ultimate importance of public broadcasting. He really got it. It was ‘educational’ TV when he started, and he realized it could be so much more.

Spaces are quickly filling for the “Advocacy Journalism in the Digital Age” conference March 1 at the Newseum. The Ford Foundation and the American University School of Communication are gathering experts in social activism, public policy and journalism to help define the opportunities and challenges created by new digital technologies. Panelists include Clark Hoyt of Bloomberg News, NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard, and Nick Clooney, director of “Journey to Darfur,” tracing his trek to the war-torn country with his son, actor George Clooney. RSVP here.

Karen Avery, former director of foundation relations at the Smithsonian, is the new senior director of institutional giving at the PBS Foundation, working to raise funds from foundation and corporate sectors. She will report to Brian Reddington, senior v.p. of development, who was recently shifted from oversight of the Online Giving Campaign to focus solely on foundation work. Prior to Avery’s Smithsonian development work, she was assistant dean of Harvard College where she directed an initiative to raise the awareness of women’s issues at Harvard, and served as a hearing officer for complaints of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

President Obama will unveil his Wireless Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative in a speech today (Feb. 9) at Northern Michigan University at Marquette, reports National Journal.  The speech backs the idea of a voluntary spectrum giveback that could net the government a total of $27.8 billion over the next 10 years, $9.6 billion of which would go to deficit reductions, White House officials said. Those figures are estimates of what the government would have after giving broadcasters and others who relinquish spectrum a share in auction proceeds, and paying the costs of relocating or consolidating spectrum users into different bands.

Legislation authorizing the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority to continue soliciting donations through its private nonprofit fundraising organizations is coming up for a floor vote in the House of Delegates today. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Morgan, responds to a report issued last summer by the state legislature’s auditors, who said the pubcasting network’s relationships with its sister nonprofits– the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Inc. and the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation Inc. — circumvent state spending regulations and travel rules. As introduced last month, H.B. 2695 authorizes West Virginia EBA employees to work with the Friends groups and make their broadcasting studios and facilities available to them for the purpose of fundraising.

New Jersey officials expect to transfer the New Jersey Network pubcasting network to a new overseer on July 1, three months later than originally projected, according to the Star-Ledger. A spokesperson for Montclair State University confirmed it would bid on at least one, if not all, of the three proposals. Richard Stockton College, also in New Jersey, had been considering a bid but may be dropping out. (UPDATE: The Press of Atlantic City is reporting Stockton will not bid.) Sharon Schulman, director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton, said Tuesday (Feb. 8) that “nothing will be turned over to us.

Television writer Joan Meyerson has won a Writers Guild Award for her work on PBS’s 2010 National Memorial Day Concert. She also won this award – the full category name is the Award for Outstanding Script Television Comedy/Variety/Music, Awards, Tributes/Specials – for the 2006 Memorial Day show. PBS has been producing the program live from the Capitol grounds for more than 20 years.

Anticipating a floor vote to eliminate funding for public broadcasting next week, the Association for Public Television Stations today (Feb. 9) called for stations to join the first big push to build political support in the House of Representatives. The House Appropriations Committee is preparing to debate a Continuing Resolution that would fund the government after the current CR expires next month, and CPB is among many federally-funded entities that could be zeroed out. The bill is expected to come to the floor during the week of Feb. 14. House leaders have said it will be debated under open rules that allow lawmakers to offer amendments targeting specific programs, according to APTS.

Here’s the third update on Rob McCausland’s interesting Mapping Community Television project. (Here are parts one and two.) McCausland is director of information and organizing services at Alliance for Community Media, and is mapping every community access provider in America. Tuesday’s (Feb. 8) post reveals he’s located 471 nonprofit organizations and 907 government agencies that manage access channels. The alliance is a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to citizen access to media.

Central Pennsylvania’s WITF has released what may very well be the first hip-hop/bouncy pop/rap music video supporting Congressional support for pubcasting funding. “Go Public!” was composed and produced by the WITF staff, who also star in the three-minute spot. Be forewarned: You’ll wanna get up and dance in your cubicle.

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, posted a statement on his blog Tuesday (Feb. 8) in support of pubcasting funding. “I feel that public service media is a big deal,” he writes, “and that NPR will be a dominant force in news media.” He also directs visitors to the 170 Million Americans advocacy website.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which has supported Nova, scienceNOW and science reporting on the PBS NewsHour, has announced a $60 million documentary film initiative “that aims to bring high-quality, compelling science features to television,” it says. This is the institute’s first initiative for documentary films, according to Sean B. Carroll, vice president for science education. Its priority will be “to tell intriguing science stories that will grab the viewer,” Carroll says. The Chevy Chase, Md.-based institute is a biomedical research organization that employs 380 scientists, including 13 Nobel Prize winners.

The Federal Communications Commission is fining KCET in Los Angeles $10,000 for failing to make available the station’s public inspection file. The FCC posted the notice (PDF) Tuesday (Feb. 8). It describes how an agent from the FCC enforcement bureau’s L.A. district office, without identifying himself as an agent, showed up on Aug. 19, 2010, at the station lot’s main gate and requested to see the file. A security guard told him he had to make an appointment, and denied his request to speak with the station manager. The agent left. The same thing happened the next day. On the third day, the agent identified himself and showed FCC credentials to the guard.

CPB has issued a request for proposals for stations to serve as hubs for Project 12: Operation Graduation. The $12 million dropout awareness and youth engagement initiative is targeted to stations in high dropout areas. Here’s a link to the RFP, and background. 

Minnesota Public Radio’s Washington, D.C., bureau is up and running, with Berlin-based former NPR reporter and editor Brett Neely as correspondent, says MinnPost media blogger David Brauer. Neely’s experience includes reporting and producing for Marketplace, and covering mainly economics for several European public television channels. He grew up in Munich and is in German. He heralded his move stateside with a video of David Bowie’s “Changes” on his blog. As Bauer noted, Neely’s Twitter feed includes the tagline, “”Public radio wench, but I’d rather be in a hair metal band.”