KCET continues to weather challenges following its departure from the PBS system on Jan. 1. The latest is a cable glitch, according to the Los Angeles Times. Time Warner was supposed to convert KCET to an all-digital signal last week, according to station programming chief Mare Mazur. The switch “should not have affected any subscribers with digital boxes, which according to Time Warner represents about 90 percent of their customers,” Mazur said. But  KCET received complaints from viewers. The outlet has since been working with Time Warner to try to resolve the situation. The LA Times could not reach a representative for Time Warner Cable for comment.

News/jazz WDUQ-FM will be sold to a joint partnership between another Pittsburgh pubradio station, WYEP, and a new local nonprofit established by Public Radio Capital. Left out of the sale are Scott Hanley, g.m. of WDUQ, and his staff and supporters, who mounted a bid to preserve jazz music programming. Their aspirations conflicted with those of local funders who pushed for greater emphasis on news. The $6 million deal, announced Jan. 14, opens a new chapter for WDUQ, established by Duquesne University in 1937 and put up for sale a year ago. It also introduces a new playbook for Colorado-based Public Radio Capital, created a decade ago to expand the public radio family.

In an interview with John Diaz, editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, PBS documentarian Ken Burns says: “I think we ought to just take pause and reflect on what this extra-marketplace programming means to us.” He also points out that the relatively small investment in public broadcasting produces “a dividend we can’t do without, especially in this commercial era.” Diaz agrees, noting in the column today (Jan. 23) that “Americans who want a depth of programming that doesn’t necessarily produce celebrity hosts or big ratings or high profits will now have to fight to keep Congress from cutting off funds to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

The Nonprofit Journalism Hub, a recent project of the Voice of San Diego, is looking for nonprof university-sponsored news organizations for its growing list. It’s aiming to “bring together myriad resources to help communities create their own successful nonprofit news organizations.” Interested? Submit your organization for inclusion here.

A district court judge in Seattle has refused to grant a declaratory ruling that ivi TV’s service does not violate broadcast copyright protection, Broadcasting & Cable is reporting. The suit, filed in September, was a “a preemptive move to discourage needless litigation from big media,” according to ivi founder and c.e.o. Todd Weaver  (Current, Oct. 4, 2010). Soon after that suit was filed, PBS, WNET.org, WGBH and 22 other plaintiffs asked the U.S. District Court in New York to keep ivi from selling their TV signals online. That action is still pending. The Seattle-based ivi captures and encrypts TV stations’ signals and distributes them through a web app to subscribers who pay it $4.99 a month.

KLRN in San Antonio premiered Texas Week With Rick Casey on Thursday (Jan. 20). Casey, a longtime columnist with the local News-Express as well as the Houston Chronicle, said the public affairs show will offer “a quieter discussion about important issues.” The show’s blog provides a look behind the scenes as the program was developed.

The University of Houston is merging its HoustonPBS/Channel 8 with its NPR station KUHF-FM/88.7 into one organization called Houston Public Media. The city’s CultureMap arts news website is reporting that TV and radio staffers were told in a meeting Thursday (Jan. 20).

Four public broadcasters are among the 2011 fellows for the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution March 4-6 in Philadelphia. The announcement of the 36 professional and six student fellows coincides with today’s (Jan. 20) posthumous induction of the longtime ABC News anchor into the Academy of Television Arts and Science Hall of Fame. Fellows include Carrie Johnson, Justice Department correspondent for NPR; Angela McKenzie, Initiative Radio; Amy Radil, KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio; and Paula Wissel, KPLU-FM. The annual conference allows journalists to explore constitutional issues.

Legendary movie critic Roger Ebert will wear a prosthetic chin on his new show, he revealed in his blog Wednesday (Jan. 19). “That’s not to fool anyone, because my appearance is widely known,” Ebert wrote, referencing his facial disfigurement from several surgeries following thyroid cancer. “It will be used in a medium shot of me working in my office, and will be a pleasant reminder of the person I was for 64 years.” The fitting and creation of the new chin took two years. “Two original models were too stiff, so that my head held upright reminded me of Erich von Stroheim in ‘Grand Illusion,’ ” he quipped.

South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley wants to cut $20 million out of the state’s budget, and $9.5 million of that would be funding to South Carolina Educational Television, according to The State newspaper. Haley announced the proposed reductions in her state of the state address Wednesday (Jan. 19). State money is about half of SCETV’s $19.8 million budget. South Carolina faces a budget gap of more than $800 million.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), a longtime pubcasting supporter, is the new ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, the first woman to hold the title. The vote was 14 to nine among committee Democrats. She’s a co-chair of the Public Broadcasting Caucus.

Conservative House Republicans today (Jan. 20) presented a proposal to cut $2.5 trillion in federal funding over the next 10 years. The “Spending Reduction Act of 2011” would slash money to 55 agencies and programs, including zeroing out CPB, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. “House leaders are unlikely to adopt such radical cuts,” according to the Washington Post.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has come to public broadcasting’s defense in a piece on the Hill’s Congress Blog today (Jan. 20). “National public broadcasting is very cost effective and an excellent example of a public-private partnership maximizing value for the taxpayer,” he writes. “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) annually receives around .0001% of the federal budget. Cutting CPB’s funding would save Americans less than half a cent a day,” and would result in the loss of of PBS, “considered by the public to be the second-best use of taxpayer dollars, outranked only by defense spending.”

Here’s the next best thing to being there: NETA has posted videos of many of the sessions.