Editorial staffers at Baltimore’s WYPR are petitioning management for union representation, according to a June 6 release from broadcast union SAG-AFTRA, which seeks to represent them. A majority of editorial staff delivered a union petition to management June 3, and the National Labor Relations Board received a petition June 6, according to the release. Management has not yet acknowledged the petition. “We all believe in the value of public radio, as well as WYPR’s mission to produce high-quality journalism,” the release read. “We want to see the station improve and better serve listeners across the state. We believe that a unionized editorial staff, working with station management and its board is the best way to do that.”

The filmmakers behind a new documentary briefly discussed their “deeply troubling” experience with public TV in an appearance on public radio’s On Point Wednesday. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal directed Citizen Koch, now hitting theaters after vying for grant funding and a broadcast commitment from PBS’s Independent Lens. The film examines the influence of wealthy conservatives such as David and Charles Koch on Republican politics. A May 2013 article by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer suggested that ITVS, Independent Lens’s producer, backed away from the film due to pressure from New York’s WNET, where David Koch sat on the board.

CPB and Ready to Learn, a U.S. Department of Education program supporting preschool learning, will provide $2.2 million in grants to 21 public television stations to create new or expand existing school-readiness projects. One of the new grants, announced June 3, will establish an Illinois Ready to Learn transmedia network with pubTV partners WILL in Champaign-Urbana, WSIU in Carbondale and WTVP in Peoria, to reach 12,000 educators and 13,000 school children. Partnering with community coalitions in central and southern Illinois, the effort will provide educational programs to three low-income communities, as well as offer professional development for educators. The stations received just over $105,000 for that work.

Plus: Rockers tweet for #SaveWRAS.

In their efforts to foster a productive dialogue with readers, the race and culture blog's editors have turned their comments section into one of Code Switch's defining characteristics.

Plus: radio from a tugboat, and a Reading Rainbow parody.

Haynie shot for the politics beat of Chicago Tonight.

A recent NPR study confirmed that what many have surmised for years is true: Public radio shows sent through the Public Radio Satellite System vary widely in loudness. An NPR working group that has been studying the issue found that roughly 53 percent of the content they examined deviated from standards PRSS recommends to keep volumes consistent. The group is looking at creating new best practices and implementing a software fix that could cheaply curb the problem. “It’s a big issue in the system,” said Paxton Durham, chief engineer at Virginia’s WVTF-FM and Radio IQ. “I’ve been here 24 years, and as long as I can remember there’s always been a problem.”

Plus, a voice in support of college radio.

Suggested budget cuts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks could jeopardize the survival of KUAC, the university’s public broadcasting outlet, according to the station’s g.m. A committee tasked with closing a gap in the university’s budget of as much as $14 million included cuts to the station’s funding in a proposal released in May. Trimming KUAC’s funding could save the university between $800,000 and $1.4 million, according to the budget committee, the highest estimated savings of all the recommendations except for consolidating or eliminating some degree programs. The committee listed the cuts as “recommended with reservations” and noted that the station could move toward self-support.

Chamberlin appeared on the PBS show for two seasons, acting opposite Morgan Freeman, Bill Cosby and Rita Moreno.

An Alameda County, Calif., judge has upheld her previous ruling that the Pacifica Foundation’s board of directors acted within its bounds when it fired Executive Director Summer Reese earlier this year. Judge Ioana Petrou made the ruling Monday, a day before both Reese and the board were to appear in court to argue the matter. In her opinion, Petrou wrote that based on her earlier ruling, the board would likely prevail and that reversing the decision would cause “great harm.” Petrou gave Reese and her legal team until 5 p.m. Pacific time Monday to contest the ruling. A permanent injunction went into effect when the order was not challenged.