The Tony Awards belong on PBS, actor Kevin Spacey told New York Post theater columnist Michael Riedel. In fact, Spacey said: “The Tonys should be produced by theater people. Mike Nichols should be the director. The show should be on PBS and everyone should get their award, and then we don’t have to give a (bleep!) about ratings.” The show currently airs on CBS.

KRVS-FM, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette licensee, has a new home on campus. Spiffy new equipment includes Wheatstone Evolution 5 consoles in editing suites and studios, and custom-made furniture for console units. An Evolution 6 console operates the master control room positioned to oversee interview and performance studios, according to 2TheAdvocate.com, website of the local WBRZ-News 2 comstation in Baton Rouge. “We experienced no down time,” reports Dave Spizale, KRVS g.m. “It was a great coordinated effort with the construction, the university and our staff.”

That’s what Steve Bornfeld dubs the pubcaster in his Mediology column for The Las Vegas Review-Journal. He’s troubled by pledge shows such as the Brain Fitness for Kids programs, which he compares with infomercials hawking related books and CDs. “PBS should position itself above high-class hucksterism that, stripped of production polish, would be a cozier fit in its natural habitat: paid-for filler on commercial TV,” he writes. “Perfumed by PBS, it still has the stench of salesmanship on airwaves long home to cultural/educational enrichment.”

NPR’s three-pronged strategy to extend local coverage, engage audiences via social media and provide ubiquitous access to its content is helping the network “grow now” and position itself for the digital media landscape of the future, according to this Mashable article by Josh Catone. “Perhaps the most important aspect of NPR’s approach to new media, is that they have an organizational level commitment to allowing listeners and readers to access their content on their own terms,” he writes. “NPR’s commitment to going to its audience rather than making its audience come to them is a smart strategic move.” Be sure to read the comments from readers who beg to differ with the author, including this: “One fly in the ointment of this argument: a great deal (perhaps the majority) or local content for many NPR stations is often generated by local print media, especially daily newspapers.

Since 2005, they’ve put nearly $128 million into news and journalism initiatives and experiments, says a report this week from J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, now based at American University. That’s on top of funding to public broadcasting, which the report doesn’t count (“because we’ve long known of the generous philanthropic support for their work”). The narrative report are is online and available as a PDF. Of the 115 projects in the project database, three received nearly half the funding, including ProPublica, which got $30 mil from the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation. Also among the field’s top 10 funders: Knight Foundation, $11.2 mil; California HealthCare Foundation, $8.7 mil; Pew Charitable Trusts, $7.5 mil (mostly to Stateline.org

Some happy pubcasting news: HoustonPBS is the first pubTV station to locally sponsor the Scripps National Spelling Bee, after The Houston Chronicle discontinued its longtime sponsorship. The bee is the third largest in the country with more than 1,000 schools in 42 counties participating. HoustonPBS coordinates the 1,000 school champions into 37 playoff bees and runs the final bee — broadcast live. The first HoustonPBS spelling champ, Aditya Chemudupaty, advanced to the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee and missed the finals by just one word. He was eliminated May 28 in the sixth round of the semi-finals on ESPN (pictured).

Rough economic times have prompted WNED in Buffalo to schedule its first June pledge drive. Senior managers have already taken 7.5 percent cutbacks, staff salaries have been cut 5 percent and some jobs are unfilled. If this month’s drive doesn’t bring in more cash, WNED-TV President Don Boswell told The Buffalo News, the station may cut programs.

CPB’s Mark Erstling, a senior veep, said the struggling WSEC in Springfield, Ill., needs “to have a plan so we can change their trajectory so they can become sustainable.” Erstling told the local State Journal-Register that he and COO Vinnie Curren met with station managers in May in Springfield. “Our goal is to make sure no one loses public television service in America,” Erstling said. “We’re a funder for public television and radio stations, but there’s not a lot of discretionary funds for dealing with situations like this.” Jerold Gruebel, CEO of the PBS affiliate, on May 29 told The Hannibal Courier-Post in Missouri that CPB is trying to “dismantle” smaller PBS stations.

As of July 1, reporter Keri Brown will be West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Northern Panhandle bureau chief. It’s part of a unique relationship between the pubcaster and several colleges around the state. “We cover the whole state so we need reporters all around the state,” Dennis Adkins, network exec director, told Current. The reporters are paid by the schools to teach journalism courses, and report exclusively for the pubcaster. Brown will be based at Wheeling Jesuit University. Elsewhere, the reporter in Morgantown teaches at West Virginia University; Huntington, Marshall University; Bluefield, Concord University; and Martinsburg, Shepherd University.

“It’s important for journalists to treat whomever they are interviewing with respect — and to keep their opinions to themselves,” writes NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard in her latest column. But Adam Davidson, the lead correspondent for Planet Money, “did neither” when he interviewed Elizabeth Warren about her watchdog role for the Troubled Assets Relief program, Shepard concludes. Davidson’s May 6 interview with Warren, who chairs the congressional oversight panel of TARP, was “really cringeworth stuff,” the Columbia Journalism Review‘s Ryan Chittum wrote on May 14. In Shepard’s June 1 response to complaints about the piece, NPR News Chief Ellen Weiss says the interview was “unsuccessful from the start.”

Sometimes working at headquarters definitely has its perks. About 100 lucky PBS staffers turned out yesterday when singer Josh Groban stopped by Arlington, Va., while in town to tape WETA pledge breaks for his new special. He chatted with employees including Betty Hickey, who said she has every one of his CDs and has been a fan “since before he was a big star.” As he departed, according to one insider, Groban told the crowd, “I just want to thank you guys for all the great work you’re doing.” A round of applause followed him.

Michael Getler, PBS ombudsman, is updating his recent column investigating the background of an injured soldier, Army Sgt. Jose Pequeno, and his caregivers. They were honored in PBS’s popular National Memorial Day Concert on May 24. “In the aftermath of last week’s column,” Getler writes, “more letters arrived and some of them continued to describe a real-life situation that is even more tense and complicated than it appeared.”

Comcast in West Virginia has reached an agreement to make the state’s pubTV station available to customers there — but despite negotiations with Gov. Joe Manchin and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the deal is little different from the original. Comcast will not put West Virginia PBS back on its basic and standard cable tiers, which Charleston station requested after receiving angry calls from listeners. Comcast’s compromise: It agreed to provide free digital converter boxes to customers for two years instead of one. Meanwhile, in Georgia, Comcast yesterday “clarified” the channel shift of WNGH, Georgia Public TV, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

It’s summertime, and that means the popular PBS broadcast of A Capitol Fourth is just around the corner. Word comes that longtime pop star Barry Manilow will open and close the show this year. Also appearing is Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin. Actor Jimmy Smits hosts.

Random House is releasing details of its partnership with PBS to develop The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, which premieres in fall of 2010. The project is just entering development, according to the Animation Insider website. PBS announced at Showcase last month that comedian Martin Short has signed on. The show will center on Sally and Nick, 6-year-old neighbors, and their adventures with the Cat in the Hat — and, yes, Thing One and Thing Two.