The University of Kentucky has sued a reporter at its public radio station, WUKY in Lexington, in an attempt to guard information she had requested about surgical practices at its pediatric hospital. By filing the complaint, UK is challenging the state’s attorney general, who in March endorsed reporter Brenna Angel’s request for documents. UK declined the AG’s request as well, citing state and federal privacy laws. The dispute began in December 2012, when Angel made an Open Records Request to the university regarding the cardiothoracic surgery program at Kentucky Children’s Hospital in Lexington. The program has been suspended pending an internal review, according to local media reports.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — PBS President Paula Kerger called for local public TV stations and PBS to move beyond their reputations as a “dysfunctional family” to embrace “the power of a collective system” to strengthen their public service. In a keynote speech opening this year’s PBS Annual Meeting, Kerger said public television has reached an important moment in its history — one that she considers to be “the most important moment of my tenure” as PBS president. Kerger pointed to the outpouring of support for public TV when its federal funding came under attack during the fall presidential elections and the international attention and praise that accrued to PBS and stations following the blockbuster Masterpiece Classic hit Downton Abbey.

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is adapting a book about cancer into a six-hour series for public TV, reports the New York Times. The project was originally conceived by Sharon Rockefeller, CEO of WETA in Washington, D.C., who read Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer in late 2010. Rockefeller herself had been treated for advanced cancer. The broadcast will coincide with an outreach campaign.

Aereo, the over-the-air TV streaming service that broadcasters have gone to federal court to block, plans to expand into Atlanta, its third major market, next month. The move into Atlanta is to take effect June 17. Aereo’s launch in Boston is scheduled for May 15. In March 2012, Aereo began offering  daily, monthly or annual subscriptions to television viewers in New York. It uses dime-sized antennas to capture broadcast signals and convert them into streaming video distributed over the Internet. Subscribers “rent” the antennas and have the option to watch television programming live or on demand via a device similar to a digital video recorder.

The newest public radio station in New York State went dark May 9, ending a six-year attempt to bring a local voice to small Otsego County.

San Mateo County Community College District Chancellor is recommending that the district’s pubTV station, KCSM, be sold to a spectrum speculator owned by private equity firm The Blackstone Group. Mark Albertson, who covers technology in the San Francisco area for Examiner.com, reported Monday that Ron Galatolo,  chancellor of the college, had chosen LocusPoint out of the four bidders for the station. Other interested buyers include: Public TV Financing, an arm of Independent Public Media, a nonprofit working to preserve noncommercial spectrum; KMTP-TV, a multicultural independent public TV  station licensed to Minority Television Project Inc. in San Francisco; and the Oriental Culture and Media Center of Southern California, a nonprofit promoting communication among different cultures.

Boston NPR station WBUR announced May 10 two leadership changes in its newsroom. Richard Chacón will fill the newly created position of executive director of news content, while Tom Melville has moved to news director from the role of executive editor of content. Chacón was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and an Ethics Fellow at The Poynter Institute. He will start at WBUR June 10. Prior to joining WBUR in 2011, Melville was news director at New England Cable News. Melville changed roles May 10. “As the media landscape continues to evolve, WBUR is thrilled to have a team in place that will serve our on-air and online audiences with distinction,” said Charlie Kravetz, general manager, WBUR, in a statement.

NPR and Miami’s WLRN are collaborating to boost coverage of Latin America, with NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro assigned to a new foreign desk in São Paulo. In addition to Garcia-Navarro, the team of journalists includes Tim Padgett, a longtime reporter on Latin America and the Caribbean who previously wrote for Time and Newsweek and recently joined WLRN. Padgett’s primary task will be to coordinate coverage from Miami. Four reporters on the staff of the Miami Herald and its sister Spanish-language publication, El Nuevo Herald, will also contribute. WLRN and the Herald have collaborated on news coverage for a decade. The expansion positions NPR and WLRN to report on a country that has grown as a global superpower in recent years, said Edith Chapin, senior supervising editor of NPR’s foreign desk.

Ousted Iowa Public Radio C.E.O. Mary Grace Herrington on Thursday reached a six-figure settlement with her former employers that staves off future litigation. According to Iowa Public Radio, Herrington will receive two payments totaling $197,000 in return for forgoing any legal claims against IPR. The settlement was reportedly for “emotional distress and other compensatory damages, and attorneys’ fees and expenses.” Herrington was removed as c.e.o. in February by a 6-1 vote of the board of directors. Her dismissal came after the IPR board began responding to internal complaints about staff morale in June, according to board-meeting minutes and local press accounts.

At Texas Public Radio, “basic pet memberships cost $60, the same as basic human memberships,” according to the San Antonio Express-News. And so far, the new tactic is paying off. Of 617 new memberships, 126, or about 20 percent, are pets. That’s outselling a new children’s membership five to one. Pet members receive a “TPaRf” scarf and small bowl or rope toy. And a pet social event is also in the planning. Check out TPR’s newest members here.

It’s official, Downton Abbey fans will have to wait until winter 2014 for their next Edwardian drama fix. PBS announced its fall lineup today, with nary a mention of the Masterpiece megahit. In January PBS President Paula Kerger hinted that PBS was considering changing the premiere to the fall, when it hits the airwaves in Great Britain. Jennifer Byrne, PBS spokesperson, told Current that series Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton will announce the Downton Season 4 premiere date at the PBS annual meeting next week in Miami. Highlights of fall premieres on PBS include an interactive reality series, Genealogy Roadshow, “which uses history and science to connect participants nationwide to their individual and family histories,” PBS said in the announcement; “The Hollow Crown,” a four-part miniseries from Great Performances that combines Shakespeare’s “Richard II,” “Henry IV” (Parts I and II) and “Henry V” into a chronological narrative; and a four-hour, two-part special from American Experience on President John F.