This American Life story prompts $5M lawsuit over 1994 false confession

A This American Life story may help a woman prove that Washington, D.C., police violated her civil rights when a detective obtained a false confession from her 18 years ago. Kim Crafton filed a lawsuit Sept. 3 against the Washington Metropolitan Police over the 1994 incident, which became the subject of an October 2013 TAL story. The report featured D.C. Officer James Trainum, who had interrogated Crafton, discussing what led to the false confession in her case. In February 1994, Crafton, who was 19 at the time, confessed to killing D.C. resident Lawrence O’Connell.

NPR podcast on Latino culture crosses over to radio

An NPR podcast hatched from a friendship four years ago took a step in its evolution earlier this month, becoming a weekly radio show focused on Latino music and culture. Edited down from the weekly podcast’s 40 minutes, the half-hour Alt.Latino debuted Oct. 2 and is airing on stations in four markets, including Denver and San Francisco. The “alt” in the title refers to the show’s exploration of subjects that co-host and co-creator Jasmine Garsd sees as underreported by other media outlets. “We started off with a lot of indie music, but as the show grew we saw it more as delving deeper into Latin culture,” Garsd said.

New public radio show convenes diverse panel for different take on events

A new show from the African-American Public Radio Consortium examines issues through the views of artists, activists, academics and journalists — all of them women of color. Hosted by longtime broadcaster Esther Armah, The Spin now airs on WNAA in Greensboro, N.C.; a digital channel of WWFM in Trenton, N.J.; and the Internet station Radio Phoenix. It also airs on commercial radio in Accra, Ghana, and Armah hopes it will find a home on London airwaves as well. Stations in Atlanta and Chicago have also expressed interest. Armah formerly worked for BBC Radio 4 and Pacifica Radio’s New York station, WBAI.

Working group nears standard for audio levels in PRSS content

Members of an NPR working group aiming to standardize levels of audio content delivered via the Public Radio Satellite System believe they have found one possible solution to the problem. Programs sent to stations through the PRSS vary widely in volume and may detract from the listener’s experience, according to Chris Nelson, NPR’s director of digital strategy. In May, Nelson shared with the NPR Board results of a study in which about 53 percent of the content examined by the working group deviated from standards PRSS recommends for consistent volumes. The group aims to give stations and producers affordable best practices and resources to help solve the problem. At a meeting Thursday of NPR’s board, Nelson told board members that the working group has consulted with producers and engineers about the issue and conducted a survey to learn how the problem affects stations that use and contribute PRSS content.

Eclectic24 goes from online to on-air in Santa Barbara

An FM signal in Santa Barbara, Calif., recently acquired by KCRW, became the first broadcast home this week for Eclectic24, a previously web-only music stream produced by the Santa Monica–based station. KCRW broadcasts on two signals in the market and is using its former repeater at 106.9 FM as the first over-the-air outlet for Eclectic24. Since June, the station has also been simulcasting its Santa Monica station’s programming on 88.7 FM in Santa Barbara, which it purchased earlier this year. “We’ve never had the opportunity to do an all-music station in L.A., so when this opportunity came up, we grabbed it,” KCRW General Manager Jennifer Ferro said in an email. “It’s always a good thing to have so much programming to share.”

If it proves successful, Eclectic24 might appear on other signals, Ferro said.

Science Friday producer settles with government over alleged misuse of NSF funds

A for-profit corporation involved with public radio’s weekly Science Friday show has settled with the U.S. government over alleged misuse of a National Science Foundation grant awarded from August 2009 to July 2011. In the settlement announced Tuesday by the District of Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office, ScienceFriday Inc. and Ira Flatow, ScienceFriday’s president and host of the radio show, will pay $145,541 to resolve allegations that they mishandled NSF funds. The company also agreed to exclusion from participation in federal programs, grants and contracts until Sept. 15, 2015. ScienceFriday Inc. is a for-profit corporation based in Stamford, Conn., that produced Science Friday during the time of the contested NSF funding. The show is now produced by Science Friday Initiative, a nonprofit that contracts with the for-profit corporation for Flatow’s time and the show’s branding and logos.

In Tampa, college broadcasters find advantages in pubradio affiliation

The University of South Florida’s student-run radio station has forged a three-year partnership with Tampa’s WUSF Public Media to broadcast its programming as a digital multicast FM channel. The partnership, initiated this spring by student leaders of Bulls Radio, also provides mentorship and internship opportunities for USF students with the public radio station. WUSF is a full-service pubcaster also licensed to the university. It operates two public radio stations — NPR news and talk WUSF 89.7 FM and all classical WSMR 89.1 FM — as well a public TV station with four digital multicast channels. Last month, Bulls Radio began airing on WUSF’s HD 3 channel.

Spoken-word contest gives students the stage to discuss the dropout crisis

American Graduate and Youth Speaks, a nonprofit that focuses on empowering youth through creativity, hope to include more young people in conversations about high-school dropout rates with Raise Up, a hip-hop and spoken-word contest that will culminate with a performance this month at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and a radio special. The organizations paired up this spring to encourage teens to submit original raps and poems related to the high school dropout crisis. By June 30, Raise Up had received over 750 video submissions, many filmed with webcams and smartphones. Twelve finalists were chosen for the contest’s next round. From those, five entrants will be selected to perform their poems at the Kennedy Center Sept.

Chicago’s WFMT picks up distribution of Carnegie Hall Live

PORTLAND, Ore. — Chicago’s WFMT announced Wednesday a deal with New York–based WQXR to distribute the 2014 season of Carnegie Hall Live. Entering its fourth season, Carnegie Hall Live kicks off Oct. 1 with a broadcast featuring the Berliner Philharmonker. The show is recorded and hosted by WQXR staffers in partnership with Carnegie Hall and was previously distributed by Minnesota-based American Public Media.

PRPD, Day Two: NPR, stations prepare for debut of revised newsmag clocks

PORTLAND, Ore. — This week’s Public Radio Programming Conference is giving attendees a chance to prepare for Nov. 17, the day when new clocks for NPR’s newsmagazines take effect and both stations and the network’s news staffers will need to adjust to the revised formatting. Wednesday’s proceedings featured two opportunities for discussion. At the first, NPR representatives fielded questions from station programmers, with Chris Turpin, acting senior v.p. of news, laying out changes in store.

PRPD, Day One: In keynote, Mohn issues promotion challenge

PORTLAND, Ore. — Addressing the nearly 500 attendees of the Public Radio Program Directors conference, NPR CEO Jarl Mohn reassured attendees Tuesday that he would renew the network’s focus on radio programming and challenged them to take part in a systemwide experiment to boost listening to NPR’s newsmagazines. “If we don’t get the radio part right, if we don’t get the terrestrial part right, if we don’t get broadcasting right, the rest of it isn’t going to make a difference,” Mohn told the crowd. “So you’re going to see from us, and from me, a renewed focus on the broadcasting side of the business.” Closing the conference’s first day, Mohn used his keynote speech to give thumbnail grades of public radio’s performance in areas including news, promotion, programming and positioning.

The time Joan Rivers didn’t become an NPR host

With the death of Joan Rivers, Jay Kernis, former senior v.p. for programming at NPR, shared this remembrance of Rivers on his Facebook page yesterday. It’s reproduced here with his permission. Between 2001-08, I was SVP for Programming at NPR and someone told Joan that she would be perfect to host a public radio show. I had interviewed her many years ago for NPR and I knew from producers like Amy Rosenblum just how smart Joan was. I was thrilled to be invited for lunch at her remarkable home on the East Side of NYC.

NPR’s Ellen McDonnell, executive editor for news programming, will retire after almost 35 years

NPR’s news division is seeing the exit of another longtime executive with today’s announcement that Executive Editor for News Programming Ellen McDonnell will retire. McDonnell oversees NPR news programs including Morning Edition and All Things Considered. She started at NPR in 1979 and worked for nine years as executive producer of Morning Edition. “Ellen is as much a part of NPR’s DNA as she is a presence in our daily lives,” NPR’s Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson wrote in a memo quoted on the network’s breaking news blog. “She has touched and transformed nearly every aspect of NPR News, her creativity and zeal surpassed only by her generosity of spirit.

Report: SiriusXM to end The Bob Edwards Show

SiriusXM Radio will wind down The Bob Edwards Show next month, according to a Politico article published Friday. Citing unnamed sources, Politico reported that the show will end Sept. 26. Public Radio International distributes a weekly version of the show to public radio, and PRI spokeswoman Julia Yager said that program will continue. Edwards declined to comment to Current, and SiriusXM did not respond to a request for comment.

Final NPR newsmag clocks will take effect Nov. 17

NPR has released the final versions of the new clocks for its newsmagazines and set a date of Nov. 17 for their implementation. The network unveiled proposed clocks in July after more than a year of work that involved staff and representatives from member stations. The clocks are the second-by-second scheduling of what happens when during the newsmagazines, including newscasts, music beds and funding credits. They also affect when stations can insert their own local content.