iPod shows make WGBH, Boston broadcasting personal

"Garfield loves loading up his iPod, before taking a long walk around Jamaica Pond, with the latest edition of 'The Dawn and Drew Show,' the real-life and often off-color bantering of a husband and wife in rural Wisconsin. He also likes downloading one of the few mass-market shows now being podcast, 'Morning Stories' on Boston's WGBH-FM public radio station...
The podcast version of 'Morning Stories,' five-minute human-interest segments, has posted numbers that people in the radio business would envy...
As a public station that doesn't have ads to skip, WGBH has nothing to lose by making broadcasts available for free. Bob Lyons, director of radio and new media initiatives for WGBH, said that technologically, 'it's trivial' to reformat a broadcast for podcast downloads.
Lyons said WGBH has been impressed by the rapidly growing demand for 'Morning Stories' podcasts but will move slowly on adding more programs. 'We could pretty much just shovel everything in there, but I think that would be foolish,' Lyons said. 'We need to focus on stuff that is suitable for this particular delivery pipe,' in particular broadcasts that have a long shelf life and will be appealing to people days or weeks after they've gone out over the airwaves."
from the boston globe

Iowa's three stations will merge

"The Iowa Board of Regents approved recommendations to combine the public radio stations at the state's three public universities to provide a statewide radio network...Ronald Bornstein, one of the head drafters of the recommendations, said Iowa Public Radio and its focus on statewide news, public affairs and cultural events will be able to compete against the trend toward commercial and satellite radio."
from the Ames Tribune
"The merger eliminates competition among the three radio stations, which should generate more private money, consultants said...The radio stations will continue to operate on the three campuses and retain their call letters."
from the DesMoines Register

At WBUR-Providence, RI six staffers laid off, two shows cut

"Peter Fiedler, interim general manager for Boston University's public radio station WBUR, announced yesterday that the station has laid off six staff members...Fiedler said he eliminated two programs at WBUR. One, called Citizens of the World, was a travel program designed to cultivate major donors. The other, the International Journalist Training Program, was an educational program for broadcast journalists from around the world."
from the Providence Journal

Tavis Smiley ends NPR program Thursday

"Tavis Smiley will give his last thoughts on Thursday, the final broadcast of his National Public Radio program. Mr. Smiley, the host of NPR's first predominantly African-American show, declined to renew his contract, in part, he said, because the network failed to meaningfully reach out to a minority audience."
from the New York Times
His thoughts on leaving (from poynter.org) and NPR's response (from npr.org).

Iowa's three stations consider consolidating

"A consultant’s report recommended unprecedented sharing among the current radio systems at Iowa’s three public universities and the hiring of a single executive director to oversee operations."
from the Quad City Times
"Iowa's three university-based public radio stations would get less money from the state, would merge as a network called Iowa Public Radio, and would extend service into western Iowa, under a consultant's recommendations released Tuesday by the Board of Regents."
from the Des Moines Register
"A consultant recommends that the Iowa Board of Regents set up a board that would bring public radio to western Iowa, while weaning the regents' public radio stations of $300,000, or 15 percent, of their state support."
from the Cedar Rapids Gazette

Lehigh Valley, PA station drops plans to merge with public TV

"The station, 88.1 FM, had been discussing a merger with Channel 39 since the beginning of the summer, but the chances of that happening faded quickly in late September after four directors opposed to the merger and four of the station's founders filed a lawsuit to block the board from voting on the matter. By the end of Monday night's meeting, all nine members named as defendants in that suit had left WDIY's board."
from the Morning Call