Public Radio

Public radio and television programming faces serious disruption unless Congress finds money to pay for a new satellite to replace one that will fail in 1991, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said today. CPB officials, who are also seeking full funding of their fiscal 1992 budget authorization of $265 million, urged a Senate panel to provide an additional $143.

IRA GLASS, a friendly gray man in a gray suit and gray tie, looked equally pleased and alarmed on a recent evening at UCLA's Royce Hall where he was surrounded by a swarm of die-hard fans. The mostly middle-age devotees had attended a panel on his new venture, a television adaptation of his popular public radio show "This American Life," which will premiere Thursday on Showtime. But they didn't want to talk about TV.

When John Hockenberry, National Public Radio's prized foreign correspondent and the host of its "Talk of the Nation" talk show, recently announced that he was moving to ABC News, he became the radio operation's second high-profile reporter to join a network news team this summer, and the fourth in the last several years.

Eight a.m. used to be crunch time for Madeleine Brand. She'd rise at 4:45, arrive each weekday at Pasadena radio station KPCC by 6, and be fully immersed in a frenzy of rewriting and editing during the critical last hour before 9, when "The Madeleine Brand Show" went live. But on this drizzly Wednesday morning, clad in sweats, a loose wool cardigan, red clogs and not a scrap of makeup, Brand, her hair pinned into a messy bun, relaxes at a local hipster cafe over an 8 a.m. coffee.

After several months of turmoil and uncertainty over the future of KPCC-FM (89.3), the seven-member board of directors of Pasadena City College has agreed unanimously to restart negotiations with longtime suitor Minnesota Public Radio about taking over operation of the campus-based station.

THERE'S TROUBLE ON the left side of the dial. As was reported Jan. 14 on page B3 of this newspaper (What? You didn't see it?), KCRW-FM announcer Chris Douridas, host of "New Ground," the exceedingly mellow alternative music show that airs on Saturdays, was arrested Jan. 6 outside the Circle Bar in Santa Monica for allegedly drugging and attempting to kidnap a 14-year-old girl.

At 11 p.m., the Culver City outpost for Washington, D.C.-based National Public Radio is almost empty, except for a security guard and the skeleton crew accompanying "Morning Edition" co-host Renee Montagne, who has just arrived, perfectly coiffed, properly caffeinated and ready to report the news millions of listeners will wake up to the following morning. By 1:30 a.m., Montagne's in the studio, prerecording whatever bits of the show are possible. At 2 a.m., she's live.

Public broadcasting will lose one of its most vibrant and innovative program-makers this fall when Smithsonian Productions is shut down because of cost-cutting measures. The media production unit of the Smithsonian Institution will cease operations Sept. 30.

Ending months of controversy, the House Tuesday gave final congressional approval to a three-year, $1.1-billion reauthorization bill for public television and radio by a voice vote with no audible dissent. The legislation, stalled while some Senate critics attempted to cut back funds and reshape the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), was sent to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.

"From Minnesota Public Radio--from Los Angeles, this is 'Marketplace.' " For more than a year now, listeners of several local public radio stations, along with listeners across the nation, have heard this curious opening. The unlikely geographical aggregate--from Minnesota ... from Los Angeles--glances quickly off the ears of those tuning in to the distinctive half-hour business magazine aired daily on KCRW and KPCC (see box, Page 71) and once carried on KUSC, where it originated, for 10 years.