NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin calls for simpler leads to stories and for fewer cliches, which crop up most often in reports from member stations, he says. (Via Romenesko.)

More on bye-bye, Bob: The demoted host tells the Washington Post that NPR programming veep Jay Kernis had said he wanted someone else in the job and speculates Kernis was "tired" of listening to him. In USA Today, Ken Stern, NPR's executive v.p., says the decision was about "needs for years to come." The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) grills Stern and concludes, "The demotion sounds like the kind of dumb move you might expect from commercial broadcasting, where change is often made because somebody in charge wants to make his mark." MetaFilter readers decry the decision: "There are some things you just don't mess with." (More in the Boston Globe and the New York Times.)

Just as the Sandra Tsing Loh flap seemed to be winding up, KCRW has released a letter Loh wrote the station the day her show was canceled. "The discrepancy between the content and tone of this letter and the subsequent attacks on KCRW has yet to be explained," says Ruth Seymour, KCRW's g.m. Loh tells the L.A. Times that the statement "underscores, on a personal level, how frightening it is for individuals to take Ruth Seymour on for battle" (reg. req.). And Catherine Seipp recaps the fracas for the National Review Online.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is expected to become chair of the FCC-overseeing Commerce Committee, but the present chairman, John McCain (R-Ariz.), may keep the communications subcommittee, Roll Call reports. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) would have to take his chair elsewhere.

Some lovers of classical music dislike Mississippi Public Broadcasting's recent decision to dump some classical in favor of news and jazz, reports the Clarion-Ledger. "Public radio is designed to provide us with something you can't get on commercial stations," says a listener.

Get Fuzzy speculates on what you might hear on National Cat Radio.