The Iowa Board of Regents on Thursday endorsed a report that calls for Iowa's three university-based radio stations, WOI, WSUI/KSUI and KUNI/KHKE, to merge into a network called Iowa Public Radio, the Des Moines Register reports. The move is expected to generate more listeners, extend coverage and reduce the amount of state support for the stations by $300,000.

More Tavis: The now ex-NPR host tells Salon in a Q-and-A that the network is "not National Some-of-the Public Radio, it's National All-of-the-Public Radio. And NPR has got to do a better job of making that moniker... a reality." Smiley says his show's numbers outpaced projections, refuting researcher claims that the audience only wants to hear, as the webmag puts it, "the dulcet tones of Linda Wertheimer sound-alikes who've come to define public radio." (free day pass req.)

Have you heard? Bill Moyers will make his final appearance as host of PBS's Now tonight. Today's litany of Bye to Bill stories includes pieces from, among others, the New York Times, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News, who also printed a speech Moyers recently gave at Harvard Medical School. For a different take on the Moyers legend, check out this profile on conservative website FrontPageMag.com, which describes the esteemed journalist as a "sweater-wearing pundit who delivered socialist and neo-Marxist propaganda with a soft Texas accent."