Horn named e.p. of Great Perfs

WNET has promoted David Horn from series producer to e.p. of Great Performances, the station announced today as the PBS Showcase Conference wrapped up in California. Horn has led four Primetime Emmy-winning productions and won two ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for music programming. He came to Thirteen as a production assistant in 1979 and later created In the Spotlight and was e.p. of Sessions at West 54th, both pop music series.

Lowell Award goes to Becton

CPB gave this year's Ralph Lowell Award to Henry Becton Jr., who retired as WGBH president last fall and is now vice chairman. Becton discussed his career and WGBH in a Current Q&A in September.

Knight Foundation backs project creating open source software for pubradio

The Knight Foundation announced a $327,000 grant to Quiddities, a web development company partnering with KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, Calif., to develop and test a Drupal-based content management system tailored to public radio stations' needs. The open-source software package, dubbed RadioEngage, will be designed to "promote local discourse, expand participation in the arts, and increase civic participation in local and regional communities," the partners said in a news release. Quiddities is among 16 winners in the foundation's second annual Knight News Challenge, and plans to share the new software package with other public radio stations. Full descriptions of this year's News Challenge winners are posted here, and foundation President Alberto Ibarguen discusses this year's submissions and grantees here.