Top managers announce retirements in Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Tampa and Salt Lake

George Miles, president of Pittsburgh’s WQED-FM/TV, said Sept. 30 he’ll retire a year from now, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. He’ll have run the station for 16 years. The station’s board promoted Deborah Acklin to chief operating officer, putting her in line to succeed Miles. Mac Wall, who has headed both the Oklahoma and Kentucky pubTV networks, said Friday he’ll retire Dec. 31. Dick Lobo, president of Tampa’s WEDU for seven years, told his board last week that he plans to retire when a successor has been found, the Tampa Tribune said. Larry S. Smith, g.m. of Salt Lake City’s KUED, announced last week he’ll retire in April after 12 years on the job. Also recently retired is a public TV programmer who has outlasted quite a few general managers: Grace Hill of Cincinnati’s WCET, who retired Sept. 30 after 47 years with the station. More personnel news in Current's People column next week.

Expedia is latest National Parks series partner

Travel site Expedia.com has jumped on the National Parks bandwagon. It has launched a page dedicated to travel in the parks, with a link to the pubcasting series. The Associated Press confirms that the launch coincides with the Ken Burns project.

Squash the (PBS) bug, NYT blogger says

Oops. More complaints (see item below) about use of the PBS logo during Ken Burns' National Parks series, this time to the New York Times tech writer/blogger David Pogue. A reader writes that she'd been watching the series, and said it was visually stunning. "But even PBS and my local public TV station (WTTW in Chicago) constantly slapped numerous looping/changing logos in both the lower left and lower right corners of the screen—a horrible distraction from the beautiful scenery of the film. I was so looking forward to enjoying this film, and even my beloved PBS now annoys me!” Pogue writes that he "couldn’t agree more. What, exactly, is the purpose of those network logos ('bugs,' as they’re called)? Is it to prevent piracy? Is it to engender network loyalty? Is it 'branding' run amok?" Eleven of the 11 comments left by blog readers were in agreement.