Founder of current WPSU-TV dies in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania State University journalism professor Marlowe Froke, who founded WPSX-TV (now WPSU-TV) in 1964 at the university, died Feb. 23 in State College, Pa. He was 82. Penn State Live, the university's news site, said he "took the lead in the early days of cable and public TV to establish networks of connections among Pennsylvania stations and cable operations that preceded today's Public Broadcasting System." He joined the Penn State faculty in 1959 as an associate professor of journalism and developed the school's first broadcast journalism curriculum. In 1964 he was named Penn State's director of broadcasting and established WPSX.

FCC chair says he wants to release 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years

FCC Chair Julius Genachowski has revealed a specific number for the amount of spectrum the agency wants to see freed up: 500 Mhz. Also, he confirmed what many experts have expected, that there will indeed be a spectrum auction for that bandwidth. In a speech today (PDF) to the New America Foundation, a D.C. progressive think tank, Genachowski said the National Broadband Plan to be presented to Congress next month "will work closely" with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration over the next decade to release the spectrum. The plan proposes a “Mobile Future Auction” permitting existing licensees, "such as television broadcasters in spectrum-starved markets," to relinquish spectrum in exchange for a share of auction proceeds. "Now, I’ve mentioned broadcast spectrum – so let me be clear: the recommendation is for a voluntary program," he noted. Public broadcasters are watching the spectrum debate with interest, as stations stand to monetarily gain from an auction but would give up valuable bandwidth to do so (Current, Feb. 8, 2010).