DEI and AIR will mentor radio producers in proposal writing

Amie Klempnauer Miller, who has written proposals that raised more than $20 million, will mentor a pilot group of AIR producers this spring. Application deadline: April 18. The Development Exchange (DEI) and the Association of Independents in Radio are jointly organizing the four-hour training session for the first time. Miller, who is DEI’s foundation support coordinator, will help producers find their way, identifying and building relationships with possible funders and designing case statements specifically for them. Info online. Contact: Erin Mishkin, erin@airmedia.org, 617-825-4400.

NPR hires Edith Chapin from CNN as new senior foreign editor

NPR News announced today (March 21) that it has hired CNN v.p.and deputy bureau chief Edith Chapin to lead its foreign desk, starting May 14. It also promoted Didi Schanche to deputy senior foreign editor; she has been an editor with that unit since 2001. Chapin will oversee correspondents based in 17 bureaus worldwide as well as a team of editors and reporters in Washington, D.C.

Chapin has spent her career at CNN, beginning in 1987. Based in London in the early 1990s, she covered events in Bosnia, Rwanda, Zaire and Ireland. For seven years she directed editorial coverage from CNN's New York bureau, including its reporting on 9/11 and its aftermath. Since 2007, she's been vice president and deputy chief of CNN's Washington, D.C., bureau. The daughter of a Foreign Service officer, Chapin grew up in Brazil, Ethiopia and Guatemala and speaks fluent Spanish, French and Portuguese. (Image: CNN)

Aero files countersuit to complaint from PBS, WNET, other broadcasters

Aereo, an new online TV service supported by media mogul Barry Diller, has filed a countersuit against PBS, WNET and several other broadcasters who are claiming copyright infringement, according to Reuters. The suit, filed Tuesday (March 20) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also includes plaintiffs Fox, Univision, and WPIX, a CW station in New York City. It comes about a week after Aereo filed a similar suit in response to a complaint from ABC, CBS, NBCUniversal and NBCUniversal's Telemundo.

The new service, which launched this month in New York City, says it offers "proprietary remote antenna and DVR" technology "that consumers can use to access network television on web-enabled devices." It provides over-the-air signals from various broadcasters to its subscribers for $12 a month.

Charlotte's WTVI to merge with local community college

The merger of PBS member station WTVI in Charlotte, N.C., with Central Piedmont Community College was approved Tuesday (March 20) by Mecklenburg County commissioners in a 6-3 vote, reports the Charlotte Observer. “This is not about saving a legal entity, it is about saving local programming that is valuable to our community,” Chairman Harold Cogdell said. “It’s about access to education through programming, as well as those (students) learning to put together that programming at the community college." The county will provide financial support for the merger of $357,000 to finalize the deal and some $800,000 over the next four years for equipment upgrades.

WTVI made cuts in 2010 after the county slashed its support from nearly $860,000 to just $95,000. In June 2011, station president Elsie Garner said WTVI's survival was in jeopardy, and it was "bleeding money." And earlier this month Garner said the station could go dark if the merger wasn't approved.

The station is in an overlap market with UNC-TV at the University of North Carolina, and South Carolina ETV in Columbia.