Barbra Streisand rings up "Smiley & West"

Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, co-hosts of PRI's Smiley & West, hear from a surprising caller on their Friday (April 20) show: Music legend Barbra Streisand. The program is a tribute to Oscar-winning husband and wife songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Streisand was 18 years old when they met. She recorded many of their songs, including "The Way We Were" and "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" Last year Streisand dedicated a tribute album to the Bergmans, "What Matters Most."

"Martha Stewart's Cooking School" starting on PBS this fall

Domestic doyenne Martha Stewart hits the PBS airwaves this fall in a weekly culinary master class, Martha Stewart's Cooking School. The 30-minute show will be presented by WETA, premiering in October. "PBS is the perfect home for this series," Stewart said in an announcement. "We'll show viewers how to prepare classic dishes as well as how to use proper techniques." The program is based on the bestselling cookbook of the same name.

The New York Times reported that Stewart and execs at her Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia "believe that public broadcasting will be a better fit for her brand than daytime cable." The Hallmark Channel is dropping her weekday Martha Stewart Show after two years.

WETA to offer 24/7 British channel starting this June

WETA in suburban Washington, D.C., on June 2 will launch a new multicast channel devoted to British programming. The 24-hour WETA UK replaces Create on the station's 26.2. "British programming has long proven popular with our audience on our principal channel," said Kevin Harris, v.p. and TV manager of the dual licensee. The channel will feature popular Britcoms (Doc Martin, Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served?), miniseries (MI-5, Hustle, Waking the Dead) and episodes of the original BBC Antiques Roadshow, as well as Saturday night full-length films and, beginning this fall, major British specials. Here's a promo reel.

Localore, now on Facebook

The Association of Independents in Radio has created a Facebook page to showcase projects in its $2 million Localore initiative (Current, Jan. 30), which pairs indie producers with pubstations on innovative community-service work.