CPB’s Don Lockett tells me the group expects to open an application period for another round of digital conversion grants for radio and television in June.
There’s a total of approximately $21 million appropriated for 2008; the “split” between radio and TV has yet to be determined, although Lockett told pubcast engineers here in Las Vegas that radio could see somewhere between $5 million and $7 million of that funding.
Of the 380 radio stations converted, 122 are multicast stations for a total of 161 multicast streams.
A third category of funding for special digital projects called “Content & Services” is expected to open up. One savvy engineer joked that the title didn’t mean “studying HD-R in Tijuana.”
There’ve been some changes at CPB. Brian Gibbons has been promoted to director of digital media so now Djinni Field is radio digital grants manager and Dianne Yoo is digital grants coordinator at CPB.
