Good news for public radio in RI:

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch announced today that his office has made final approval of the sale of radio station WRNI by the Trustees of Boston University and the WRNI Foundation to Rhode Island Public Radio. Lynch announced his office’s conditional approval of the sale in September 2008.

John Carpilio, a veteran of local broadcasting, is no longer in his post as news director at WRNI, Rhode Island's public radio station.

GM Joe O'Connor offered the following statement:

With sadness today I have decided to let John Carpilio go as our News Director.

John is a man of great integrity and experience and this decision was among the toughest I have made since I became General Manager.

UPDATED Friday, 3:25 pm: Channel 12 Statement.

WPRI GM Jay Howell just sent this:

“While we don’t normally comment on personnel issues, I will say that WPRI 12 and FOX Providence are adjusting to the needs of our environment and re-engineering the way we do business. Unfortunately, that means some employees have been released.

WLNE-TV, Channel 6, has commonly been thought to be under greater financial pressure than in the past, since it no longer enjoys the more deep-pocketed ownership of California-based Freedom Communications. Yet it's the two market-leaders in Rhode Island, WJAR-TV (Channel 10) and WPRI-TV (Channel 12), that are said to be implementing some job cuts and buyout offers to veteran employees.

David Gregory is getting the love, but also deserving of kudos + congrats is a URI grad and one-time staffer of the AP office in Providence, CNN's John King.

From Politico:

CNN plans to announce this week that chief national correspondent John King will replace Wolf Blitzer as host of "Late Edition," the network's Sunday newsmaker show, network sources said.

Dan Kennedy's take:

I could snark away, but I'd prefer to give David Gregory a chance to prove himself as the new host of "Meet the Press." The announcement should come soon, according to the Huffington Post.

Of the Politico's list of people who didn't get the job, I'd have preferred almost any one of them — Gwen Ifill, Chuck Todd, John King, Katie Couric or Ted Koppel, though not Andrea Mitchell.

Back in June, I reported that WJAR-TV's Bill Rappleye was pursuing the time-honored adversarial relationship between reporters and elected officials when he asked Governor Carcieri about a nepotism-related matter. The gov's people -- and even some folks affiliated with Channel 10 -- didn't much like it.

Steven Stark makes a lively observation: the national fade of the Republican Party coincides with the rise of conservative talk-radio:

Rush Limbaugh's show was syndicated in 1988. It's been a steady climb toward the top of the ratings for him and his imitators ever since, but pretty much downhill for the party they all support.

Changes are inevitable as the Rhode Island blogosphere moves forward.

Blogs will continue to take up part of the slack created by the ProJo's retreat. Some journalists will wrest with the balance between blogging and other demands. And some blogs will fall by the side.

Close observers may have noticed that Jim Taricani's Eye on the Media hasn't been updated since April.

From AJR (h/t Romenesko).

A lot has changed in the 50 years since Edward R. Murrow made his now-famous speech challenging television news to live up to its potential. What's sad is how much is still the same. . . .

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire," he told the audience.

In writing a few years ago about the shrinking commitment of TV news to political coverage, I noted this prevalent belief in the broadcasting community:

"If we had five minutes of politics at six o'clock consistently for one year, our ratings would plummet and we'd go out of business," says a Providence TV reporter, who asked to not be identified.

Just how difficult is it for the competitors of Channel 10 to overcome the perennial ratings leader in local TV news?

So much so that WJAR still beat the combined ratings of Channels 6 and 12, for the period between 6:45 and 7 AM this past Wednesday -- even though the NBC station's on-air personnel had left the set due to what turned out to be a false fire alarm.

Former Channel 12 anchor Steve Aveson, whose time at the station recently came to an end, got in touch late last week. He say he hopes to "remain actively involved in Rhode Island and in Providence."

Aveson, who joined WPRI-WNAC in 2002 -- and with whom I worked on the station's Newsmakers' show since late 2005 -- says Channel 12 "told me for financial reasons they were unable to renew my contract."

I'm pleased to share the word that my friend Tim White, the investigative reporter at WPRI/WNAC-TV, has gotten the nod as the new host of Newsmakers, the station's Sunday morning public affairs show.

There's some nice poetry here, considering how Tim's late father, the mighty Jack White, hosted the program for many years.

After following the rise and fall and rise of WRNI, it's good to see how Rhode Island's public radio station has finally separately itself from Boston University, its previous license-holder. And this statement from station GM Joe O'Connor, which he shared with me last year, is truer than ever: