Kyle Adams reports in The Daily Mail that the Greene County Chamber of Commerce named WRIP (97.9-FM) "Small Business of the Year" June 19. The station, broadcasting from Windham since 1998, stood out in the area in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, said GCCC board member Lorraine Emerick. “Running on generator power and caffeine, WRIP connected neighbors and friends during and after the storm.” Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Mid-Hudson Cable has dropped Al-Jazeera English, its only non-entertainment-oriented cable news channel. The channel, previously AL Gore's Current TV, had been Channel 173 on Mid-Hudson Cable until recently. Mid-Hudson also reports it is having trouble picking up the WYNA (channel 9 and 609) signal, and have been advised by the station's engineer that WYNA is running on low power while working on a transmission problem. (Note: Mid-Hudson Cable is an underwriter on WGXC.)

The Guardian in London reports that The New York Metropolitan Opera this week cancelled the international simulcast of John Adams' opera "The Death of Klinghoffer," due to "an outpouring of concern" that it "might be used to fan global anti-semitism." Locally, Time Space Limited in Hudson simulcasts the Mets' opera, but not this one. "I'm convinced that the opera is not anti-semitic," said Peter Gelb, general manager for the Met. "But I've also become convinced that there is genuine concern in the international Jewish community that the live transmission of "The Death of Klinghoffer" would be inappropriate at this time of rising anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe." The 1991 opera depicts the Palestine Liberation Front's 1985 hijack of an Italian cruise ship. The 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American tourist, is murdered in the hijacking. Read the full story in The Guardian.