After stations’ list practices exploded as a political issue, an organization of public radio fundraisers, the Development Exchange, issued this advice written by the associate director of its Center for Membership Support. Comments
The value of members acquired by mail cannot be disputed. Members acquired by mail have better first-year and multi-year renewal rates than those members acquired by on-air or telemarketing. DEI continues to strongly recommend that stations develop and maintain aggressive direct mail donor acquisition campaigns as part of a balanced fundraising strategy. Despite the recent controversy surrounding list trades, do not stop trading your list.
CPB released these new rules for its grantees on July 30, 1999, after two weeks of controversy prompted by press reports that WGBH and other stations had exchanged mailing lists with the Democratic National Committee and other partisan groups. Related stories in Current: Congress reacts hotly to donor-list swaps and CPB bans list dealings with politicos. I. Principles
A bedrock principle of public broadcasting is our support from the American people. Because we operate in the public interest, our future relies on a bond of public trust. This bond extends to millions of viewers and listeners living in hundreds of local communities of every size and description across the country.
The FCC decided in July 1999 that it did not have grounds to get involved in an extended staff-management conflict at public TV station KPTS in Wichita/Hutchinson, Kan., but it fined the station $5,000 for not reporting two staffers’ gender discrimination complaints. Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In re Application of )
)
Kansas Public Telecommunications Services, Inc.) File No. BRET-980129KG
)
For Renewal of License for )
Station KPTS(TV) )
Hutchinson, Kansas )
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER AND NOTICE OF APPARENT LIABILITY
Adopted: July 28, 1999; Released: July 28, 1999
By the Chief, Mass Media Bureau:
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The Commission, by the Chief, Mass Media Bureau, pursuant to delegated authority, has
before it for consideration: (i) the license renewal application of Kansas Public Telecommunications Services,
Inc. (“KPTS, Inc.” or “licensee”) for Station KPTS(TV), Hutchinson, Kansas; (ii) an informal objection to
the renewal application filed by Candyce Hoop (“Hoop”) and Som Chanthabouly (“Chanthabouly”)
(collectively “informal objectors”), former employees of KPTS(TV); (iii) licensee’s “Motion For Extension of
Time” to file its opposition; (iv) an opposition to the informal objection filed by the licensee; (v) one letter filed
by both informal objectors and another letter filed by Hoop in response to the licensee’s opposition; (vi) an
amendment to the station’s renewal application filed on August 18, 1998, by the licensee; (vii) a “Motion For
Leave to File an Additional Pleading” and a pleading titled “Motion to Dismiss” filed by the licensee; (viii) a
letter filed by the informal objectors in response to the licensee’s two motions; and (ix) copies of the
discrimination complaints that the informal objectors filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of
Kansas.
One witness the congressmen didn’t lecture about donor-list improprieties at a House telecom subcommittee hearing July 20 [1999], was documentarian Ken Burns, who carried the historical weight of Sullivan Ballou, Thomas Jefferson and Satchel Paige with him. His remarks for the rapidly organized hearing echoed parts of his keynote at the PBS Annual Meeting in June 1999. Let me say from the outset — as a father of two daughters and a film producer, increasingly concerned about violence on television — that I am a passionate lifelong supporter of public television and its unique role in helping to stitch our exquisite, diverse and often fragile culture together. Few institutions provide such a direct, grassroots way for our citizens to participate in the shared glories of their common past, in the power of the priceless ideals that have animated our remarkable republic and our national life for more than 200 years, and in the inspirational life of the mind and the heart that an engagement with the arts always provides. It is my wholehearted belief that anything which threatens this institution weakens our country.
Suddenly, pubcasting is in for a severe talking-to, if not a whupping. The House subcommittee that held such a congenial hearing on CPB’s long-overdue reauthorization a fortnight earlier is now preparing a second hearing July 20 to take pubcasters to task for swapping donor mailing lists with the Democratic Party. House Republicans were angry last week when they learned that Boston’s WGBH did it this spring, and angrier when they heard there were other times. And tempers will rise as similar reports come in from other stations. WNET in New York and WETA in Washington told reporters late last week that they’ve traded lists with both Democratic and Republican groups.
LOS ANGELES — The 63-month-old legal fight between public
TV and the former distributor of PBS Home Video, Michael Nesmith, was “resolved
amicably,” both sides told the U.S. District Court here July 7. PBS–appealing damages of $47 million levied by a federal jury in February–agreed
not to reveal what it will end up paying, said spokesman Tom Epstein, but
he noted that all settlements are compromises. “A happy finish for everyone,” said PBS’s lead attorney Jonathan D. Schiller,
as he left the courtroom. A grinning Nesmith sought out Schiller, his opponent,
and gave him an apparently gracious “thank you.” PBS President Ervin Duggan later wrote in a memo to his staff that the network
will pay the settlement out of proceeds from its self-supporting, revenue-generating
businesses, and services to stations will be “unhindered,” according to Epstein.