Quick Takes

Top 30 TV markets should provide enough spectrum space, new white paper contends

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A white paper (PDF)  presented this week to the FCC predicts there will be little need for spectrum givebacks outside the Top 30 TV markets, Broadcast Engineering reports. The study was conducted by CTIA/The Wireless Association and the Consumer Electronics Association, two trade organizations that strongly favor freeing up 120 MHz of spectrum for mobile devices. It also estimates that the federal government could net some $33 billion on the auctions, after compensating broadcasters that surrender licenses and paying for the technology to repack the DTV band.

Quick Takes

Does Tehran Bureau site have “stamp of approval” from PBS and Frontline?

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PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler writes today (Feb. 18) on the Tehran Bureau, a news site founded in 2008 by Iranian-born and Massachusetts-based Kelly Golnoush Niknejad that entered into an editorial partnership with Frontline in 2009. “Where I have difficulty is in the close and unique association of this relatively new website focused on a single country with Frontline and PBS,” Getler writes. “Tehran Bureau appears online under the Frontline and PBS banners as part of the Frontline site. That looks to me, and I assume to some others who come upon the site, like a big-time stamp of approval from two names that stand for journalistic credibility and distance.”

Quick Takes

Jefferson Public Radio to renovate two historic properties in Medford, Ore.

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The JPR Foundation, which supports Jefferson Public Radio in Ashland, Ore., has big plans – $7 million in big plans, to be exact, reports the Mail Tribune in Medford, Ore. The NPR member station will be moving from a basement at Southern Oregon University into an historic 1910 brick warehouse in Medford that was donated to foundation earlier this month. After renovations, in addition to the pubradio offices and studios, the warehouse will contain the Western States Museum of Broadcasting, a cafe and auditorium. JPR also is closing a deal to buy the Holly Theatre in Medford this spring, with plans to remodel the 1930 building. JPR previously had renovated the Cascade Theatre in Redding, Calif.

Quick Takes

How’s broadband availability in your community? Find out on the map

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The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today (Feb. 17) unveiled the first public, searchable nationwide map of broadband Internet availability. In an announcement, NTIA said the data will support efforts “to expand broadband access and adoption in communities at risk of being left behind in the 21st century economy and help businesses and consumers seeking information on their high-speed Internet options.”

Quick Takes

Obama budget signals priority for public broadcasting, new press secretary says

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New White House Press secretary Jay Carney indicated that President Obama puts a priority on noncommercial broadcasting funding, reports Broadcasting & Cable. Carney called the president’s budget, released this week, a road map showing his priorities. A reporter asked Carney if the president saw a “universal American value” in public broadcasting, and he replied, “The budget represents his priorities, and I think you can read into that.” President Obama’s new budget increases funding for CPB from $430 million in FY11 to $445 million in 2012.

Quick Takes

Both sides continue to speak out on value of pubcasting

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Two more of the many opinion pieces circulating on public broadcasting funding:On the side of public media, WGBH President Jon Abbott and his Boston colleague Charles Kravetz, g.m. of WBUR, say sacrificing money for public broadcasting will make little difference in America’s budget woes. “Does the federal deficit need to be addressed? Of course,” they write today (Feb. 17) in the Boston Globe. “But gutting public radio and public television is not the answer.

Quick Takes

CR amendment to fund CPB tossed out due to point of order

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The amendment from Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oreg.) restoring CPB funds to the Continuing Resolution under debate in the House was gavelled down on a procedural matter just before midnight last night (Feb. 16). Blumenauer’s Amendment 436 would have provided $460 million in fiscal 2013 CPB funding by doing away with IRS tax breaks on oil or gas wells. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) raised a point of order that the funding offset was not allowed; the Chair agreed. “It’s not that Democrats tried to do something nonsensical here, it’s that Republicans have set up the rules to tie our hands,” Blumenauer spokesman Derek Schlickeisen told Current.

Quick Takes

FCC’s Genachowski won’t confirm voluntary spectrum auction in oversight hearing

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Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that he has “some dark suspicions” that broadcasters may face mandatory spectrum givebacks for an upcoming auction, reports Broadcasting & Cable. At an FCC oversight hearing in Washington today (Feb. 16), Dingell pushed Genachowski for a yes or no answer as to whether the auction, which will free up bandwidth for mobile devices, will be voluntary. “We haven’t addressed that question,” Genachowski answered. “We’ve proposed a win-win-win incentive auctions that will free up billions of dollars and bring market incentives into spectrum allocations, helping give this country what it needs – a lot more spectrum for mobile broadband.””Do you believe that a broadcaster who does not participate in voluntary incentive auctions should be forced to relinquish its current spectrum allocation, yes or no?”

Quick Takes

Pubradio’s Alan Chartock speaks out against Republicans, specifically funding foe Lamborn

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Alan Chartock, president of WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, takes on House Republicans  in a strongly worded piece in today’s (Feb. 16) Huffington Post. Why now? “As almost anyone in the system knows, I am probably the most frequent critic of NPR and its leadership,” Chartock writes. “But there are times when you really have to speak up and this is one of them.”His main target is Colorado Rep. Doug Lamborn, who wrote a January op-ed in The Hill calling NPR “a good place to start cutting federal spending.”

Quick Takes

Arthur travels to Capitol Hill for press conference to rally pubcasting support

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Seven Democratic House members were joined by the PBS Kids character Arthur in a press conference in the breezy sunshine outside the Capitol in Washington today (Feb. 16). Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) said this latest threat to public broadcasting funding is different from former battles in the mid-’90s and six years ago (Current, June 27, 2005). “Back then, there was a strong, moderate, thoughtful Republican base of support,” he said. “Now there is a partisan undercurrent that is unsettling.”

Quick Takes

Groups announce 1 million signatures to save pubcasting funding

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In the last four days, three progressive organizations have collected more than 1 million signatures opposing the GOP plan to defund public broadcasting. The move to zero out federal support of CPB “is clearly political, not budgetary,” said Timothy Karr, campaign director at Free Press. “Every time the GOP is in power, they offer a new measure to kill public broadcasting. But there’s something they don’t take into consideration—the American people love public broadcasting.” Other groups collecting signatures are are MoveOn.org and CREDO Action. 

Quick Takes

Mister Rogers goes to Washington, take 2

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If you’re looking for a pitch for public media, marketer Izzy Smith points to an entrancing moment of political theater posted on Public Radio Exchange. Producer Roman Mars retells the story of Fred Rogers’ moment in a 1969 Senate hearing, playing opposite longtime Rhode Island Sen. John Pastore. “It’s like Capra, isn’t it?” Mars comments, but to his credit Mars points out that Pastore was an ally of President Johnson in supporting the fledgling thing called public broadcasting. YouTube has the video, with a young Fred Rogers at the witness table.

Quick Takes

Santorum to House GOP: Fans of Barney, Sesame Street ‘hit you pretty hard’

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It’s unlikely that the House GOP’s push to defund public broadcasting will succeed, according to former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a potential candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Santorum is a veteran of earlier congressional battles to eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal appropriation. In an interview on Fox News yesterday, he recalled how it played out: the “Barney contingent came out and the Sesame Street contingent came out, and these are programs that are popular among families and so they hit you pretty hard.” HuffPo and GOP12, a blog covering the 2012 field of Republicans running for president, have video clips.

Quick Takes

Pubcasting exec says “we’re embarrassed” at MoveOn.org support, Adweek reports

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MoveOn.org, the outspoken advocacy group at the forefront of all things progressive, has turned its home page into a petition opposing proposed funding cuts to public broadasting, and e-mailed its members to sign it. And pubcasting execs appreciate that effort, right? Well . . .Several who spoke with Adweek “wish MoveOn would have stayed quiet,” the advertising mag reports.

Quick Takes

“Character from one of America’s favorite public television shows” to the rescue

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Six House Democrats are planning a press conference for 11:15 a.m. Eastern Wednesday (Feb. 16) to announce their efforts to oppose cuts proposed for CPB in H.R.1, the Continuing Resolution under debate this week. Reps. Ed Markey (Mass.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Nita Lowey (Iowa), Sam Farr (Calif.) and Paul Tonko and Bill Owens (both N.Y.) “will be joined by a character from one of America’s favorite public television shows” on the House side of the east front of the Capitol. Could it be .

Quick Takes

How about “retransmission revenue” for PBS?

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Politics Daily senior correspondent Jill Lawrence really likes PBS and NPR. But she wants them defunded. “It’s time to end [pubcasting’s] role as a political football and a symbol of what government shouldn’t be doing,” she writes. “It’s time to find another way to help public broadcasting thrive.”One idea: Sell PBS programming to cable and satellite companies. Lawrence quotes David Schutz, a veteran broadcast financial and marketing analyst, who said PBS has never looked for “retransmission revenue” from subscription television providers.

Quick Takes

Ken Burns: Pubcasting services used by all, “regardless of political persuasion”

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PBS documentarian Ken Burns issued a statement on public broadcasting today, as debate nears in the House of Representatives on the future of CPB funding. It said in part that discussions over public media support “is always described as a left-right divide. But myriad services in public broadcasting are enjoyed in every state of the union regardless of political persuasion. Public television is particularly a crucial link in ongoing adult education, something we desperately need as we retrain those without jobs.” He cited pubcasting’s role in providing “in-depth and independent media, along with news, cultural and educational programming,” and said it delivers those services “in a nonpartisan, fair, and, most importantly, in-depth fashion.

Quick Takes

APTS, NPR integrate lobbying efforts to form Public Media Association

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The Association of Public Television Stations and NPR are consolidating their lobbying efforts to broaden APTS’ advocacy work to include public radio. The Public Media Association will be governed by a legislative council of four pubradio leaders named by the NPR board of directors and four public TV leaders selected by the APTS Action board, along with NPR President Vivian Schiller and APTS President Pat Butler. He will oversee the effort. Mike Riksen, NPR’s vice president for policy and representation, will report directly to Butler on government funding issues. Schiller initiated the discussions with APTS several months ago about aligning their advocacy functions.