Tech

FCC gives public TV 6 years to go digital

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The year 2003 doesn’t seem so far off when you’ve got plenty to do in the meantime. Between now and then, public TV will raise funds for, install and turn on hundreds of
digital TV transmitters. In its order mandating a speeded-up digital transition, adopted April 3 [1997], the FCC
gave public TV stations six years to add digital signals–at least a year longer than
commercial stations. Some pubcasters will go digital long before that and others will have
trouble doing it at all. Responding to urgings from America’s Public Television Stations and other commenters,
the commission reduced power inequities among stations.

System/Policy

Having ‘done the job,’ Carlson will depart CPB

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Richard Carlson, a Republican credited with defending public broadcasting from attacks by members of his party, announced Jan. 24 that he will leave the CPB presidency June 30 or before. He opposed overlapping stations and pushed new rules to limit grants to them–winning support among politicians but losing the backing of many station execs. He spoke up for objectivity and ideological balance in programs, while spurning demands that CPB take a more intrusive role in programming to detect and correct imbalance. He trimmed the CPB bureaucracy and paid a quarter of the staff to leave, changing its human face, with consequences not yet known.

Tech

Set-aside of DBS capacity for noncommercial use upheld by appeals court

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A federal appeals court has upheld the little-noticed 1992 law setting aside 4–7 percent of direct broadcast satellite capacity for “noncommercial programming of an educational or informational nature.” The Aug. 30, 1996, decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., overturned a 1993 District Court decision that ruled the set-aside had violated DBS operators’ First Amendment rights. If the decision isn’t appealed successfully to the Supreme Court, the set-aside means that a DBS operator with 175 channels — that’s how many DirecTV claims — will have to offer 7-12 channels of noncommercial fare on its menu. The ruling provides ‘a great basis’ for arguing that broadcasters airing multiple digital channels be required to provide some noncommercial programming, says Sohn.

System/Policy

Fields proposes trust fund but caps size at $1B

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Federal appropriations to public broadcasting will end at close of business, Sept. 30, 2000, under the House Republican leadership’s proposal introduced Feb. 28 by Rep. Jack Fields (R-Tex.). The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would live on, however, as overseer of a new trust fund endowed through the auction of vacant noncommercial TV channels. In the meantime, Fields’ Public Broadcasting Self-Sufficiency Act of 1996 delays panic in the field by authorizing annual sums of $250 million a year for fiscal years 1998, 1999 and 2000, and maintaining the traditional 75/25 split between public TV and public radio for these next few years.

System/Policy

At 10, Station Resource Group has more for Tom and Terry to do

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You seldom hear that members of an association are voluntarily doubling their dues, but that’s about what the Station Resource Group is doing. Ten years after an informal group of station managers, the Dallas 15, hired Tom Thomas and Terry Clifford, the stations are raising their commitment and buying more of the consultants’ time. When Thomas and Clifford return home from last weekend’s annual SRG retreat — Aug. 18-22 in Park City, Utah — they’ll bring back a “to do” list and authorization to spend full time on it. Until now, SRG has taken about two-thirds of their time, Thomas estimates.

Ervin Duggan

Ervin Duggan hired from FCC to lead PBS

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As PBS’s fourth president, FCC member Ervin S. Duggan, 54, will take the lead of public TV at a time when momentous developments seem near. The field’s biggest ventures beyond single-channelhood are just ahead, along with the high promise, high cost and high-definition of digital technology. And the stations, at their fall planning meeting in mid-November, appeared ready to begin talking seriously about restructuring for that future. Good thing that Duggan enjoys “that feeling of flying out off the cliff, and floating, and testing my wings,” as he remarked Dec. 1 [1993], at the press conference where his election was announced.

Programs/Content

Radio Bilingüe launches 24-hour Latino feed

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Public radio last month used an old Ted Turner technique to launch a 24-hour
bilingual radio network for Latinos. The superstation in this case is KSJV-FM in Fresno, Cal., flagship of Radio
Bilingue’s noncommercial station group. WSJV’s schedule officially went up on the public radio satellite system
Sept. 16 [1993], the anniversary of several Latin American countries’ independence
from Spain. The network—named with the Spanish word “Satelite”—gets
its operational funding from the CPB Radio Program Fund and matching funds
for satellite equipment from the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program.

History of public media

At reunion, early leaders of public broadcasting express pride about past, concern for future

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The man who put New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia on the radio, reading the comics during a newspaper strike — M.S. “Morrie” Novik — talked the other day about his first trip west of Chicago. That excursion to Iowa more than 50 years ago was also the first time the head of New York’s municipal radio station, WNYC, had much contact with the midwesterners who were big in “educational radio.” Novik recognized they were up to the same thing he was, and he joined a fellowship that continues today. He was among his fellows again Oct. 8-9 [1993], during a Public Broadcasting Reunion, where a big roomful of admitted idealists reminisced, ribbed each other, tut-tutted about things these days, and unabashedly proclaimed their values.

Public Media Policybase

Nixon Administration Public Broadcasting Papers, Summary of 1972

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Nineteen seventy-two saw President Richard Nixon veto funding for public broadcasting. In the wake of Nixon’s veto, Frank Pace Jr. and John Macy resigned as chairman and president, respectively, of CPB. Pace was replaced by Thomas Curtis, a former Congressman from Missouri; Macy, by Henry Loomis, a career civil servant, then the Deputy Director of USIA. In addition to Curtis, Nixon appointed six other directors in 1972. On Jan.