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.
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.
This code was published in June 1999 by the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) and the Producers’ Advocacy Group (PAG) to guide negotiations between freelance producers and buyers of radio production, such as NPR. Reproduced with permission of AIR. INTRODUCTION
The Association of Independents in Radio* (AIR) and the Producers Advocacy Group** (PAG) present the following code in an effort to clarify and standardize rates and practices for working with freelancers in the public radio industry. In recognition of the central role freelancers and independent radio producers play in enriching the content of almost all the important programs on public radio, AIR and PAG recommend the following guidelines when public radio networks, stations or shows use the work of freelance radio producers:
LIVING WAGE
Freelance producers should be paid at a rate which allows a decent living. At minimum we urge acquirers to match the prevailing rate scale, including benefits, paid to staff reporters and producers doing comparable work in comparable markets.
These are the bylaws of the governing body of Pacifica Radio, originally adopted Sept. 30, 1961, with revisions through Feb. 28, 1999. See also Pacifica’s bylaws in 1955, early in the nonprofit’s history. ARTICLE ONE
IDENTITY
NAME: The name of this corporation shall be PACIFICA FOUNDATION, and it shall be referred to in these by-laws as “The Foundation”.
These bylaws include all amendments through Jan. 20, 1999. See also original NPR bylaws from 1970. ARTICLE I – OFFICES
1.1 Principal Office. The Corporation shall maintain its principal office in the City of Washington, District of Columbia.
In 1998, the Clinton administration’s so-called Gore Commission reviewed the “public interest” basis of federal broadcasting law as part of its report on policies for the fast-approaching era of digital television. The Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters published its full 160-page report Dec. 18, 1998 (PDF). Federal oversight of all broadcasting has had two general goals: to foster the commercial development of the industry and to ensure that broadcasting serves the educational and informational needs of the American people. In many respects, the two goals have been quite complementary, as seen in the development of network news operations and in the variety of cultural, educational, and public affairs programming aired over the years.
In 1998, the FCC addressed a longtime gap in its set of procedures with this rulemaking proposal. See the resulting April 2000 FCC order laying out the new procedure. Before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of Reexamination of the Comparative Standards for Noncommercial Educational Applicants, MM Docket No. 95-31
FURTHER NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING
Adopted: October 7, 1998 Released: October 21, 1998
Comment Date: [45 days after publication in the Federal Register]
Reply Date: [65 days after publication in the Federal Register]
By the Commission: Commissioners Furchtgott-Roth and Tristani issuing a joint statement
1. The Commission issues this Further Notice in an ongoing effort to improve the process of choosing among competing applicants for noncommercial educational (“NCE”) broadcast stations.
These are the bylaws of APTS, as of June 1998, a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation that represents public TV in Washington. At that point, the group was calling itself the Association of America’s Public Television Stations, or America’s Public Television Stations for short. ARTICLE I. OFFICES AND REGISTERED AGENT. Section 1. Registered Office.
In 1997, the FCC fined Chicago public TV station WTTW for violating commission standards for underwriting credits (Current coverage). More than two years later, the commission found that three of the four contested credits were permissible, and reduced the fine (text of March 2000 order). Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554
In reply refer to: 1800C1-KMS 97040529
December 2, 1997
Released: December 3, 1997
CERTIFIED MAIL — RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
Window to the World Communications, Inc.
Licensee, Station WTTW(TV)
5400 North St. Louis Ave. Chicago, IL 60625
Dear Licensee:
This letter constitutes a NOTICE OF APPARENT LIABILITY FOR A FORFEITURE pursuant to Section 503(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the “Act”), for violations of 47 U.S.C. Section 399B and Section 73.621(e) of the Commission’s Rules.
This 1996 Circuit Court opinion upholds a provision of the 1992 Cable Act that mandates noncommercial educational or informational programming on 4-7 percent of DBS operators’ channel capacity…
This 1996 federal Circuit Court opinion upholds a provision of the 1992 Cable Act that mandates noncommercial educational or informational programming on 4-7 percent of DBS operators’ channel capacity [DBS provision]. The law was not challenged by DBS operators but by Time Warner, which opposed many provisions of the Cable Act. The decision was a major victory for public TV, which had tried for years to obtain reserved channels in the new media that would be comparable to the FM and TV channel reservations of earlier decades. [Current coverage: appeal verdict, FCC rules.]
United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
Argued November 20, 1995; Decided August 30, 1996
No. 93-5349
TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT CO., L.P., APPELLANT/PETITIONER
v.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEES/RESPONDENTS
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA’S PUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONS, ET AL., INTERVENORS
This 1996 Circuit Court opinion upholds a provision of the 1992 Cable Act that mandates noncommercial educational or informational programming on 4-7 percent of Direct Broadcast Satellite operators’ channel capacity (DBS provision). The law was not challenged by DBS operators but by Time Warner, which opposed many provisions of the Cable Act. The decision was a major victory for public TV, which had tried for years to obtain reserved channels in the new media that would be comparable to the FM and TV channel reservations of earlier decades. (Current coverage: appeal verdict, FCC rules.)
United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
Argued November 20, 1995; Decided August 30, 1996
No. 93-5349
TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT CO., L.P., APPELLANT/PETITIONER
v.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEES/RESPONDENTS
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA’S PUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONS, ET AL., INTERVENORS
Before the Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of Deletion of Noncommercial Reservation of Channel *16, 482-488 MHz, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Adopted: July 24, 1996
Released: August 1, 1996By the Commission: Commissioner Ness issuing a statement; Commissioner Chong concurring and issuing a statement in which Commissioner Quello joins. 1. The Commission has before it for consideration a “Petition to Delete Noncommercial Reservation” filed on June 24, 1996 by WQED Pittsburgh (WQED or the Company), licensee of noncommercial educational television stations WQED(TV), Channel *13 and WQEX(TV), Channel *16, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WQED requests that its Channel *16 allotment be dereserved in order to permit commercial broadcasting on Channel 16 in Pittsburgh, and that it be permitted to assign WQEX(TV) to a commercial licensee and use the net proceeds to further WQED(TV)’s noncommercial broadcast operation. WQED’s petition is filed pursuant to the Department of Justice and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1996, Pub.
At the threshold of the new millennium, another Congress has the opportunity to allocate a portion of a precious national asset to an equally historic investment in the education of our people.
If public broadcasting loses its federal aid, it’s “highly unlikely” that it will recover the same amounts by increasing revenues from product licensing, individual contributors or local and state governments, an economics consulting firm reported back to CPB last week. Moreover, “the nature of public broadcasting will inevitably change” if the field loses its federal assistance, according to National Economic Research Associates, a White Plains, N.Y., firm that presented conclusions of its CPB-commissioned study to the CPB Board on March 14. Steven Schwartz, v.p. of NERA, also estimated that public broadcasting has a value of $2.8 billion to $4.3 billion to the American public–far more than the $1.8 billion from all sources that are spent on it, or the $285 million that Congress appropriated for this year. The study responded to remarks by public broadcasting’s opponents on the CPB funding issue, who contend that the field could easily replace the federal aid. No easy options
Revenues from product licensing are “too small and uncertain to be relied upon,” Schwartz told the CPB Board.
Three polls taken last month gave majorities of 62 to 84 percent favoring CPB’s federal funding. Then, a few days later, comes one showing the public 63 percent okaying cutbacks. Why such a flip-flop? “Question wording can move poll results very drastically,” replies John Brennan, polling director at the Los Angeles Times, which published the fourth poll. In the first three polls, the questions about CPB appropriations simply asked whether the funding should be continued or eliminated or, in the case of PBS’s own commissioned poll, whether it should be increased, maintained or decreased.
These are the recommendations of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Public Television, released in the July 1993 report Quality Time? The complete 188-page paperback, including a background paper by Richard Somerset-Ward, published by the Twentieth Century Fund Press, has been available for $9.95 through the Brookings Institution (1-800-275-1447). See also [Current coverage, Aug. 9, 1993.]
On mission
The mission of public television should be the enrichment and strengthening of American society and culture through high-quality programming that reflects and advances our basic values. In order to fulfill its mission, America’s system of public television needs fundamental structural change.
These are the recommendations of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Public Television, released in the July 1993 report Quality Time? The complete 188-page paperback, including a background paper by Richard Somerset-Ward, published by the Twentieth Century Fund Press, is available for $9.95 through the Brookings Institution (1-800-275-1447). See also [Current coverage and list of task force members, Aug. 9, 1993. On mission
The mission of public television should be the enrichment and strengthening of American society and culture through high-quality programming that reflects and advances our basic values.
CPB from its start had always had responsibility for ensuring “objectivity and balance” in programming that it funded, but on June 2, 1992, the U.S. Senate amended the House bill that included CPB’s reauthorization (H.R. 2977) to add related responsibilities. Amendments were accepted by the House and signed by the President in August. Text below is from the act as signed by the President. Objectivity and Balance Policy, Procedures and Report
SEC. 19.