System/Policy

Auction delay allows time to think hard about selling spectrum

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Selling or keeping spectrum is perhaps the most consequential decision that the current generation of public television station executives and their boards will ever make about the future of public media, not just in their communities but the nation as well. The FCC chairman’s postponement of the spectrum auction until at least 2016 is an opportunity for greater scrutiny of that weighty decision. Pitches from speculators and their FCC allies have focused on the one-time financial windfall to local licensees from selling noncommercial spectrum. However, balanced deliberation requires examining some key issues. Here’s my own short list:

Know when to hold ’em: Next-generation broadcasting technology will open up important new revenue streams for public and commercial stations.

System/Policy

Incoming Republican chairs include ‘powerful friends’ of public broadcasting, says APTS president

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SAN DIEGO — Patrick Butler, public television’s chief advocate on Capitol Hill, wants to reassure broadcasters who are nervous about the incoming Republican majority, particularly on the powerful Senate side. In a speech at the annual American Public Television Fall Marketplace, Butler said that he “detected some anxiety in the public television industry that we will be going to hell in a handbasket now that Republicans control the entire Congress” after this month’s midterm elections. “I’ve come to San Diego to tell you that it ain’t necessarily so.”

Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, reminded the crowd that GOP support for pubcasting goes back even to Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater — known as “Mr. Conservative” — who helped Joan Ganz Cooney, the niece of a friend, get the first $1 million to create Sesame Street in the 1960s. And even now, Butler noted, “public broadcasting does have powerful friends among Republicans in the Senate.”

One is Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, new chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. His father was the first chair of the Mississippi Public Broadcasting Commission in the late ’60s, Butler said.

System/Policy

Indiana pubTV finance manager pleads guilty to stealing station funds

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The former finance manager of WFWA-TV in Fort Wayne, Ind., has pleaded guilty to embezzling money from the PBS member station. In a plea bargain, Gail Waymire confessed to one count of routing nearly $9,000 of the station’s funds to her personal bank account and waived a jury trial. A federal grand jury in South Bend, Ind., indicted her last month on 20 charges in connection with stealing more than $130,000 from the station’s coffers over three years. The FBI requested that no one at the station speak publicly on the matter while Waymire’s case is pending. Station Board Chair Randall Steiner also declined to comment to Current Tuesday.

System/Policy

Regents extend funding for Iowa Public Radio

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The Iowa Board of Regents agreed Oct. 23 to continue funding Iowa Public Radio at current levels through the end of fiscal year 2016, reversing a plan to zero out funding by that time. IPR’s 2012 strategic plan called for zeroing out the board of regents’ support by the end of fiscal year 2016. The station saw shortfalls in major giving revenue and lacked an executive director for a year until Myrna Johnson joined the network in January. Citing those factors, IPR asked for board funding to remain at 12.5 percent of its operating budget.

System/Policy

FCC dismissal of indecency complaints clears way for renewal of pubcasters’ licenses

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Pubcasters Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Twin Cities Public Television and KCOS-TV in El Paso, Texas, were among the almost 700 broadcasters whose licenses were renewed en masse earlier this month, after the FCC quietly cleared many stations nationwide of indecency charges. The renewals had been on hold due to allegations that some of their programming may have violated FCC regulations barring broadcasters from airing indecent material between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The complaints were thrown out as part of an agency effort to reduce the backlog of applications to be processed. The complaint against LPB was apparently over an episode of Doc Martin, according to LPB President Beth Courtney. “You’re kidding me” was Courtney’s reaction when she learned of the complaint’s target, she said. “There was nothing that I saw under any guideline that would be a problem,” Courtney said, adding that the agency’s rejection of the complaint “was the appropriate response.”

The complaint pending against Twin Cities was apparently over “blurred nudity” in an episode of Globe Trekker, according to station spokesperson Elle Krause-Lyons.

Programs/Content

Downton popularity, Sprout sale contribute to $30.7 million budget surplus for PBS

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PBS is once again enjoying a budget surplus, thanks in part to the continuing success of Masterpiece’s hit British costume drama Downton Abbey. PBS Chief Financial Officer Barbara Landes told the board’s finance committee Monday that net income for fiscal 2014 totaled $30.7 million. This year, $10.4 million of that total is a one-time windfall due to the sale of PBS’s 15 percent equity share in the kids’ cable network Sprout. NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group acquired full ownership of Sprout, formerly called PBS Kids Sprout, in November 2013. PBS operations generated $20.3 million, thanks to better than expected returns on short-term investments, revenue-generating activities such as online sponsorship and mobile apps, and lower operating expenses, according to Landes.

System/Policy

FCC delays spectrum auctions by several months, until early 2016

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The FCC has postponed its auction of television broadcast spectrum to early 2016, according to a blog post on the commission website Friday. Gary Epstein, chair of the Incentive Auction Task Force, wrote that “court challenges to the auction rules by some broadcasters have introduced uncertainty” into the run-up to the auction, which is mandated by Congress to clear broadcast bandwidth for the growing number of mobile devices. Under the FCC’s earlier timetable, the auctions had been slated for mid-2015. Though Epstein didn’t identify the court cases, two organizations’ complaints have been consolidated and are pending before the before the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The National Association of Broadcasters filed a petition in August, challenging the FCC’s methodology for predicting coverage areas of TV stations among other elements.

System/Policy

In marketing for new listeners, Philadelphia’s WXPN emphasizes human touch in music curation

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A new marketing campaign mounted by Philadelphia’s WXPN-FM takes aim not at other local radio stations but targets the threat of online music services such as Pandora and Spotify. The Triple A station launched a six-week campaign last week to bolster recognition of the station in its market, attract new members and try to lure people away from online competitors. The “Vinyl at Heart” campaign features bus wraps and billboards as well as refresher campaigns and live events. Research commissioned by the station four years ago sowed the seeds for the new campaign by revealing untapped potential for new listeners in the Philadelphia market. “One of the key findings was that of the people in the region that liked the kind of music we play, only half knew we even existed,” said Roger LaMay, WXPN’s g.m. “It wasn’t shocking, but nonetheless it was one of those findings that grabs you and says you need to do something.”

Those results paralleled a study of classical music listeners presented at last month’s Public Radio Program Directors conference.

System/Policy

Pubcasters can follow example of Texas Tribune, says editor-in-chief

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ADDISON, Texas — More than one-third of the roughly 300 attendees at the annual National Educational Telecommunications Association’s professional development conference this week are first-timers, making for one of the most crowded Newcomers Welcome sessions in years. And those newbies have plenty of sessions to choose from at the conference, which runs through Wednesday at the Hotel InterContinental in this Dallas suburb. Topics include development, collaborations, marketing, community engagement, FCC regulations, education, promotion — one session even analyzes the “complex, arcane” structure of the public broadcasting system. The conference opened Monday with keynote speaker Evan Smith, editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune, addressing the power of public conversation. The nonprofit newsroom in Austin, which celebrates its fifth anniversary in two weeks, was “invented more or less on the fly,” Smith said, as newspapers in the state withered.

System/Policy

KET debate proceeds without Libertarian candidate who challenged exclusion

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When Kentucky Tonight host Bill Goodman introduced U.S. Senate candidates on the air the evening of Oct. 13, one was missing: Libertarian David Patterson, whose name will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot in Kentucky. Just 48 hours before, a federal judge in Frankfort rejected Patterson’s argument that Kentucky Educational Television violated his First Amendment rights by denying his request to be included in the broadcast. Patterson, along with the state and national Libertarian parties, contended that KET kept him off the program due to his political viewpoint.

System/Policy

Judge denies Libertarian candidate’s request to appear on KET program

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A federal judge has rejected an argument that Kentucky Educational Television violated a Libertarian candidate’s First Amendment rights by denying his request to be included in a broadcast featuring two U.S. Senate candidates. David Patterson, along with the state and national Libertarian parties, sued for his inclusion in Monday’s Kentucky Tonight show, where incumbent Republican Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader, and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky secretary of state, will appear. Patterson is the only other candidate whose name will be on the Nov. 6 ballot. KET Executive Director Shae Hopkins praised the ruling, announced Saturday.

System/Policy

Wilson in farewell to NPR: “Thank you for the best six years of my life”

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Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s outgoing chief content officer, sent this farewell email to NPR staff Friday. When I arrived at NPR six years ago, my wife remarked that it was as if I’d finally come home. Here was a place where the journalism I valued was deeply embedded in the culture. And where it was clear that curiosity, innovation and risk-taking could flourish. It was like having the New York Philharmonic and Miles under the same roof.

System/Policy

Public radio organizations weigh in on FCC public file proposal

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A proposal to require noncommercial radio stations to disclose program funders and share other public file records online has prompted widely varying reactions among public and religious broadcasters. In filings with the FCC, Native Public Media, an association representing tribal media organizations, warned that the change would be too burdensome and could lead to the demise of some of its radio stations. American Public Media Group — the largest owner of public radio stations in the U.S. — welcomed greater standards of transparency. Meanwhile, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters staked out a middle ground, proposing an exemption for stations with small staffs. Another major player among noncommercial radio broadcasters, Educational Media Foundation, objected to online disclosure of its stations’ program donors, as did Native Public Media.

System/Policy

CPB funds will go toward helping pubTV execs make spectrum decisions

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CPB will spend $3 million to give public television executives access to expert advice on the upcoming broadcast spectrum auction. The extremely high value of spectrum as appraised by an Oct. 1 FCC report, “Incentive Auction Opportunities for Broadcasters,” created a “considerable amount of confusion” among managers, said Michael Levy, CPB e.v.p. Previous estimates had been much lower. CPB now believes, based on conversations with general managers after the report was released, that “perhaps as many as 50 to 60” of those executives now feel compelled to “revisit their thinking” about whether to participate in the auction, Levy said. The topic generated discussion at a CPB/PBS General Managers Strategy Meeting Monday and Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Levy said.

System/Policy

New multicast channel gives Blue Ridge PBS room for afternoon kids’ shows

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Blue Ridge PBS in Roanoke, Va., launched a multicast channel Monday that returns children’s programming to its afternoon schedule. President James Baum said the station focused on afternoon educational programming until several years ago, when viewers “started constantly asking for how-to programs” during that time. Back then, the station had only its main channel and one multicast for the World Channel. The new multicast channel, called SW Virginia Public Television, will be locally programmed with do-it-yourself shows in the mornings and animated educational programs from 3 to 7 p.m. Evenings feature public affairs and lifestyle content as well as entertainment and documentaries. Meanwhile, the afternoon how-to shows continue to perform well on the main channel, Baum said.

System/Policy

KET loses bid to dismiss Libertarian candidate’s lawsuit over debate

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A U.S. District Court judge in Kentucky has denied a public television station’s request to dismiss a lawsuit from a Libertarian candidate who wants to participate in a televised debate next week. U.S. Senate candidate David Patterson, along with the state and national Libertarian parties, filed suit Sept. 28 in U.S. District Court in Frankfort, contending state licensee Kentucky Educational Television violated his First Amendment rights by excluding him from the debate. Patterson also asked the court to order KET to include him in the Oct. 13 forum, where incumbent Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell is scheduled to appear with Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.

System/Policy

Media-watchers check in on PBS/Harper’s kerfuffle

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The dustup, or at least perceived dustup, between Harper’s and PBS is getting more attention, with the magazine’s publisher sharing more details with the Columbia Journalism Review. Last week, the New York Post first reported that PBS yanked ads from upcoming issues of Harper’s after an essay critical of the network ran in the magazine’s October issue. Today CJR reports that PBS confirmed it pulled an ad from this month’s issue, but the network declined comment on whether it yanked the other ads. “[T]o have done such a petty thing does make me suspicious,” MacArthur says. CJR’s David Uberti adds: “Pulling advertisements is an age-old tactic for businesses facing media criticism to seek retribution.

System/Policy

NPR announces new COO, departure of Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson

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NPR President Jarl Mohn, who stepped into the role July 1, announced today a new COO and the departure of Kinsey Wilson, executive v.p. and chief content officer since February 2012. The new COO is Loren Mayor, currently senior v.p. of strategy. Mohn also shuffled NPR Music, which formerly reported to Wilson, to report to the network’s senior v.p. of news. Eric Nuzum, v.p. of the programming division that comprises NPR’s non-news shows, will report to Chief Marketing Officer Emma Carrasco. UPDATE (Oct 6, 2:53pm): 

In an interview with Current, Mohn said the reorganization underscored the organization’s commitment to its journalism and news programming.