Current.org | CPB radio fund goes on, 2004

CPB concentrates radio aid in bigger grants

Adapted from an article in Current, May 24, 2004
By Mike Janssen

CPB plans to back 15 public radio programs and projects with more than $7.5 million in grants, the agency announced May 14 [2004].

The Competitive Funds draw in part on public radio's Future Fund, which CPB will continue through at least fiscal year 2005 but will review during that time.

CPB is ending its Television Future Fund this fall amid concerns that it drew illegally on funds reserved for station grants. [A General Accounting Office study released May 21 said that practice was illegal.] Both the radio and TV Future Funds get half of their money from the part of CPB's appropriation that Congress allots to station grants.

Nearly 200 system leaders expressed appreciation for radio's Future Fund in a recent survey, CPB said, but survey findings suggested the agency could improve how it communicates project results.

Last year CPB sought advice from the public radio system on its awarding of the Public Radio Competitive Funds. The latest round of grants reflects the consultation process by focusing on fewer, larger projects, said Kay Tuttle, director of radio strategic initiatives.

The largest grant, $1.5 million, will back the full launch of the Public Radio Exchange, an online market of shows and segments from stations and independent producers that debuted last fall.

CPB also gave two grants to Koahnic Broadcast Corp. in Anchorage, Alaska, a major producer of programming aimed at Native Americans. Native America Calling, a daily talk show, received $1.2 million. Earthsongs, which features Native music, received $125,000.

Other grants were:

$930,000 to the Capitol Hill Bureau, a PRI-distributed service that provides localized coverage of Congress for stations;
$750,000 to David Isay's Sound Portraits Productions in New York for the national launch of StoryCorps, which gathers oral histories via kiosks in public places;
$750,000 to NPR for The Tavis Smiley Show, a weekday news show;
$500,000 over two years to Minnesota Public Radio for Speaking of Faith, a weekly program about religion;
$382,500 to Radio Bilingue for Linea Abierta Special Series, an expansion of the Spanish-language network's call-in show to include regional news for Latinos in Texas;
$250,000 to MediaRites of Portland, Ore., for Crossing East: First Asians in America, eight hourlong docs about Asian immigration from the 1400s to the present;
$231,500 to the Public Radio Internet Service Alliance for New Basics, an online fundraising project;
$213,000 to Long Haul Productions in Chicago for Heartland Chronicles, a 10-part documentary series set in and around Chicago exploring "the commonality of the American experience," with an emphasis on minority communities;
$200,000 to Larry Josephson's Radio Foundation Inc. in New York for Only in America, a 10-hour limited series documenting Jewish contributions to American society and culture;
$180,000 in a two-year grant to Jay Allison Productions for the Open Studio Project, which aims to deliver new and diverse voices to public radio listeners with a focus on minority perspectives;
$156,300 to Development Exchange Inc. for "Key Performance Indicators in Net Revenue," a project that will help stations gauge the health of their net revenues; and
$137,300, also to DEI, for the first two years of the Public Radio Leadership Forum. DEI organized the systemwide conference as a successor to NPR's discontinued Public Radio Conference. The first forum was held May 10 and 11 [2004] in Arlington, Va.

CPB adopted a new approach to awarding the latest grants, Tuttle said. Until recently, a single panel of people with diverse experience in public radio reviewed grant proposals. Because they had various backgrounds, only some of the panelists were able to evaluate each proposal.
This time, CPB used several smaller panels. It chose panelists for their expertise related to proposals under review. "We think our decisions were stronger," Tuttle said.

Web page posted May 22, 2004
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