What Is "Significant" Local Service?

At a recent meeting of public radio managers, the question was posed as to what exactly constitutes "significant" local service? News? Public affairs? Arts? (How much of what and when?) If you are a classical format, does producing a series featuring area artists count as significant local service?

Just how is significance measured anyway?

Bill Moyers for President?

Since we're in the blogosphere, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Molly Ivins' idea of nominating Bill Moyers for the Democratic Presidential nomination. It makes amusing reading, and the blogosphere is now taking the idea out for a test drive. The idea begs the question -- is America ready for someone to seriously address the myriad of issues facing us? Or have we become so desensitized to war, poverty, and hate that we "can't handle the truth?"

I admire Mr. Moyers and what he stands for, but are we ready for him as even a Presidential candidate? What can public broadcasting do to steer the election process back to governing?

Sesame Street - brought to you by the letter Q

Now kids shows on public television are touting their Q-scores. As if our concern over traditional Nielsen ratings wasn't enough, we're expected to stand up and cheer because Sesame Street is tops in Q-scores among mothers with children between the ages of 2 and 5.

Is this what public television has come to? Aren't we supposed to be better than that?

I know that the survey was done on behalf of PBS Kids Sprout, which is technically not "public television", but that's a difficult argument to make with civilians.

Is PBS The Liberal Media?

PBS programs earned 33 nominations in the News and Documentary Emmys Awards today. This amount far-outpaced all other services. NBC got 19, CBS was next at 16 and ABC News received 14.

Also picking up nominations were: History Channel (12), National Geographic (8), Cinemax (7), HBO and CNN (6 each), Discovery Channel (5), MTV (3) and Discovery HD Theater and Animal Planet (2 each). Discovery Times Channel, Hallmark Channel, Showtime and Univision earned 1 nomination each.

Odd ..., no FOX News nods. (For the record, Fox does not enter the competition. Guess they don't want to suffer by comparison.)

It's all very flattering and most deserved. But my fear is that the right leaning media will simply dismiss this as another example of the "liberal media" bias. Should pubcasters go on the offensive and claim bragging rights?

CPB Board - Here We Go Again?

Warren Bell, executive producer of ABC's "According to Jim" and a contributor to the online edition of the conservative National Review magazine, has been nominated to serve on CPB's Board of Directors.

In his frequent National Review postings, he has described himself as a "not-so-secret conservative" and has complained about the liberalism of colleagues in the entertainment industry.

While confirmation hearing are still pending, is this déjà vu all over again?

PBS & VOD For Kids Going Big?

Time Warner Cable San Antonio has added 50 hours of PBS Kids Sprout programming on its Kids On Demand digital. Viewers can select content from up to 16 shows, including Sesame Street, Barney and Friends and Bob the Builder, etc.

I'm hoping that KLRN is a Sprout station and that this is an arrangement with participating stations. I'm not sure that I want 50 hours of PBS programming bypassing my transmitter ... prorgams that station dues helps pay for.

Are our new digital transmitters becoming as useful as paperweights?

Hmmm. A blog devoted to public broadcasting musings. I like it, but I hope it's not simply a place to rant and rave (although some of that's definately encouraged), but also to wax philosophical, propose ideas and solutions.

I've lived through decades of the ups and downs of public broadcasting (with pictures and without), and know what it feels like to be a political football, a whipping boy for the right wing, a panacea for the left, and everything in between.

My political bent is toward pragmatic, and though I'm as biased as the next registered Independent, I hope I try to see many sides (did you notice I didn't say "both" sides?) of an issue before making a decision. And that seems to be the ultimate goal of public broadcasting.

Does it always work? Hell, no. But at least the attempt is being made.

Is public broadcasting too liberal as some claim? Sometimes. And sometimes there are things I see or hear from the conservative side of the aisle that make me grind my teeth (on PUBLIC broadcasting!).

I find that the older I get, the less media I consume. Let me rephrase that. The older I get, the more choosy I become about the media I consume. I've become more picky, and I value my time a great deal more, so an investment in a radio program, TV show, web page, news article or blog entry becomes more important in my grand scheme of things.

So I find myself self-filtering to the information centers which (in my opinion, not yours) give me the highest quality information ... the most media bang for the buck - so to speak.

This is all just a long-winded way of saying public broadcasting isn't perfect. What is? But it's a lot nearer my ideal of (what's left of) an independent media source - or what is should aspire to be.

Let's not get into lengthy blog fights (did I just coin a phrase? have to Google that - now that the Old English Dictionary allows it), but have a healthy discussion about public broadcasting - with all its foibles, faults, fallacies and froth - but also its ideals, truths, attempts and successes.

Let the games begin!

A Future?

As part of the NPR "New Realities" workshops, attendees were asked to write a letter to their grand duaghters about the journey public radio has taken in the past decade. The missive below is one of those letters. Perhaps a bit optimistic, but why not?

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March 26, 2016

Dear Susan:

Well, as they say – "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times." A lot has happened to make public radio what is today. When you were born, cars generally only had standard AM & FM radios. Satellite radio was just starting to become popular and multicast radios were still pretty much a gamble.

We were still going to the Congress for a yearly support grant and that was getting harder and harder and harder to get. They really cut back on the money they gave to stations and it was very hard on some stations.

Many stations started to spend a lot of time just raising funds. They had to cut many programs and local services like news and a lot of people lost their jobs. Some stations couldn’t make it and had to go off the air and their stations were snatched by commercial and religious broadcasters.

Then, President Clinton was elected and like her husband, she gave public TV and radio their due. There was not a whole lot more money, but at least there was some stability and we were back to our old funding levels. But the funds that radio stations needed to go beyond just providing a regular service were still well out of reach.

Don’t get me wrong, we appreciated the support and in many ways it set forth the tremendous success we have today. But it was still a yearly process that really cost a lot of effort to get.

But then, Susan, some very forward thinking people in Congress who were very disappointed with the state of media in the country devised a plan. Why were they disappointed? Well, over the years, just about all of the commercial media had been purchased by just four huge companies. They owned just about every TV channel – cable, satellite and broadcast, and just about every radio station as well --- satellite, internet and broadcast too.

The people in congress were upset that independent media – local radio and TV stations were quickly becoming a thing of the past and were soon to be as useful as a videotape recorder. They were really worried that the diversity of speech that had built America was being lost. They looked around and found that public radio, TV and public service media may be the last best hope for the voices of “regular” Americans to be heard.

While there wasn’t enough support to just give public radio and TV the money they needed, there was support for a public-private partnership – the kinds that President Bush – the 2nd one – tried to make popular. They worked out a plan that gave the stations a real incentive to find major contributions. They proposed and passed a matching grant program that would replace the yearly federal funding mechanism and would give public radio and TV a much more secure future.

They created the “Public Service Media Endowment” which is what we are using today for the major portion of our funds. They promised to match contributions from corporate and private American up to $10 billion. So, the stations, NPR and PBS pulled together and cooperated on a national campaign to raise $10 billion that the Federal government would match. Within 4 years, the dollars – and then some -- were raised and a $21 billion endowment was created. So, now every public radio and TV station – along with some national public service media organizations, receive yearly grants from this huge savings account. We never take money out of the $21 billion, just the interest that it makes – just like your account at the internet bank.

Now, while it didn’t eliminate our pledge drives, it sure cut them down a lot. We only do one a year now!

And since we didn’t have to spend nearly as much time raising funds and fighting Congress all the time, we were able to spend a lot more time creating new programs and services. And of all the changes, I think the biggest change has been our multicast services.

Ten years ago, I was very eager to just start a second service for our station. But now, because the technology had become so good, listeners can receive six different streams on their iPodradio from my station. The diversity of music, talk, and ideas are tremendous!

Now, I have to admit that many people though I was crazy when I started an All-conservative stream, but it’s turned our great! Listeners understand that diversity of thoughts and ideas is the real public service that stations should be engaged in.

Did you know that the “Conservative Caucus” just celebrated its 5th anniversary of being distributed nationally? We’re having a party next month and our special guest is Rush Limbaugh. Who’s Rush Limbaugh? Well, he was a popular radio host once on commercial radio. He’s now a commentator on “Conservative Caucus.”

We'll have cake and ice cream! Want to come with me?

Be good in school and mind you parents.

Hugs & kisses,
Grandpa

Kids TV on PTV Not That Important?

To launch the PBS KIDS GO! Channel in October, PBS needed at least 50 percent of its licensees to agree by July 1 to carry the service. Only 30 percent of licensees agreed to sign-on.

Is this a sign that children's TV services are on the outs? Many pubcasters wanted the service to fulfill a multi-channel promise. Perhaps there are too many options now -- Create, World, etc. Maybe the cost was too steep? Maybe stations can easily "roll their own?" Maybe it another sign of a fractious system and multiple priorities.

Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

Moyers interview this week with author Jeanette Winterson (“Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles”) is simply fascinating and engaging. She discusses growing up in a Pentecostal household; why she left home; and the power of the written word to heal the heart. Who says "talking heads" make for boring TV?