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Licensee of WSRE ends PBS affiliation for the Pensacola TV market.

esdx said:
It's basically a "call-in" legal show hosted by a bankruptcy law firm. It even ran in Panama City during the late night hours.
Here's a 2005 episode. Interesting production values with their "virtual set" way back then...

Back to WSRE. If the foundation wants a PBS affiliate on the air, maybe they could partner with the University of West Florida. They already run the NPR station for the area (WUWF) and I believe run a TV channel that's on Cox Cable. WPAN is probably their best bet in leasing them a channel slot.

And down the line, if PSC fails in running WSRE as an educational independent, they may cash it out to UWF, or even FSU to relay WFSU/WFSG.
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If it's more a matter of not being able to sustain a free-standing station, relaying WFSU/WFSG sounds like possibly the best solution.
 
kokoroanime said:
Next month is WSRE switching to Educational independent.
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I wonder how they plan to fund it. They decertified their foundation. So that money is gone. Fans of PBS won't pay for generic educational programming. The state cut funding. So it really comes down to the college paying for everything.
 
TheBigA said:
I wonder how they plan to fund it. They decertified their foundation. So that money is gone. Fans of PBS won't pay for generic educational programming. The state cut funding. So it really comes down to the college paying for everything.
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If it were a larger TV market, a more heavily populated area, there might be room for an independent public TV station, with PBS coming from WEIQ Mobile, but the area simply isn't that big, with diverse-enough programming demand.
 
IM42A said:
If it were a larger TV market, a more heavily populated area, there might be room for an independent public TV station, with PBS coming from WEIQ Mobile, but the area simply isn't that big, with diverse-enough programming demand.
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Both PBS and NPR are cutting their programming fees and making deals in other markets. As I said earlier, this sounds like it's more about politics than cutting costs.

PBS recently cut its budget by 21% and reduced station dues by about $35 million for fiscal year 2026, lowering total dues revenue by roughly 15% Current.
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I assume the lawsuit by the foundation is still ongoing. I don't see any reporting of a settlement.
 
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kokoroanime said:

The new schedule as an educational independent station is out. There will be educational shows for kids and programs produced for Florida. Pensacola will have to get access to Alabama Public TV aka WEIQ 42.

This will be the first time Mobile to have an educational independent station available through over the air.
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I'm sorry, all of that stuff is not what people who have been used to a PBS station are looking for.

Just throwing this out there, would it violate any Alabama state mandates for public TV, to make WSRE a satellite of WEIQ (and, by extension, the entire Alabama public TV network)? It might be kind of apples and oranges (or Granny Smiths and Pink Ladys), but the transmitters for Louisville's two PBS/KET stations are located across the river in Indiana.
 
TheBigA said:
WSRE can't air PBS programming without an agreement to carry it. WSRE obviously doesn't want to carry PBS programming.
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Agreed. The question will be if funding is available long enough for most of these programs to gain an audience over the long term. If not, you can probably kiss WSRE-TV, whether or not it uses PBS programming, goodbye, probably within the next two years, if not sooner.
 


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