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Arkansas ending PBS programming next year

arkansasadvocate.com

UPDATED: Arkansas public television commission pauses state plan to break off from PBS | Arkansas Advocate

Arkansas' public television commission voted Thursday to pause efforts to become the first state to cut ties with PBS after hearing almost two hours of frustrated public comments from opponents including the head of the national network.
arkansasadvocate.com arkansasadvocate.com

Here is an update on Arkansas TV after they had a meeting with the CEO of PBS over their affiliation status.

Arkansas’ public television commission voted Thursday to pause efforts to become the first state to cut ties with PBS after hearing almost two hours of frustrated public comments from opponents, including the head of the national network.

The 4-1 vote saw some PBS Commission members support the pause after voting in favor of forgoing PBS membership in December. The station had been preparing to disaffiliate from PBS on July 1.

Commissioner Anne Cowie was among the members who reversed their votes. She said her goal with both votes was to be financially responsible, and she pointed out that there were no public statements of support for disaffiliation at the meeting or in Arkansans’ calls and emails to commissioners.

“We saw the [fiscal] cliff and we responded,” Cowie said. “We see the people, we see that swell, and we are responding and I feel like it’s appropriate.”

Arkansas is the only state whose public television station responded to last year’s defunding and closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by taking steps to end its PBS membership. The station rebranded from Arkansas PBS to Arkansas TV.
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Only PBS member stations can purchase PBS programs, and the station used about half of a $2.5 million community service grant for this purpose before CPB shuttered.
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This is an improper use of the community service grant. That money was never intended to pay for PBS. It was granted to the station for service to the local community. In other words, hiring local staff or buying local studio equipment. Not paying for PBS.

Membership money is supposed to be used to pay for PBS. The stations say that on the air when they fundraise. They tell the viewers that they are paying so they can watch these TV programs from PBS. That's why PBS creates special fundraising programming. So what the state of Arkansas did was commit fraud. They fraudulently told their viewers to become members, and used their money for other things. Now they're taking away PBS programming from the people who paid for it. The viewers of Arkansas Public TV should sue for fraud.
 
arkansasadvocate.com

Fund set up for donations to continue supporting PBS programs in Arkansas | Arkansas Advocate

If Arkansas TV ultimately cuts ties with PBS or if the fund does not raise enough money for dues, donors will get their money back upon request.
arkansasadvocate.com arkansasadvocate.com

Here is more on how the donation money is going to be handled in Arkansas related to the event Arkansas TV decide to remove the PBS affiliation.

The PBS Dues Fund will be a separate bank account kept by the Arkansas TV Foundation, which manages financial gifts to the network, according to the foundation’s website. Donors can specify that they want their money to go toward PBS dues, and they can give any amount one time or in a recurring donation.

If Arkansas TV, the rebranded name for Arkansas’ PBS network, ultimately cuts ties with PBS or if the fund does not raise enough money for dues, donors will get their money back upon request.

Arkansas’ PBS dues for the fiscal year that begins July 1 will be about $2.1 million, PBS CEO Paula Kerger said at the commission’s March 12 meeting.

Former Arkansas first ladies Barbara Pryor and Gay White, co-chairs of Friends of Arkansas PBS, expressed gratitude for the fund’s creation in statements Monday.

“It is my sincere hope that our leadership at the capitol and the AETN Commission continue to work in good faith with the people of Arkansas and that together, we find a responsible way forward,” Pryor said, referring to the original name of the state’s public television commission.

Arkansas is the only state that responded to the defunding and closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by taking steps to end its public television station’s PBS membership. Only PBS member stations can purchase PBS programs, and the station used about half of a $2.5 million community service grant for this purpose before CPB shuttered.
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The Arkansas PBS Foundation has received an anonymous $3 million donation to keep PBS in the state:

www.yahoo.com

Arkansas public television receives three-year, $3M pledge to keep PBS in state

An anonymous donor pledged a $3 million donation to Arkansas’ public television station to help keep PBS programs in the state, the network’s foundation announced Tuesday. The “challenge grant” requir...
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

If the issue really is money, then this should solve the problem.
 


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