Talk Show Host Says Public Radio Is Growing

[The Voice of Reason]

Driving home from Buffalo Monday I caught part of Bill Nojay's show where he talked about the Fairness Doctrine and mentioned that more public radio stations are popping up the airwaves are across the country.
I don't know where Mr. Nojay is getting his information from but everything I
have seen, or read, shows that instead of growing, some public stations are reducing staff or shutting down completely.
He also referred to the Obama administration and that the federal government is increasing federal funding to public stations. Again I haven't seen such documentation. But here in New York the state budget calls for reducing state aid to public stations.
If either Mr. Nojay, or his employer Mr. Savage, could provide us with statistics, I would be very interested since I for one don't like the idea of my tax dollars being spent to fund those stations that can afford to pay their executives huge salaries yet are always claiming during fund raising drives that the station is in dire straits.
This doesn't mean I am opposed to individuals donating to public radio. But I can think of better use of my tax dollars. And by the way I do donate not to just one, but two public stations in two different cities, which should negate any claims that I am anti-public broadcasting.

 

[scooterodell]

He might be referring not to new separate public broadcasting entities, but to expansion of networks operated by public broadcasters, a la WAMC or WEOS.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

He might be referring not to new separate public broadcasting entities, but to expansion of networks operated by public broadcasters, a la WAMC or WEOS.

He did say new public broadcasting stations, which caught my attention since I recently heard the new CEO of NPR state that there might be even further cutbacks because of the econony. I wondered how could there be new stations if the network is reducing staff and possible programs?

 

[TheBigA]

This is one of those stories where there is a germ of truth, but then it's been enlarged beyond the facts.

Yes, there are increasingly MORE non-commercial radio stations. The Congress has approved legislation to add more low power FM stations in more populated areas, and they're all non-commercial. However, they probably won't qualify for NPR membership, because their budgets are too small. So I'm not expecting to see a lot of these new stations become repeaters for NPR programming. The real goal is for them to become COMMUNITY licensees, where a local community group starts a station, and staffs it with local volunteers.

And the New York Times yesterday had a front page story that a big chunk, perhaps $100 billion, of the bailout money is earmarked for education. But it will be disbursed to the states, and they will determine how it will be used. I didn't seeanything in the article that leads me to believe it was specifically designated for radio. Although one of the reasons state universities are looking to cut bank on radio budgets is because of shortfalls in other areas.

But yes, you're right that donations are down. There was an article in Sunday's Washington Post about two non-coms there (WAMU and WPFW) and their fundraising is down.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

The Congress has approved legislation to add more low power FM stations in more populated areas, and they're all non-commercial. However, they probably won't qualify for NPR membership, because their budgets are too small. So I'm not expecting to see a lot of these new stations become repeaters for NPR programming. The real goal is for them to become COMMUNITY licensees, where a local community group starts a station, and staffs it with local volunteers.

Congressional acton? Slipped passed me. Does this have to do with the 3rd Adjacent Channel issue?

A year ago there were quite a buzz about some changes and may an application window for Fall 2008. That didn't happen. Much harder today to find websites that share the status and enthusiasam for LPFM.

Any hints where to look?

 

[Bob1370]

It should also be noted that many, if not most, of the new "noncommercial" stations taking to the air are actually new relay stations of existing regional or national religious broadcasters, operations like Family Life Network seeking to stretch their coverage footprint. These stations and networks are not 'educational' in the sense originally understood by the FCC when they set aside FM and TV frequencies for noncommercial broadcasting back in 1952. They are electronic sectarian evangelists. In many cases these stations and networks are run very much like profit-making businesses, and more than a few of them are programmed for much of their broadcast day with what are effectively wall-to-wall infomercials, the air time purchased by the preachers or organizations heard on the broadcasts. Such stations have a legal right to exist and to do what they do, but make no mistake--they are NOT 'public radio' in the conventional sense of the term.

Traditional public broadcasters with a nonsectarian, noncommercial educational mission are in fact struggling. It is true that many of the traditional public broadcasters are enjoying record listenership levels according to the fall 2008 Arbitrons, because so many people have come to value what they offer. Whether they can sustain that audience-building momentum after their financial lifeline thins and forced cutbacks start affecting the on-air product, may be another matter entirely.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Bob1370.... I have no quarrel with what you just posted. One of my suppositions about the explosion of religious broadcasting in the NCE and LPFM arena was to "capture the flag".... make sure and occupy all the mountain tops before "the forces of satan" obtained a license to capture those flags. Some of the more strident religious broadcaster personalities seem to really have a... (I need a nice work here) a dislike for NPR in particular.

It must be noted however that some of the NCEs and, in theory, ALL of the LPFMs have been instigated by local people, some of whom do not have the energy, the resources or the inspiration to generate content at the local level.

If indeed more people wanted to carry out that original dream of local content, locally originated in the spirit of community education, I would think some of the LPFMs could be acquired. In some cases the local owners will grow tired of the expense and hands on attention required. In some cases there could arise competing applications at renewal time. I would think this idea of program material coming in from the national organizations by satellite, sitting on the hard drive for an hour, and then being broadcast as "local content" since it is "coming from our local hard drive" could be successfully contested.

For now, there are still some channels available in many rural areas. If there is an application window soon, we will see how much enthusiasm there is by people who want to roll up their sleeves and "do community radio".

If they repeal the 3rd adjacent channel rule, I'm not sure Washington has enough bureaucrats to process all the applications that will come in from people wanting to serve neighborhoods within metro area. PREDICTION: 80% of those applications would be for religious programming content!

Do not read into my message the idea that I am anti religion. I am against the current crop of skewed content in religious broadcasting. I am against the commitment of financial resources to this broadcasting effort when maybe other "mission enterprises" are left begging. Hopefully some of the community mega-churches will fund LPFMs to actually do "COMMUNITY radio".

 

[aaronread]

Driving home from Buffalo Monday I caught part of Bill Nojay's show where he talked about the Fairness Doctrine and mentioned that more public radio stations are popping up the airwaves are across the country. I don't know where Mr. Nojay is getting his information from but everything I have seen, or read, shows that instead of growing, some public stations are reducing staff or shutting down completely.

Forgive me if I'm a little crass, but a conserva-talker spouting off total nonsense in an attempt to get his/her audience all fired up over nothing?!?!? Heavens, no! Say it ain't so!!! :

Congressional acton? Slipped passed me. Does this have to do with the 3rd Adjacent Channel issue?

I'm going off memory here, but I believe the timeline was that the FCC agreed to remove the third-adjacent protection standards for the LPFM class of license, meaning they did not have to protect stations on their 3rd adjacent channel. The NAB and NPR went completely ape over it and spent a lot of time and effort to lobby Congress to pass a law overriding the FCC, which is exactly what happened...thus re-instituting the 3rd-adjacent protections in the middle of the original application windows back in 1999-2000. However, the law also contained a provision that required the FCC to provide further study of the issue, and that Congress would re-visit the issue once the study was done. The FCC farmed the study out to MITRE (the government's go-to place for RF signal analysis across most any band...I used to work next door to one of their main offices in Burlington, MA - there were a TON of antennas on the roof ) and MITRE in turn (I think) farmed it to their not-for-profit arm, MITREtek. Anyways, they did a study over a few years, and presented the results in 2006, I think? I know they were the results everyone expected: the third adjacent protections were totally unnecessary.

Unfortunately, the study was also not very comprehensive, and it left itself wide open to attack by the NAB (and NPR, IIRC) again. As such, Congress deferred acting on the recommendations of the study.

I believe that is where things sit; in total limbo. AFAIK it is not a priority of the current Congress and I doubt it will be anytime soon.

FWIW, there ARE more non-commercial stations coming on the air, but that's just because of the filing window back in October 2007. There hadn't been any new NCE stations since before 1999. Is it so unreasonable to have new stations after an EIGHT YEAR hiatus? Especially since there were multiple auctions for new commercial stations and new commercial stations coming on the air during that timeframe.

 

[TheBigA]

Aaron, I think your memory is better than mine. What you're saying sounds familiar.