Television - UNC-TV to Axe Programs Due to Budgetary Problems

[Matt]

I saw a press release the other day stating that UNC-TV's donor base and underwriter income has not grown to meet their expectations. Because of the continuing shortfalls, they are making severe cuts in their local programming budget.

North Carolina Now, a nightly newsmagazine which has been on the state's public television network for 12 years, will air its final broadcast on September 29, 2006.

Legislative Week in Review, a seasonal program dealing with the North Carolina Legislature's sessions, will end following the current year's session, probably late this month or in early August.

Read more about it here...http://www.wral.com/news/9522625/detail.html

While I have enjoyed viewing these programs over the past several years, I have noticed that UNC-TV continually fails to meet its projected needs in its annual "Festival" month, and is relying more and more on Christmas and budget year-end campaigns to make ends meet.

I have noted that public television in some other states seems to be faring poorly as well. Is public television a dinosaur that will increasingly find it difficult to sustain itself, or is this the dark age before the renaissance for what the FCC terms Non-Commercial, Educational Television?

Later...
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV

 

[thebroker]

Although I can't get it anymore since I moved to Kentucky, I think North Carolina Now will be sorely missed by a good number of folks. As much as I normally don't like public tv (or public radio for that matter), I tuned in to North Carolina Now just about every night. It was a way for us folks out West to stay connected to what's going on in Raleigh and around the state, since nobody else covered that new.

I'm a big fan of several programs on UNC-TV, like the British Comedy they run. During "festival" though, I didn't bother wasting my time turning over. It always amazed me that they were raising money to support "the quality programming we feature" by taking said programming off the air and playing oftentimes obscure music for almost a month. One would think that the proper approach would be to run the regular programming that viewers enjoyed, and conduct the begging between those programs.

 

[eacalhoun1]

I'm a big fan of several programs on UNC-TV, like the British Comedy they run. During "festival" though, I didn't bother wasting my time turning over. It always amazed me that they were raising money to support "the quality programming we feature" by taking said programming off the air and playing oftentimes obscure music for almost a month. One would think that the proper approach would be to run the regular programming that viewers enjoyed, and conduct the begging between those programs.

Actually, thebroker, my sentiments are exactly the opposite. I rarely watch UNC-TV, therefore I don't keep up with the scheduled "Festival" times--aren't they twice a year? Inevitably, when I'm channel surfing and run across a program on UNC-TV I just cannot get away from, I begin to think, "wow, this is a great program. It must be Festival time." And more times than not, my guess is correct. So, I take issue when they say "...the quality programming like you're seeing right now, please call..." I'm saying, "no" the only time I see such quality programming is DURING "Festival". Just my opinion, though.

 

[thebroker]

I think you and I actually are of the same opinion, though, that it makes absolutely no sense to masquerade as if the programming on during festival is the same programming you'll see the rest of the year, right? It's actually a bit misleading.

I do miss British Comedy, though...