Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992 TAG: 9201310333
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
PUBLIC RADIO, TV BROADCASTERS RAISE STATIC OVER CUTS
Public radio and television stations face a financial abyss under a new proposal to end state aid altogether by 1994. Roanoke's WBRA could lose a third of its budget, likely forcing it to shut down transmitters in Marion and Norton.
Beware, fans of public broadcasting: Gov. Douglas Wilder's budget ax is poised to prune the media born two decades ago as a partnership between government and the community.
State budget documents recommend that state appropriations to public radio and television be cut 50 percent in the 1992-93 budget year, and then lowered to zero the next year.
Broadcasters say the moves would devastate their craft, forcing reductions in programming, the length of their broadcast day, even the licenses of some transmitters in remote corners of the state.
And if the proposed reductions are enacted, radio and television broadcasters also stand to lose the matching funds they have received for years from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Life in Western Virginia suddenly might not include Garrison Keillor's "American Radio Company of the Air" each Saturday night or "Mountain Stage" on Sundays. It could happen, said Steve Mills, station manager at WVTF, 89.1 on the FM dial.
If Mills loses nearly $90,000 of his $1 million budget, he might be forced to close the new Marion transmitter, which long was sought by far Southwest Virginians.
Also on the chopping block might be some National Public Radio programming that is not carried in the standard news package that includes "Morning Edition" and the evening "All Things Considered." Gone, then, would be "Fresh Air," for example, which is broadcast at 4:30 p.m. weekdays.
Even worse, mornings might come and go without "Sesame Street" at 7 and "Mister Rogers" afterward. Larry Dyer, station manager at WBRA Channel 15, said he may be forced to start broadcasting later each day if he loses $1.3 million from his $3.1 million annual budget.
WBRA "would definitely be different than it is right now" if the worst-case scenario Dyer paints comes true, he said. "We've had a partnership with the state basically since the station went on the air" in 1967.
But Dyer and Mills - who both have seen their audiences grow in recent years thanks to new transmitters and expanded programming - aren't giving up.
Two bills that would restore state support for public radio and television already have been introduced in the General Assembly, one of them co-sponsored by state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, and Del. G.C. Jennings, D-Marion. And there's always the chance, however remote, that watchers and listeners could help.
"I think it would be foolish to presume we could recoup all this from listeners," Mills said, explaining that only one of every 10 listeners supports Roanoke-based public radio. "I don't think there's much out there we haven't been tapping into."
True to their mission, however, the two managers are taking their plight to the people. This week, Mills and Dyer were featured guests on a special edition of WVTF's "First Tuesdays" public affairs program.
"Many might see the broadcast tonight as a self-serving venture," Mills told listeners. "I hope not. We clearly have a problem here. Frankly, I've about reached the conclusion that it would be a disservice to our public" not to highlight the impending crunch.
"It's a case where, if people care enough, I think we'll be around," Dyer added.
Caller after caller voiced support for the stations, asking for addresses and phone numbers of key legislators and the governor. "If we're supposed to go for quality in [public] broadcasting, why are we cutting it off at the knees?" one caller asked.
Wendy Church, executive director of the Virginia Association of Public Television Stations in Richmond, has an answer: "I think there has been a misunderstanding that the stations are one of the niceties of life. We support the infrastructure of educational programming.
"Everybody's in imminent danger of losing a license down the road," she said.
The public TV station in Northern Virginia, WNVT in Annandale and WNVC in Fairfax, quickly would be forced off the air, she said. WBRA, because it covers such a broad geographical area in Western Virginia, likely would lose its Norton and Marion affiliates - cutting off Southwest Virginia.
"It's ironic the [federal] authorization for public broadcasting is at its highest level ever; and if Virginia doesn't restore these funds substantially, we won't get our fair share of them," Church said.
The private Corporation for Public Broadcasting, established in 1964 by the Public Broadcasting Act, distributes federal money to public stations across the country. This year, the corporation was granted $251 million. It will have $253.3 million next year and is seeking a $275 million appropriation for fiscal 1994.
"The more money . . . the [local] station gets from community support, the more they get from us," a spokeswoman in Washington said. "It's an incentive; public broadcasting is local."
Broadcasters in Southwest Virginia acknowledge that their lobbying techniques - announcing that Garrison Keillor may be dropped because his show is "the most expensive two hours" WVTF broadcasts - may be seen as extreme. But for the station managers, the scenario illustrates their dire straits.
"I don't think we're playing games," said Larry Hincker, the Virginia Tech administrator who oversees WVTF. "We would think very, very seriously before we eliminated Garrison Keillor or shut down the Marion transmitter.
"What we've said is, `Don't slice us out altogether,' " he said. That would leave public broadcasting with no state funding. "Zero," Church said, "begets zero."