Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 23, 1995                   TAG: 9510230090
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL FARHI THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PBS OFFERS PLAN TO FUND CHILDREN'S SHOWS

In a proposal submitted to the Federal Communications Commission last week, PBS suggests that the FCC create what amounts to a market in educational air rights.

In effect, it would permit a broadcaster (or group of broadcasters) to air less than a minimum required amount of educational shows as long as they paid for the right to do so.

The money would be turned over to PBS, or a regional public broadcasting consortium, which could use it to create more shows like ``Sesame Street,'' or ``Barney and Friends,'' the Alexandria, Va.-based service has told the FCC.

It's a variation on a system used in enforcement of the Clean Air Act. Power companies and other firms that do not meet the act's standards for airborne emissions are allowed to buy what in effect are pollution rights from companies that more than meet the standards.

The proposal by PBS and the Association of America's Public Television Stations, which represents more than 300 noncommercial stations, is part of an FCC proceeding aimed at putting more teeth into the Children's Television Act. The 1990 law requires TV stations to air ``educational and informational'' children's programs, but doesn't specify how much they must air.

Critics say the law is too vague. FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt has been pushing for a rewriting of the rules to require stations to air at least three hours per week of programs ``specifically designed'' to meet children's educational needs. Commercial broadcasters say that such a requirement would violate their First Amendment rights.

The PBS proposal is a refinement of an idea already floated by Hundt. In that plan, released last spring, the FCC suggested that a TV station could satisfy part of its children's TV obligations by paying another station in its community to carry educational shows.

But PBS President Ervin Duggan said in an interview this week that educational programming is so costly to produce that sufficient funds could be generated only by pooling money from many stations on a state, regional or national basis. He said that one new PBS children's program, ``Wishbone,'' cost $22 million to produce, a sum that he asserted couldn't be raised on the local level.

The National Association of Broadcasters, the industry's leading trade group, said last week the PBS proposal was unnecessary because commercial stations already provide enough educational fare for young viewers. ``We don't have any interest in trading away our public interest obligations'' to children, said spokeswoman Lynn McReynolds. ``We think we're satisfying them now.''

But Hundt and FCC Commissioner James Quello - who have been at loggerheads on the children's TV issue - both gave the PBS idea a qualified thumbs-up. ``It makes sense,'' said Hundt. ``It's a very creative idea ... We ought to be willing to entertain some experiments.''

Said Quello, ``It's all right. It's a good idea worth exploring.'' But Quello also indicated he wasn't softening his staunch opposition to minimum hourly requirements. ``The broadcast industry has already responded responsibly'' by airing more educational programs in the past four years, he said.