ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060030
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN SEPLOW KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
It was sometime in the late spring or early summer that David Brugger came to believe that Newt Gingrich was relenting.
Brugger is head of the Association of America's Public Television Stations, a lobbying group, and one of his top goals in life was to keep Gingrich from following through on a threat to ``zero out'' federal money for the stations.
``Newt was on the Charlie Rose show, or maybe David Frost,'' Brugger recalled, ``and he started saying, `We don't want to kill Big Bird. Public broadcasting is important. We don't want to kill public broadcasting. It just can't have continued public appropriations.'
``Then we started hearing that from a lot of other critics, who said, `We don't want to kill public broadcasting. We just don't want federal dollars for this. We need another plan.'''
Once the speaker publicly declared his affection for Big Bird, Brugger said he believed a deal was possible to keep public broadcasting going for several more years with tax dollars.
His instinct was right.
Instead of being zeroed out by Congress, public broadcasting during fiscal year 1995, which ended Oct. 1, lost only $7 million, bringing its federal subsidy to $285.6 million from $292.6 million. For fiscal 1996, the appropriation went from $312 million to $275 million and in fiscal 1997 from $315 million to $260 million.
And despite the bruising budget battles still to come between the Republican-controlled Congress and the Democratic president, public television is now expected to get about $250 million for fiscal 1998.
Make no mistake, public broadcasting is in for a big change. Everyone expects that federal grants will eventually end and be replaced by other sources of income.
But as the general managers of about 100 public TV stations gathered in Washington recently for their annual planning meeting, they knew they would have some time to think about where and how to get the money.
Had the federal money been cut off in one stroke, there would have been no way to compensate for it quickly, according to public broadcasting officials.
Instead, said Richard Carlson, head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives the federal money and disseminates it to local stations, ``I feel optimistic that Congress will give us a glide path in terms of years - I'm hoping for 2002.''
Even then, he warned, ``There is no way we can make up the loss of all federal money.''
How did the public broadcasters win the reprieve they did get?
``I think members of Congress heard from their constituents, who overwhelmingly support public broadcasting, and they gave a strong message,'' said Rep. John Porter, R.-Ill., chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees funds for public radio and television.
Critics of public television often say that worthwhile programs are available on cable channels that get no government support, such as the Arts & Entertainment network. But Porter and others noted that they heard a disproportionate amount of protest from rural regions, where cable is often not available.
Such rural conservatives as Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, have long been staunch supporters of public broadcasting, and even Gingrich wound up asking Porter to find some extra money for rural stations.
It is still possible, of course, that the money expected to go for public broadcasting will evaporate faster than officials expect.
But as the bill was being marked up in the summer, efforts to eliminate the public broadcasting appropriation were overwhelmingly defeated, and now, said Porter, ``there are so many other things of higher priority.''
Meanwhile, public broadcasting officials are exploring four main ways to wean the service from federal funds.
The first is simply to be more efficient and spend less.
The main suggestions for bringing in money:
Win government permission to sell what will be excess space on broadcast bands when programs are digitally transmitted. Digitalization will permit four or five signals to be transmitted in the space now required for one. Auctioning off the extra space could mean billions to establish a continuing trust fund for public broadcasting, so it's the most important initiative.
``Enhance'' the time allowed for recognizing program underwriters - meaning more time for sponsors to publicize themselves - thus perhaps attracting more of them.
Give public broadcasting more latitude to license some of its programs so that the material could be sold more easily to other channels.
Give public stations the right to lease out their equipment, which, because it is bought with federal money, is not now allowed.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB