THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 20, 1995 TAG: 9501190147
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Over Easy
SOURCE: Jo-Ann Clegg
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
When I first came to Hampton Roads back in the dark ages of the 1950s, I could flip a radio dial and take my pick of a dozen or so radio stations that played music I could sing or tap my toe to. One of them, the old WGH, even played classical music, all day, every day.
When we were finally able to afford a television set that brought in something other than a white snow storm against a gray sky, I was able to twist its dial and get literate programs like ``Omnibus'' and ``Studio One.''
Now, 37 years later, I flip my radio dial and get 30 or more stations, most of which are blaring lyrics from mouths that need a good dose of my Aunt Marion's homemade lye soap. I zap through my television's repertoire and get Roseanne, a shrill, foul-mouthed creature on whom even Aunt Marion would have given up.
It is called the Dumbing of America and if some political leaders have their way, the country is only destined to become dumber.
I am referring to the move at both the state and national level to discontinue funding for public broadcasting.
It's a move that's destined to make a huge dent in our tax burden. The savings for each of us overburdened taxpayers will amount to about the cost of a vending machine Coke. That's on our state returns.
On a federal return it will save each of us about twice that much. And we're talking here not about how much it will save a day or a week or even a month.
We're talking about how much less each of us will pay in taxes over the period of an entire year.
That's 52 cents in state taxes, $1.09 in federal. With that money each of us could buy three Cokes a year or a Big Mac and half of a Coke, providing McDonald's is still running its 95-cent sale.
In the words of the immortal Garfield, ``Big, fat hairy deal!''
I don't want to give up public broadcasting. I don't want to be limited to groups with obscene names singing obscene, though usually unintelligible, lyrics.
I don't want to turn on my TV and get nothing but Roseanne Whatever-or-no-last-name-she's-using-today.
I want be able to turn on WHRO and hum along to a Strauss waltz or lose myself in the beauty of Mozart's little bit of night music. I want to flip to WHRV and, as happened a couple of Saturday afternoons ago, stumble over a wonderful reading of ``Rip Van Winkle,'' a story I haven't thought about in years.
I want to wait in anticipation of ``Masterpiece Theater'' so that I can follow the life of that good Scottish doctor or chuckle with Jeeves and Wooster. I want to stay tuned to watch the wonderfully, wackily outrageous ``Waiting for God.''
I want to have access to ``I'll Fly Away,'' the program that the bottom-liners at the networks decided didn't make enough money to deserve air time.
I want to enjoy locally produced TV specials like ``Gone But Not Forgotten'' with its footage of Granby Street in the days when it was the home of some of the greatest movie theaters and department stores in the country as well as the favorite stomping grounds of the greatest bunch of sailors the world has ever known.
I don't want to go through life without the Boston Pops, the Three Tenors, Hope Mihalap or the guys who find old houses to rehabilitate.
I don't want my grandson to go through life without Big Bird, the Cookie Monster and the grouch known as Oscar. I want to be sure he knows where in the world Carmen Sandiego hangs out.
In short, I'm willing to give up more than $1.61 a year to be assured that somewhere on the air waves there is still programming that is sometimes thought-provoking, frequently funny, mostly pleasant and always, in its own way, literate.
I can say I'm willing to do that because I already have. Like most dedicated public broadcasting listeners and viewers, I send in my small contribution each year.
Those of us who do that, along with the local and national businesses which provide major funding, are the ones who bear the largest share of the cost of the programming.
Which is not to say that the money provided by state and local government is not important. It is.
What it is not, is something legislatures should be tampering with in order to save each taxpayer less than 1/2 cent a day.
This country has long understood the role of good schools, good colleges and universally accessible libraries in developing and maintaining a literate population. It's time that good broadcasting was added to that list.
It's also time that those of us who don't want to be doomed to broadcasting aimed at the lowest common denominator let our senators and representatives know exactly how we feel.
If you need help in doing that, call WHRO at 489-9476. They have all the information you need to start the process. by CNB