THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 1, 1995 TAG: 9505310021
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
WHAT DO YOU want first? The good news or the bad news about public tele-vision?
Let's start with the good.
WHRO will soon crank up its $1-million, energy-efficient transmitter. Lately, Channel 15's picture has been fading in and out as often as Casper the ghost. The new transmitter should end all of that.
Now here comes something you don't want to hear: WHRO is asking for money again.
A mini-membership drive starts on the air tonight at 8 with ``Chef's Night Outside.''
During a similar drive last March, the station fell short of its goal by $45,000. So, today the station's president and general manager, John R. Morison, is launching a three-day push to make up for the the deficit in contributions that help to pay the $500,000 bill for WHRO's programming.
Morison in March asked the station's 20,000 contributors to chip in with more bucks than usual because The Incredible Shrinking Budget is at hand.
Budget cutters in Washington and Richmond are serious about beating up on Barney, Rumpole and Julia Child. If they went totally wild, WHRO and the two PBS radio stations in Hampton Roads could lose $1,251,000 in the next fiscal year, according to a memo that Morison sent out to viewers early in the year.
In case you wondered, approximately 13 percent of WHRO's $6.2-million budget comes from federal tax dollars, with state taxpayers kicking in another 19 percent.
It is just a matter of time before the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the stations in the public broadcasting system will have to get along with no tax money. WHRO determined that the cost of supporting public broadcasting figures out to $1.09 per person.
Many in Congress think it's too much. The time has come for public broadcasting to find the money it needs elsewhere.
I have two suggestions.
Think infomercials.
Think home shopping network.
Most of the people who watch public TV wouldn't put up with commercials that come along every 20 or 22 minutes, which is the case on the other stations. That would be like building condos on Mount Rushmore. But who could object to an hour or two of infomercials from, say, midnight until 2 a.m.?
If a federal regulation or some Corporation for Public Broadcasting rule forbid infomercials, I say it's time to change the rules.
The merchandising of Barney and the ``Sesame Street'' characters that have become famous because of PBS bring in billions. It's about time that PBS shared in that booty.
Sell the Barney and Big Bird stuff on PBS infomercials.
After the infomercials sign off at 2 a.m., how about bringing on the PBS Home Shopping Network until 7 a.m., when ``Lamb Chop's Play-Along'' signs on? I'll wager that a home shopping network on Channel 15 would bring in enough in a week to pay the station's programming bills for a year.
Morison likes the idea of public broadcasting benefiting from a tax - say 2 percent or so - on every TV set sold in the U.S.
Anything but another on-air membership drive. Oh, the agony.
Tonight, for ``Chef's Night Outside,'' WHRO is bringing in local chefs Dan Johnson, Amy Brandt and Jay Pierce to show viewers the fine points of barbecuing for three hours or so, in between episodes of ``Grilling With Chef George Hirsch.'' Other special programming during the mini-membership drive includes ``Frank Sinatra's Concert for the Americas'' on 6 p.m. Saturday followed at 8 by ``The Story of John Phillips and the Mamas and the Papas.''
Starting at noon Saturday, there will be a six-hour ``Are You Being Served'' Marathon, which is an awful lot of Capt. Peacock.
``We'll be trolling for new members this weekend,'' said Morison.
There has to be a better way. by CNB