Current.org - For People in Public Media / Published at American University School of Communication

Public Media Policybase is seeking copies of significant documents to expand this collection of basic and significant documents of U.S. public media — past, present and proposed future — to assist broadcasters, policy advocates, students, teachers and students of history.

The Policybase began as an online supplement of Current‘s 2000 edition of A History of Public Broadcasting and was compiled by Current with help from the National Public Broadcasting Archive at the University of Maryland. The archive is now incorporated in the university library’s Special Collections unit.

Thanks to those who have supplied documents, especially past NPBA curators Tom Connors and Karen King.

Where electronic files were not available, we have taken care in scanning and spell-checking texts from documents, but we cannot guarantee complete accuracy. Please notify us by e-mail if you find or suspect errors.

Please let us know if you have significant texts that you believe should be accessible here.

A key definition of noncommercial/public TV and radio: Federal law gives some preferential treatment to public radio and TV stations and requires them in turn to remain “noncommercial.”

Sec. 399b of the Communications Act, as amended, says: “No public broadcast station may make its facilities available to any person for the broadcasting of any advertisement.” Ads are messages “transmitted in exchange for any remuneration” … “that are intended”:

(1) to promote any service, facility, or product offered by any person who is engaged in such offering for profit;
(2) to express the views of any person with respect to any matter of public importance or interest; or
(3) to support or oppose any candidate for political office.

By defining “advertisements,” the law also describes by contrast the permissible noncommercial kinds of paid announcements that have come to be called an “underwriting” credits.

In FCC rules implementing the law, Sec. 73.621(e) forbids “promotional announcements” for for-profit advertisers but permits airing of underwriting credits recognizing donations:

“No promotional announcements on behalf of for profit entities shall be broadcast at any time in exchange for the receipt, in whole or in part, of consideration to the licensee, its principals, or employees. However, acknowledgements of contributions can be made.”

Indeed, Sec. 73.1212 requires stations to identify program underwriters (and advertisers, on commercial stations), because, as the commission explained in its 1970 order (paragraph 2), the public has a right to know “by whom it is being persuaded.”

“These interpretations of Commission policy and rules present issues of importance, since on the one hand they affect the financial support of educational broadcast stations, and on the other hand they pertain to the public’s right to know by whom it is being persuaded. At the same time they affect the essential noncommercial character of these services which permits them to fulfill the unique and important role in onr society which they do.”

More recently the commission summarized its rules on its website:

“Noncommercial educational stations may acknowledge contributions over the air, but they may not broadcast commercials or otherwise promote the goods and services of for-profit donors or underwriters. Acceptable “enhanced underwriting” acknowledgements of for-profit donors or underwriters may include:
(1) logograms and slogans that identify but do not promote;
(2) location information;
(3) value-neutral descriptions of a product line or service; and
(4) brand names, trade names, and product service listings.
However, such acknowledgements may not interrupt the station’s regular programming.”

Examples of violations: The FCC doesn’t find or punish many broadcasters. Most enforcements involve small noncomm licensees, including religious stations, and few cite large pubcasters. Examples of two that did:

• New York’s WNYC aired an underwriting credit for the executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International in 2003-04 that “exceeded the bounds of what is permissible.” It agreed to pay $5,000 to the FCC, to continue staff training and multilevel review of credits, attempt to review national credits before broadcast, and to file periodic compliance reports.
• In 1997, the FCC charged Chicago’s WTTW with underwriting violations, but the commission dropped three of the four charges and reduced the fine in 2000.

Paid political advertisements on noncomm stations are among the ads prohibited by FCC rules, though in 2012 a federal appeals court ruled that noncommercial stations can carry political ads. The decision did not create a binding national precedent. The Ninth Circuit was considering maverick San Francisco station KMTP’s appeal of FCC fines imposed in 2002 for “willful and repeated broadcast of approximately 1,911 prohibited ads,” not all political ones.

Gradual loosening of underwriting rules: Though the laws and FCC rules on underwriting have seldom been as specific and unrestrictive as many public broadcasters wanted, they generally have moved from tighter to looser, often addressing practical problems encountered by stations:

May 6, 1970: FCC order homogenizes previously separate underwriting rules for radio and TV. It asserts that underwriting donations should cover partial station operating expenses and not just program production costs.

November 1970: FCC order exempts product mentions during on-air fundraising auctions

April 23, 1981: The FCC’s Second Report and Order on underwriting addresses a slew of practical questions.

July 15, 1982: FCC decides how the Public Broadcasting Amendments Act of 1981 affects underwriting regulations

1984

Logos in underwriting: Congress also amended the law to loosen underwriting rules. Sec. 399a of the Communications Act permits underwriting credits to include “aural or visual” identifiers of underwriters such as logos.

Network guidelines: To clarify nuances in FCC rules and protect stations, and to prevent real or seeming conflicts of interest involving funders, PBS, NPR and other program distributors impose their own restrictions on underwriting announcements that air with national programs that they distribute:

NPR Underwriting Credit Guidelines, in effect November 2012. An earlier set: in effect January 2000.

PBS Funding Standards and Practices, as amended through Jan. 27, 2008, and still online in late 2012. Among other criteria, PBS cites a three-point “test” for proposed funding arrangements:

• Editorial Control Test: Has the underwriter exercised editorial control? Could it?
• Perception Test: Might the public perceive that the underwriter has exercised editorial control?
• Commercialism Test: Might the public conclude the program is on PBS principally because it promotes the underwriter’s prod­ucts, services or other business interests?

Where should the line be drawn between underwriting and advertising? Opinions differ enormously, even among station managers, depending on their philosophies and potential effects.

Is “noncommercial” the best defining difference? Early in the 1980s, some public TV leaders advocated dropping the structural distinction of “noncommercial.” At their behest, in 1981, Congress asked the FCC to experiment with on-air advertising, directing the FCC to create the Temporary Commission on Alternative Financing. TCAF conducted an extended test of advertising on several stations and reported its findings, including this executive summary, in 1983.

See also separate section on Lawrence Grossman’s PTV Weekend proposal for limited advertising on public TV.

Amended charter (PDF) as of August 2008, for coordinating body with representatives of various kinds of public TV stations, recognized by CPB and other national groups for purposes of consultation. Earlier versions: September 2006, August 2005.

APTS Bylaws as of June 1998

Public Media Alliance: pragmatic coalition
After NPR’s controversial firing of Juan Williams, NPR outsourced its high-profile representation to APTS by joining in the Public Media Alliance. Announcements by NPR and APTS leaders, Feb. 15, 2011.

Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Public Television: A Program for Action, was published by a major foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1967

• Summary of recommendations
• Membership, Preface and Introductory Note
• Letter from E.B. White to Carnegie I

The full report is available for purchase online.

Prologue: In October 1965, just a month before the first Carnegie Commission was formed, Sen. Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.) released the Educational Television Progress Report. Magnuson, then chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, laid out the case for federal aid to public broadcasting in this report published a month before the creation of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television.

Epilogue: The Carnegie Corporation revisits public broadcasting 40 years later with a symposium and report, The Meeting of Two Cultures: Public Television on the Threshold of the Digital Age, in summer 2008. Included are remarks by PBS President Paula Kerger, an essay by longtime public media consultant Richard Somerset-Ward, and a report on ideastream, Cleveland’s public media nonprofit built from the merger of WVIZ-TV and WCPN-FM.

See also Public Broadcasting Act tab

A Public Trust: The Report of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting (Carnegie II), published by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, January 1979. Carnegie II, as the commission came to be called, followed up on Carnegie I’s report a decade earlier, which led to passage of the Public Broadcasting Act and annual appropriations to the field through CPB.

• Summary of Findings and Recommendations and commission membership
• Preface to the report

“The Public Interest Standard in Television Broadcasting” examines the “public interest and necessity” objective of federal broadcasting regulation. The paper was part of the Gore Commission report, Dec. 12, 1998.

Precedent for taxpayer funding of electronic media in the public interest: land-grant colleges: Advocates for taxpayer funding of public media point out a successful precedent in public policy, the Morrill Act of 1862, which endowed state universities with the value of large tracts of federally controlled land, assisting public education, including the spread of agricultural expertise.

The Communications Act covers federal regulation of wired and broadcast telecom. The Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School maintains extensive, free online resources on federal law and regulations. Handy if you don’t have a law library.

U.S. Code: Federal laws that are in effect

Table of contents > Telecom > the FCC > public broadcasting and more >CPB
Also: broadband, transfer of auctionable frequencies, communication satellites, policies favoring new technologies and competition

Code of Federal Regulations: Federal agencies’ rules, a.k.a. administrative law, that Congress authorizes the agencies to  decide and implement. The stuff that pours out of the Federal Register.

Table of contents > Telecom > FCC rules > Broadcasting, cable and more > Broadcast radio and TV

Authorization by Congress, original, 1967: See materials about the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which created CPB, specifies its purposes and governance and authorizes it to distribute federal aid to public TV and public radio. Several changes of mandate since then are cited on this page.

Founding CPB documents:

CPB Articles of Incorporation as a nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia, 1968
CPB By-laws as amended Oct. 29, 2007

Congressional hearings

Hearing by U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, Sept. 12, 1984. Posted online at Open Library.

Appropriations by Congress

Annual appropriations history as reported by CPB, 1969-2014

Line graph, 1969-2001

Goals and objectives set by CPB Board

Goals and Objectives, 1982

Goals for fiscal year 2003, November 2002

Goals and Objectives for fiscal year 2004, adopted July 23, 2003

Business Plan, fiscal year 2013, Sept. 10, 2012, naming the board’s priorities: Digital and Innovation, Diversity, Dialogue and Engagement, Healthy Stations and System, Education, Journalism, and Transparency and Integrity.

Congress gives CPB a spending formula and mandates

Regardless of their priorities, CPB’s board and managers have limited discretion in spending the appropriation. In the Public Broadcasting Amendments Act of 1981 (part of the year’s budget reconciliation act), Congress applied a budget formula that helps keep the peace between TV and radio interests and directs more than half of the appropriation to eligible (“CPB-qualified”) local stations.

This chart converts the act’s legislative language into simpler budget percentages.

Station leaders critical of CPB’s Television Future Fund of the 1990s charged that the corporation violated the formula by redirecting millions of station allocations into research and experimentation. Current dipped into the arithmetic.

A mandate for political “objectivity and balance”: In its 1992 CPB authorization, Congress emphasized CPB’s obligation to foster “objectivity and balance” in programs that it assists.

CPB commissioned seven papers on aspects of objectivity and balance.

CPB compiles monthly “Open to the Public” reports of public comments. They are “one component of CPB’s Commitment to Objectivity and Balance.”

Restrictions on partisan activities and sharing of mailing lists

CPB policy on use of mailing lists from partisan groups, 1999

DEI guidelines on use of partisan mailing lists, 1999

Bills proposed to make substantial changes in CPB

These are several that were introduced in the 1990s:
Pressler bill, Public Broadcasting Financial Resources Enhancement Act, 1996
Fields bill, Public Broadcasting Self-Sufficiency Act, 1996
Tauzin/Markey bill, Public Broadcasting Reform Act, 1998

Public Service Publisher Initiative (public TV and radio)

• Presentation by Stephen Hill and Dennis Haarsager (PDF), January 2005. Hill, a music series producer, and Haarsager, a longtime station leader in both TV and radio, propose an online service that would aggregate TV and radio content in a consistent, comprehensive online offering that could win a share of the growing on-demand audience.

Digital Distribution Consortium Working Group (public radio)

• NPR chief Ken Stern announces appointment of the six-member DDC Working Group as an outcome of NPR New Realities Forum, June 6, 2006.
• Overview memo by member Jake Shapiro, Feb. 18, 2007. The DDC Working Group’s archive remains in a wiki online.

Digital Rights Working Group convened for public TV by CPB

Public Television’s Approach to New Media, issued for the Digital Rights Working Group, September 2006.

Grow the Audience, a CPB-backed project of the Station Resource Group

• “Public Radio in the New Network Age,” the project’s final report, recommends that the field develop “common or easily shared resources for convergent IP activity” among its content providers.

A Digital Gift to the Nation, a report by former PBS leaders Lawrence Grossman and Newton Minow for the Century Foundation’s Digital Promise Project, April 2001.

Summary in PDF

Rutgers historian Richard Heffner interviews Grossman about the project, 2000.

Rep. Markey’s Wireless Technology Investment and Digital Dividends Act, May 2002

Sens. Dodd and Jeffords’ Digital Opportunity Investment Trust Act, June 2002

CPB reports annually to Congress on public broadcasting’s services to minorities, as required by its funding legislation

Fiscal year 2010 report, Services to Minorities and Diverse Audiences

Earlier reports posted by CPB

Advocates for ethnic groups take public media to task

Latinos and Ken Burns clash over absence of prominent Hispanic troops in his WWII documentary, The War, 2007.

Latino civil rights group National Council of La Raza expresses “extreme disappointment,” March 20, 2007.

PBS President Paula Kerger, caught between Burns and his critics, replies to criticism, March 2007.

Defend the Honor protest leader Gus Chavez writes to Latino members of Congress, July 26, 2007.

Latino critics of The War seek assurance from PBS, Statement from Defend the Honor and reply from PBS, Aug. 20-22, 2007

Latino producers to PBS: Diversity data ‘incomplete and often anecdotal,’ March 2009.

Open Letter to Our Public Media Colleagues from the CPB-recognized ethnic minortia consortia, May 2009.

Services designed for ethnic minorities

CPB Request for Proposals: Creation of a New Public Radio Format to Serve Latinos in Los Angeles, Nov. 26, 2007. The first try, delegated by CPB to Radio Bilingue, collapsed after failing to make a deal for an FM frequency.

CPB/PBS Diversity and Innovation Fund request for proposals for primetime PBS series, June 2010.

Before 1984, the one-sentence Sec. 399 of Public Broadcasting Act, 1967, prohibited editorializing:

“No noncommercial educational broadcasting station may engage in editorializing or may support or oppose any candidate for political office.”

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the editorializing prohibition in FCC v. League of Women Voters of California, 1984. The text of the decision comes from the FindLaw database.

But Sec. 399 still orders noncomm stations not to support candidates:

“No noncommercial educational broadcasting station may support or oppose any candidate for political office.”

Journalistic ethics

Public Radio News Directors Guide produced by NPR Local News Initiative and Public Radio News Directors Inc. It suggests the roles of news directors, best practices, recipes for success.

NPR Ethics Handbook (PDF), updated May 2, 2012, based on NPR Guiding Principles (PDF), updated Feb. 22, 2012.

• Also posted up-to-date on NPR site, with special sections on anonymous sourcing, attribution, diversity, social media, speaking appearances, and visual journalism.

Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists, online version and PDF.  Also: SPJ ethics blog, position papers, case studies.

Independence and Integrity II: The Updated Ethics Guide for Public Radio Journalism, by Alan Stavitsky and Jeffrey Dvorkin, commissioned by CPB, released Jan. 20, 2004. Also on  CPB’s website.

• Pubradio guide advises broad application of news ethics, Current, Jan. 19, 2004
• Earlier version: Independence and Integrity: Guidebook for Public Radio Journalism, by Alan Stavitsky, 1995.

PRNDI Statement of Ethics, adopted by Public Radio News Directors Inc., July 2003.

Ten Tenets from MPR News, published by Minnesota Public Radio, Aug. 14, 2001.

Fundraising ethics

Ethical Guidelines for Public Media Fundraisers, condensed to a one-sheet trifold brochure and published by DEI, 2012.

Foundations, Funding, and Independence by Raul Ramirez, KQED-FM, San Francisco, published on Poynter.org, August 2002.  (Current published a version July 8, 2002.)

Accountability and transparency

Donors demand clearer view of station reality, speech by Bob Ottenhoff, published in Current, Sept. 8, 2003.

Required filing: a chance to show your stuff!, commentary by Cindy Browne, Current, Jan. 19, 2004.

Grant accountability disputes and errors

Settlement of U.S. Justice Department action against WNET, June 15, 2010, concerning accounting of grants from three federal agencies. Current coverage, June 21, 2010.

Settlement of U.S. Justice Department action against WGBH, Boston, Dec. 20, 2012, concerning accounting of grants from three federal agencies, 2005-08. Current coverage, Jan. 15, 2013.

Educational Television Facilities Act, 1962, authorized federal facilities grants to public broadcasting stations, years before the first Carnegie Commission, the Public Broadcasting Act and CPB.

Educational Television Progress Report by Sen. Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.), 1965, followed up on the act and preceded Carnegie I.

Public Telecommunications Financing Act of 1978: Actions in this summary include reassignment of facilities grants from Office of Education to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the Commerce Department.

Part IV, Subpart a of the Communications Act authorizes NTIA’s grantmaking Public Telecommunications Facilities Program

Likely end of PTFP: PTFP lost its appropriation during the federal budget wars of 2011. PTFP’s last annual round of grants, for fiscal year 2010, was disbursed in fall 2010.

Jefferson Public Radio / Southern Oregon University dispute, 2011-12

• Memo from Oregon University System Internal Audit Division,Sept. 22, 2011
• Southern Oregon University president’s statement to JPR Board, March 2012.

Audience Research Analysis publications, many written by ARA founder David Giovannoni, describe the factors that built public radio’s audience, including stations’ focus on NPR-style news and information and the proliferation of stations carrying those programs. Included in ARA’s What We Know section are numerous articles originally published in Current during the 1980s and 1990s.

Audience 98, a comprehensive report on public radio’s audience growth and composition, prepared by Audience Research Analysis for CPB, February 1999. See also Current preview story, Sept. 8, 1997.

• “How many listeners donate? One in 12 or one in three?,” Current, Aug. 10, 1998, based in part on Audience 98.
•  “Can public radio learn to talk to its Gen-X future?,” commentary in Current, Nov. 9, 1998, with replies from Audience 98 team members, Dec. 7, 1998.

Having It All: How Public Radio Stations Can Provide Great Service and Live Within Their Means, a study commissioned by CPB and done by Brody Weiser Burns (company later renamed BWB Solutions), November 2004.

NPR Blueprint for Growth, July 2006.

Grow the Audience project: final report, “Public Radio in the New Network Age,” prepared by Station Resource Group for CPB, January 2010.

• Grow the Audience reports on SRG’s site, including audience and fundraising performance of news and music stations
• Grow the Audience “Thinking Audience” essays by public radio producers, leaders and analysts

NPR Audience Opportunity Study prepared by Smith-Geiger for NPR, Summary of Key Takeaways released to Current, summer 2010.

• Study sees growth if NPR loosens up, sounds less elite, Current, Sept. 20, 2010
• PowerPoint presentation of study findings for station execs, Sept. 14, 2010

See also Digital distribution tab

Would-be Carnegie panels: Since the Public Broadcasting Act grew directly out of the original Carnegie Commission’s 1976 report, the commission has inspired a long line of blue-ribbon advisory bodies and report writers hoping for similar impact for public media. But few since then have had the success that President Johnson gave to Carnegie I.

Among the projects undertaken in the past three decades:

Obscenity, Indecency and Profanity:  FCC guide to regulations; recent FCC enforcement actions.

Indecency’s winding road, 1978-2006, compiled by Jeremy Egner for Current

Action for Children’s Television v. FCC, two U.S. Court of Appeals rulings on broadcasts of indecent material —  in June 1995 voiding a provision that favored public over commercial broadcasters, and in July 1995, upholding the indecency rule itself.

The “Seven Filthy Words” Case, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, Supreme Court, 1978 (on ACLU website)(in FindLaw web database)

Stations and their associations objected to activities of CPB Chair Kenneth Tomlinson

Public radio stations unofficially urged CPB to serve as insulation from political interference, May 2005

The Association of Public Television Stations warns CPB Chair Kenneth Tomlinson that it will oppose interference with public TV, June 9, 2005. APTS follows the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board, which in May opposed appointment of Republican Party leader Patricia Harrison as CPB president.

Resolution of APTS Action Inc., Oct. 31, 2005. The public TV stations’ lobby endorses reforms of CPB governance for Congress to consider in reauthorizing future aid.

CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz’s report on Tomlinson’s activities, “Review of Alleged Actions Violating The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967,” Nov. 15, 2005. See also  Current coverage.

Excerpts: IG’s recommendations and executive summary.

Kenneth Tomlinson’s statement in the report

CPB Board immediate reactions to IG report, Nov. 15, 2005.

Citizen groups petition CPB under Freedom of Information Act for release of Tomlinson-related documents, Nov. 21, 2005

CPB Inspector General’s “Review of CPB Corrective Actions,” June 2006, in response to the IG’s November 2005 report on the Tomlinson affair.

In a talk to media reformers, Bill Moyers discusses, among other things, his role as a political target for Ken Tomlinson and other Republican partisans.

CPB Inspector General’s “Special Review of CPB’s Overall Grant Management, Procurement and Grant Oversight Practices for the America at a Crossroads series”, Sept. 30, 2009. The IG’s office looks back at the Crossroads series funded during Tomlinson’s time as a CPB Board member and chair.

See also Current stories about the 2009 IG’s report, timeline of related events and list of Crossroads films funded and broadcast.

Editorial Integrity for Public Media Project

Code of Editorial Integrity for Local Public Media Organizations, final text in PDF, updated April 2012.

Discussion papers, sample editorial guidelines, and additional project documents on project site, pmintegrity.org

The project, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, was initiated by public TV’s Affinity Group Coalition and public radio’s Station Resource Group and funded by CPB. The code was planned as successor to the Wingspread Conference statement in 1984 (see below). Project directors: Byron Knight of Wisconsin Public Broadcasting and Tom Thomas of SRG, with staff support by Skip Hinton of NETA. Steering Committee chaired by Ted Krichels of Penn State Public Broadcasting.

Wingspread Conference, 1984

Wingspread Statement of Principles on Editorial Integrity in the Program Process for State Licensees of Public Broadcasting Stations, Nov. 28-30, 1984. The draft statement was later endorsed by PBS and the National Association of Public Television Stations. The statement was published in proceedings of the conference, Editorial Integrity in Public Broadcasting, by the Southern Educational Communications Association (SECA), which facilitated the meeting. The statement was cited in Supreme Court’s Arkansas ETV v. Forbes decision below.

Independence of CPB program decision-making

“Life cycle of a reform: Independence of CPB [Television] Program Fund, Current, Nov. 19, 2012. For a period starting in 1979, the CPB Board and top management vowed to stay out of Program Fund decision-making about TV productions.

Independence of editorial decision-making even for state-owned pubcasters

Arkansas Educational Television v. Forbes text of decision, 1998. The U.S. Supreme Court established certain independent free-press rights for public broadcasters licensed to state governments. See also Current story, May 25, 1998.

The Supreme Court appeal in 1998 (above) overturned a 1996 U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Forbes v. Arkansas Educational Television. See also Current story, May 25, 1998.

Klan v. KWMU, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2000 — PDF on site of Washington University Law School, St. Louis

Political interference by Alabama Educational Television Commission: Political appointees on commission pushed for broadcast of programs promoting selected Christian views; network chief Alan Pizzato resisted, and the commission fired him.  See also Current coverage:

Pizzato sues commission and its members in June 2012, published July 18, 2012.

Memo by attorney Todd Gray advises Pizzato about “systemic risks” if political appointees choose programs.

Compare the Alabama network’s mission statements before and after the commssion met June 12, 2012

Minutes of key commission meetings

Separating public media from partisan activity

CPB Mail List and Partisan Political Activities Requirements, rules for grantees released July 30, 1999, after controversy over stations that had exchanged mailing lists with Democratic Party and other partisan groups. DEI, a group that trains and advises public media fundraisers, issued recommendations on the use of mailing lists.

Protecting journalists from abuse by police

Democracy Now! co-host Amy Goodman and co-workers Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous filed suit against Twin Cities authorities in federal court, May 5, 2010, alleging interference in their reporting during the 2008 Republican National Convention. Current coverage: Police authorities settle with plaintiffs, October 2011. Resources from Center for Constitutional Rights, which defended Goodman and crew.

Opening distribution and production funding to indies: From its early days, broadcasting got most programming from station and network staffs, but for practical and principled reasons (including diversity of opinion and ethnicity) independents increasingly sell (or donate) their work to PBS, NPR, other distributors and stations, especially at the national level. Current coverage:

July 1988: House committee approves independent program service for public TV

October 1998: Mandate included in CPB authorization bill

September 1989: ITVS’s first board of directors named

June 1990: ITVS hires its first executive director, John Schott

June 1991: Independent TV Service and CPB finally sign accord

March 2012: a leading indie nonprofit, Kartemquin Films in Chicago, began this petition to PBS and helped win back favorable scheduling for the Independent Lens and POV series. Current story on outcome, May 2012.

About the independent production communities

Mapping Public Radio’s Independent Landscape, “Final Report: Opportunities for Innovation,” Feb. 13, 2006, combined in one PDF with “Interim Report: Key Findings, Critical Questions,” Nov. 29, 2004.  Prepared by SchardtMedia (Sue Schardt).

 AIR-ITVS Scan of Public Media’s Independent Journalists, April 20, 2011, survey conducted in December 2010 by Market Trends Research for AIR and ITVS and funded by CPB.

Radio/audio

Association of Independents in Radio (AIR): Boston-based group of audio producers, many focused on public radio.

AIR Bylaws, original, 1988.

Code of Fair Practices for Working with Freelance Radio Producers, AIR/PAG, released in 1999 and revised in 2001

Public Radio Exchange: PRX, a nonprofit based in Cambridge, Mass., and spun-off by Station Resource Group, operates an online marketplace for independent and other productions seeking distribution.

TV/video

Independent Television Service (ITVS): San Francisco-based nonprofit funded largely by CPB by direction of Congress

ITVS Articles of Incorporation, Sept. 22, 1989

ITVS Bylaws, as amended through Dec. 8, 1990

Current coverage of its startup, December 1991.

Producing for PBS: Subsite of PBS.org aimed at producers.

PBS Editorial Standards and Policies as of 2011. Check site above for most recent version.

Many PBS shows are or include independent productions, though the definitions of “independent” vary. Distribution vehicles devoted to indie work include: POV broadcast series, Independent Lens broadcast series, PBS Film Festival annual and online, begun in 2012.

Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, website.

“Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age,” Report of the Knight Commission, October 2009.

“Rethinking Public Media,” by Barbara Cochran, published by the Knight Commission, December 2010.

David M. Davis memo about quality, to production staff of Boston’s WGBH, 1958: “This will not be just another television program.”

Why public media? Selected essays, speeches and documents on this site that contribute to defining public broadcasting and public media.

Why public television? To give all Americans access to television that will “educate, enlighten, engage and inform” them as citizens, station leaders said in their mission statement, Feb. 23, 2004. Current story: Public TV’s vision of itself: a lens for understanding the world, March 8, 2004.

The Case for Change (draft), May 1997

Questions & answers about the process of creating the Forum (“Countdown 97″), drafted by the Core Working Group, 1997

Charter (as amended) for the National Forum for Public Television Executives, Nov. 5, 1997

Convention of Stations Summary of Votes, Nov. 5, 1997

Participants: Core Working Group, Circle of Advisors plus consultants from  BMR Associates

Background documents of academic interest

Phase I: Overview of Conclusions and Their Implications, October 1996

Phase II: The Search for Paradigms, June 1997

Second Draft (superceded) Recommendations of Core Working Group, Sept. 5, 1997

Third Draft (superceded) Recommendations of Core Working Group, Oct. 13, 1997 — the final draft before the convention

The Nixon Administration Public Broadcasting Papers: A Summary, 1969-74: Under the Freedom of Information Act, the staff of Carnegie II requested release of White House documents during peak conflicts between the Nixon administration and public broadcasting. This is a summary compiled and released by the Carter administration’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration a decade later. This detailed NTIA summary was published by the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB):

Foreword to NAEB printing, with NTIA letters of transmittal | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974

Nixon’s FCC chair backs long-term CPB funding and 1:1 match of donations, April 1, 1970:  Though the Nixon administration fought the expansion of public TV journalistm, it backed the young system of stations. In testimony before a Senate subcommittee, April 1, 1970, Dean Burch, Nixon’s FCC chair, endorsed a 1:1 match of federal dollars to nonfederal contributions He and activist Commissioner Nicholas Johnson support Senate bill 3558 to reauthorize CPB funding.

Burch and Johnson also urge Congress to create a dedicated ongoing funding mechanism. Burch comments: “Too great a delay in finding the permanent financing solution will adversely affect the development of [CPB] and thus of the nation’s noncommercial educational system.”

President Nixon announces his veto of CPB funding in message to Congress, June 30, 1972

NPR Articles of Incorporation, Feb. 26, 1970

Initial NPR bylaws, Feb. 26, 1970. Recent bylaws, 1999

National Public Radio Purposes, memo by William H. Siemering envisions All Things Considered and major characteristics of the NPR sound, 1970.

Revenues and expenses

• General Accounting Office report on NPR’s fiscal crisis, Feb. 10, 1984.
• Fiscal year 1999 amounts and categories, from NPR’s site

Union agreements

• NPR’s one-year agreement with technical employees union NABET, April 16, 2009.

PBS history and founding documents

Proposal on the Formation of the Public Television Network, 1968, by Ward Chamberlin and Robert Carlisle

Articles of Incorporation, Nov. 3, 1969

Initial by-laws, Nov. 11, 1969, and by-laws as amended through Feb. 6, 2000

Economics

GAO report, Dec. 21, 1984, assuring Congress that public television is not vulnerable to the financial instability that threatened public radio during NPR’s financial crisis because pubTV is much less centralized

Major issues and revisions in PBS structure

CPB-PBS Partnership Agreement, 1973

Stations’ Forum petition seeks to reorganize PBS, October 2000. Current story on petition, Oct. 16, 2000.

Declaration of Interdependence, a rhetorical prop used by Pat Mitchell for a speech preaching station-network cooperation at a PBS annual meeting in Philadelphia, 2001.

Production cost-sharing arrangements

Proposal for the Station Program Cooperative by PBS President Hartford Gunn, October 1972

PBS program dues cost-sharing formula: Based on PBS documents, Current explains the closely guarded PBS National Program Service dues formula. The formula determines the share of the Program Assessment (or dues)  paid by each member station for PBS National Program Service programs. (Stations also pay a smaller Member Assessment for other PBS services.)

University of North Carolina Television statement on equity in CPB and PBS formulas, 2001. This is an example of the disputes that arise periodically over the PBS dues formula, often when stations are pinched by conflicting trends in the CPB Community Service Grant formula.

See also Underwriting, Public television

PBS Annual Reports, 1998, 1999 and 2000 at PBS.org

PBS Editorial Standards and Policies, as of June 2011

PBS Funding Standards and Practices, as of 2008

America at a Crossroads series, including “Islam vs. Islamists” documentary

Frank Gaffney and other producers of “Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center” defend their work in memo to PBS and WETA boards of directors, March 6, 2007.

Report on May 1997 proposal by Lawrence K. Grossman, former PBS president

Text of May 1977 review of issues by James A. Fellows, for the Hartford Gunn Institute

Debate on the experiment published June 23, 1997, in Current:

• Let’s try it, by Mike Hardgrove, president of KETC, St. Louis
• Let’s not, by Fred Esplin, then general manager of KUED, Salt Lake City

Coverage of the proposal in Current:

• Critics arise as PTV Weekend plan gets some ink, June 23, 1997
• Two-night commercial net discussed for public TV: Grossman discusses plan with stations, Nov. 25, 1996
• Britain’s hybrid TV network, Channel Four, supports its mission with advertising, Nov. 25, 1996
• P2 commercial network proposal for public TV is feasible, Grossman finds, May 13, 1996
• Foundation backs Grossman study of commercial network to support public TV, Oct. 9, 1995

Disclosure: Current took no position on the PTV Weekend proposal. The chairman of its publishing committee, Jim Fellows, facilitated discussion of the idea, and the organization that administers the newspaper, New York station WNET, opposed it.

President Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act.

Johnson administration

• President Lyndon B. Johnson asks Congress to aid public television, in his Health and Education message, Feb. 28, 1967
• President Johnson’s remarks on signing the Public Broadcasting Act, Nov. 7, 1967
• Wilbur Mills to LBJ: ‘We ain’t gonna give money to folks without some strings attached’: In a May 2006 speech, Bill Moyers explains why Congress did not give an ongoing source of funding to public broadcasting.

Radio campaign for inclusion

• The Hidden Medium: A Status Report on Educational Radio in the United States by Herman Land Associates, commissioned by National Educational Radio, published, April 1967.

Set-aside of DBS capacity for noncommercial TV upheld in court, 1996

• Noncommercial DBS set-aside provision upheld in Time Warner v. FCC, U.S. Court of Appeals, 1996
• FCC Notice on DBS Public Interest Obligations, Nov. 25, 1998

But in satellite radio, the FCC declines to reserve noncom capacity when the two satellite radio services merge, 2008

• Satradio merger okayed without pubradio provisions, Current, July 28, 2008

Carriage of local noncommercial broadcasters on satellite TV

• Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act — FCC’s page about

Congress backs FCC plan to free up spectrum, expand wireless services and reduce deficit with chanel auctions. Title VI of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act (see page 118), approved by a House-Senate conference committee, Feb. 17, 2012. The act authorizes the FCC to repack and condense the band of UHF spectrum used for TV broadcasting. By 2021, frequencies voluntarily relinquished by broadcasters would be auctioned off by the commission for consumer cellphone, emergency and other wireless services. Broadcasters that give up channels, or agree to share bandwidth with other stations, or move to VHF channels, will receive payments. See also Current coverage.

• FCC proposed rules, October 2012,  for auction of TV spectrum for wireless uses.
• FCC explains spectrum auction plans with relative brevity, January 2013. Videos and more documents on FCC site.

Public-media and civic groups file further comments on FCC proposal, Jan. 25, 2013. See Current story, Jan. 31, 2012.

• APTS, PBS and CPB comment to FCC.
• Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, including New America Foundation, comments to FCC.
• Free Press comment to FCC.

FCC proposes rulemaking for new class of low-power noncommercial FM radio stations, Jan. 28, 1999

FCC creates LPFM service, Jan. 20, 2000, with this original set of rules.

• More LPFM documents, on FCC site
• Existing FM licensees, including public radio stations represented by NPR, seek stronger protection from interference by new LPFM operators. Current story: LPFM rules still disputed; Congress may act, Oct. 16, 2000.

Urged to act by existing FM interests, including NPR, and instructed by Congress, FCC adopts Second Report and Order, March 22, 2001, revising LPFM rules, protecting full-power stations from interference and limiting LPFM growth.

• In an appropriations bill, section 632(2)(1)(A), Congress ordered the FCC to set minimum mileage separations between LPFM and full-power stations that use the adjacent, second adjacent and third adjacent channels.
• Current coverage: Intervention by Congress slashes LPFM licensing 80%, Jan. 15, 2001.

Local Community Radio Act of 2010, official PDF. Signed by President Obama, Jan. 4, 2011.

The FCC adopted its Sixth Report and Order on LPFM, Nov. 30, 2012. The text is a PDF; the order is available on the FCC site in other formats. Prometheus Radio Project highlights key features of the new law.

Which spectrum bands are used for what? 

• Spectrum Dashboard, the FCC’s spectrum allocations, band by band, shown through an interactive online diagram

Legislation and rules reserving blocks of spectrum

• FCC noncommercial station licensing rules based on the law, Sec. 73.621
• FM channel allocations, 1945, including reservation of channels for noncommercial use. Website may be very slow.

 
Selective treatment of competing applicants for noncom channels

• FCC proposes rules to guide decisions, Oct. 7, 1998.
• FCC order establishes comparative standards for choosing among applicants for noncommercial educational channels, April 4, 2000.
• Current story about the new point system, May 2000.

 
What ancillary services can noncommercial DTV broadcasters offer (and charge for)

• FCC Report and Order on Ancillary and Supplementary Services, Oct. 11, 2001
• U.S. Court of Appeals upholds this policy in United Church of Christ v. FCC, May 9, 3003. APTS intervened in the case.

 
FCC tries to minimize interference between FM and TV Channel 6, which use adjacent frequencies

• FCC documents on priorities in interference protection between TV Channel 6 and noncommercial FM stations, on FCC site

San Mateo County (Calif.) Community College District selling KCSM-TV, 2012-13

• Request for proposals, second round of bidding (PDF), issued by the college district, Dec. 20, 2012
• Second-round bidding info on college district website
• “Governing board rejects final bids for San Mateo’s KCSM,” Current, Nov. 5, 2012

University of San Francisco sells KUSF to Los Angeles public radio station KUSC

• After approving sale, FCC fosters consent decree, June 6, 2012, that effectively but lightly fines both parties for their handling of the transfer but does not overturn the sale. FCC statement describes consent decree on handling of transfer.

New Jersey legislature agrees to sell or rent out its NJN TV and radio stations, 2010-11

• New Jersey Public Broadcasting System Transfer Act, proposed by Gov. Chris Christie and passed by state legislature, December 2010.
• “NJN to be dismantled,” Current story on outcome, June 13, 2011.
• New Jersey Legislative Task Force on Public Broadcasting, report of findings, Oct. 15, 2010
• Interim Executive Director Howard Blumenthal presents alternative plan to state Assembly budget committee, May 7, 2010.

SaveWCAL, a listener-donor group, contests the 2004 sale of the station by St. Olaf College to Minnesota Public Radio. They question whether the college’s windfall and MPR’s plans for a contemporary music station serve the intent of donors (Current, Nov. 5, 2007)  to classical music station WCAL over the decades.

• Three-judge panel of Minnesota Court of Appeals denies SaveWCAL’s appeal, Dec. 29, 2009. The ruling says the appeal has some merit but concludes: “SaveWCAL waited too long to commence an action to set aside the sale of WCAL.”
• A State court dismisses SaveWCAL’s claim that the sale breached “charitable trust” obligations to past donors, Feb. 25, 2009. The group decided to appeal as Current reported April 24, 2009.
• Based on his findings about donations to WCAL, a  state-appointed “special master” recommends that most funds can be released for other or related purposes, March 2008.

Daystar religious network and KOCE leaders match bids and lawsuits in long fight for public TV station in Orange County, Calif.

• Agreeing with Daystar’s latest appeal, California appeals court again sets aside KOCE sale to public TV group, May 25, 2006
• Daystar takes a separate First Amendment suit to federal court, July 20, 2005.
• California appeals court voids college district’s sale of KOCE to new pubTV nonprofit KOCE Foundation, June 2005

Pittsburgh’s WQED frustrated in attempts to sell or lease out its second TV channel, WQEX.

• Despite FCC approval, the sale falls apart anyway: “WQEX deal wins at FCC, loses anyway,” Current, Jan. 24, 2000
• FCC order accepts transfer of WQED’s second station, Dec. 15, 1999. Commissioners’ approving and dissenting statements.
• In 1999, Rep. Mike Oxley offered to assist sale of WQEX to a religious broadcaster, and on Jan. 24, 2000, introduced the Religious Broadcasting Freedom Act, which died in committee.
• FCC refuses to de-reserve WQED’s second station, July 24, 1996

Conversion of “institutional” licensees to independent nonprofits

New Jersey Network memo summarizes experience of xxx station licensees. NJN’s Howard Blumenthal

Funding from state and college/university licensees

• On the Chopping Block: State Budget Battles and the Future of Public Media by Josh Stearns and Mike Doha, Free Press, November 2011

Associations of state and university licensees

• Organization of State Broadcasting Executives (OSBE) Statement of Mission and Purpose and Member Survey-Strategic Direction memo, Feb. 27, 2012.
• University Licensee Association charter, as amended May 2005. Largely in public TV. The association is part of public TV’s Affinity Group Coalition.
• University Station Alliance (USAlliance), an association of public radio stations licensed to colleges and universities.

Iowa Public Radio Final Report, Bornstein and Associates, November 2004. Bornstein, who oversaw the University of Wisconsin networks before retiring and led NPR’s recovery in the 1980s, endorses a proposal to unite the stations of three state-owned universities into a statewide nonprofit network. See Current followup story, Sept. 15, 2008.

Recommendations for creation of a Voters’ Channel, by Alvin Perlmutter, 1990