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ABU: The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union is a regional association of TV and radio networks formed in 1964 to help develop radio and television in the territories and countries from the western end of Asia to the middle of the Pacific. CPB pays annual fees for itself and other groups, giving U.S. public broadcasters a passport to the world broadcasting community.
Secretary General: David Astley
Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
P.O. Box 1164
59700 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Phone: +60-3-2282-5292
E-mail: info@abu.org.my
Web: www.abu.org.my/public/index.cfm

ACCM: The American Center for Children and Media (formerly the American Center for Children's Television), based at WTTW in Chicago, works in TV and other media to encourage excellence in all media for young people. The center holds seminars, workshops, screenings and competitions to assist children's media professionals, facilitate collaboration with experts abroad, develop guidelines and standards that recognize excellent work and increase public awareness of high-quality media. The center originated the American Children's Television Festival, which presented the Ollie Awards every other year to the best children's shows. The award is named after the dragon in the 1950s TV show Kukla, Fran & Ollie. The first festival was held in 1985. The center was originally part of the American Telecommunications Group (ATG), now dissolved.
President: James Fellows
Executive Director: David W. Kleeman
American Center for Children and Media
c/o WTTW
5400 N. St. Louis Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625-4698
847-390-6499
Fax: 847-390-9435
E-mail: dkleeman@mcs.com

ACCT: American Center for Children's Television. See ACCM, above.

ACE: The American Council on Education is one of the oldest and most powerful of the trade associations representing colleges and universities. ACE, formed in 1918, is the issue forum and lobbying locus for the heads of institutions of higher education.
President: David Ward
American Council on Education
One Dupont Circle, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
202-939-9300
Fax: 202-833-4760
Web: www.acenet.edu

AECT: The Association for Educational Communications and Technology began in 1923 as the Department of Visual Instruction at the National Education Association. Spun off in 1974, AECT is now a membership organization that trains teachers, administrators, professors and others in the use of instructional technology.
Executive Director: Phil Harris
Association for Educational Communications and Technology
1800 North Stonelake Drive, Suite 2
Bloomington, IN 47401
812-335-7675
Fax: 812-335-7678
Web: www.aect.org
E-mail: aect@aect.org

AFI: Two years after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Arts and Humanities Act in 1965, the American Film Institute was established by the National Endowment for the Arts to advance and preserve the art of the "moving image" in film and television. AFI is based in Los Angeles, but maintains theaters at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Md., just outside Washington.
Director: Jean Firstenberg
American Film Institute
Web: www.afi.com

2021 N. Western Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027-1657
323-856-7600
Fax: 323-467-4578

AFI National Film Theater
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC 20566
Box office: 202-833-2348
Fax: 202-659-1970

AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center
8633 Colesville Rd.
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: 301-495-6700
E-mail: silverinfo@afi.com

AFTRA: If a broadcast reporter or actor is "working for scale" you can thank the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the union of actors and on-air talent, founded in 1937. The group comprises 30 locals and 80,000 members who belong to the AFL-CIO.
Executive Director: Greg Hessinger
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
260 Madison Ave., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
212-532-0800
E-mail: info@aftra.com
Web: www.aftra.org

AIR: The Association of Independents in Radio represents independent audio producers, who look to public radio as a major outlet for their work and who provide some of its prize-winning content. AIR holds national conferences for audio independents every other year; publishes a bimonthly newsletter, AirSpace; and maintains an Online Producers Directory on its web site.
Executive Director: Dolores Brandon
Association of Independents in Radio
328 Flatbush Ave., #322
Brooklyn, NY 11238
888-937-2477
E-mail: air@airmedia.org
Web: www.airmedia.org

AIROS: American Indian Radio on Satellite has been the satellite service that for distribution Native American programming to public radio stations, including Native-controlled stations. The service, operated by Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT), is based at Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, funded by CPB, and receives free satellite carriage on the Public Radio Satellite System. CPB will switch the contract for this service to Koahnic Broadcasting Corp. in July 2006.
American Indian Radio on Satellite
1800 N. 33rd St., Lincoln, NE 68583
P.O. Box 83111, Lincoln, NE 68501
Phone: (402) 472-3278
Fax: (402) 472-3277
E-mail: airos@unl.edu
Web: airos.org

AIT: The Agency for Instructional Technology (originally the Agency for Instructional Television) is an American-Canadian company that creates consortia of state and provincial agencies and public TV stations, to develop, produce, buy and distribute instructional television programs and other instructional materials. AIT also publishes a quarterly journal, Technos, about education and technology, and is the home of Technos Press.
Executive Director: Michael F. Sullivan
Agency for Instructional Technology
1800 N. Stonelake Dr.
Bloomington, IN 47402-0120
800-457-4509 or 812-339-2203
Fax: 812-333-4218
E-mail: info@ait.net
Web: www.ait.net

AIVF: The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers is a professional association for independent producers. In its first year—1975—AIVF spearheaded the successful fight against a change in copyright laws that would have allowed public schools to copy films and tapes at no charge. Since 1978, the association has published The Independent Film & Video Monthly.
Executive Director: Beni Mattias
Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers
304 Hudson St., 6th floor
New York, NY 10013
212-807-1400
Fax: 212-463-8519
E-mail: info@aivf.org
Web: www.aivf.org

ALS: The PBS Adult Learning Service pioneered the widespread use of for-credit telecourses by colleges and universities, but it did not have the financial support to keep up with changing technology and it closed in 2005.

ALTV: The Association of Local Television Stations was formed in 1972 as the Association of Independent Television Stations (INTV) to represent independent (non-network-affiliated) commercial TV stations. It now represents Fox, UPN, WB and PaxNet affiliates as well as actual independents.
President: James Hedlund
Association of Local Television Stations
1320 19th St., N.W., #300
Washington, DC 20036
202-887-1970
Fax: 202-887-0950
E-mail: altv@erols.com or altv@aol.com
Web: www.altv.com

AMARC: The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (Association mondiale des radiodiffuseurs communautaires) is an international group that serves the community radio movement. The group believes the world needs a "new information order based on more just and equitable exchanges among peoples." AMARC has branch offices in South Africa, Ecuador and Britain.
AMARC International Secretariat
3575 Blvd. St-Laurent, Suite 611
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2X 2T7
(514) 982-0351
Fax: (514) 849-7129
E-mail: secgen@amarc.org
Web: www.amarc.org

AMPPR: The Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio, incorporated in 1982, publishes a quarterly newsletter, Music Notes, and holds the annual Music Personnel Conference for station music directors and others who work with music programming in public radio.
Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio
President: Beverley Ervine
c/o WOSU Classics Network
2400 Olentangy River Rd.
Columbus, OH 43210
614-247-7422
E-mail: ervine.1@osu.edu
Web: www.amppr.org

Annenberg/CPB Project: Funded by the Annenberg Foundation and by fees for use of its materials, the Project develops video courses and web materials for grade-school teacher training and operates the Annenberg/CPB Channel satellite service. In earlier years, starting with its founding in 1981, the project also developed college-credit telecourses for the general learner.
Director: Scott Roberts
The Annenberg/CPB Project
401 9th St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004
202-879-9600
Fax: 202-879-9696
Web: www.learner.org
E-mail: info@learner.org

APS: see APT, below

APT: American Public Television (formerly American Program Service) acquires, sells and distributes programming—much of it "how-to" programs and British imports—to public TV stations nationwide. APT was created in 1980 as the Interregional Program Service by EEN (the Eastern Educational Television Network), later was renamed American Program Service and then American Public Television in 1999. It has become public television's second largest national program acquisition and distribution system. APT introduced Julia Child and the Three Tenors to national acclaim, distributes Nightly Business Report and Sessions at West 54th among other programs and is active in the international TV program marketplace.
President: Cynthia Fenneman
American Public Television
55 Summer St.
Boston, MA 02210
617-338-4455
Fax: 617-338-5369
E-mail: info@aptvs.org
Web: www.aptonline.org

APTS: Association of Public Television Stations (formerly America's Public Television Stations, with the same initials) is a national membership organization that lobbies and undertakes planning/research projects in the interests of the stations and noncommercial TV in general. Until APTS was set up in 1980, the function was performed by PBS. APTS was known in its early years as NAPTS, the National Association of Public Television Stations.
President: John Lawson
America's Public Television Stations
666 11th St., N.W., Suite 1100
Washington, D.C. 20001
202-654-4200
Fax: 202-654-4236
Web: www.apts.org

AQH: Average Quarter Hour audience is the average number of people in the audience during a 15-minute ratings survey period. The number, in thousands of people, is the basic ratings measurement in radio.

ARA: Audience Research Analysis is a private consulting company founded by onetime NPR research chief David Giovannoni, which is a leading source of audience analysis and data, based in large part on Arbitron ratings. ARA managed several major CPB-funded studies of public radio audiences and offers Audigraphics audience data in chart form.
President: Steve Olson
Audience Research Analysis
7108 Horizon Terrace
Derwood, MD 20855-1337
301-987-2514
Fax: 301-987-2511
E-mail: ara@aranet.com
Web: www.aranet.com

ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, one of the two big organizations of music copyright holders, founded in 1914. ASCAP collects royalties for composers, advocates for copyright protection and negotiates industry-wide royalty rates.
President: Marilyn Bergman
ASCAP
1 Lincoln Plaza
New York, NY 10023
212-621-6000
Fax: 212-724-9064
Web: ascap.com

ATAS: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, founded in 1946 and based in the Los Angeles area, presents the annual primetime Emmy awards, offers a series of events in its L.A. headquarters, and publishes Emmy magazine. NATAS, a sister organization in New York, handles news, daytime and sports programs and has chapters around the country.
President: James Chabin
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
5220 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
818-754-2800
Fax: 818-761-2827
Web: www.emmys.org

ATG: The American Telecommunications Group, which ceased operations in 2003, was an umbrella organization incorporating CEN, the Central Educational Network, a Des Plaines, Ill.-based nonprofit founded in 1967 as a regional network in the Midwest. The other three regionals were EEN, the Eastern Educational Television Network (no longer active as an association, it is now a program distributor, APT), Pacific Mountain Network (now a nonprofit venture capital source for public broadcasting but no longer a network) and the Southern Educational Communications Association (reborn in 1997 as a national organization, NETA). In its latter years under President James Fellows, CEN provided representation and other services for member public TV stations largely in the Midwest and Northeast. Other affiliated organizations in ATG include CPM (Continental Program Marketing), a program distributor; HETC, a group of stations licensed to universities; ACCM (American Center for Children and Media); the Hartford Gunn Institute, a planning and research unit; and the Benton Academy for Public Telecommunications, a professional training arm.

ATSC: The Advanced Television Systems Committee is a broadcasters/manufacturers industry association that documented the Grand Alliance digital TV system, which the FCC adopted in 1996, and is still working to encourage and facilitate the development of the family of ATSC specs for digital TV transmission. The standard has become known as the ATSC standard, just as the original U.S. standard is known as "NTSC" (see NTSC). ATSC worked with the FCC's official Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service, which coordinated the selection criteria, system analysis, laboratory and field testing and allocation parameters that were proposed by the ATSC to the FCC.
Executive Director: Mark Richer
Advanced Television Systems Committee
1750 K St., N.W., Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
202-828-3130
Fax: 202-828-3131
Web: atsc.org

ATV: Advanced Television was the FCC's term for the range of new television transmission technologies (including HDTV) considered for establishment in this country, but the acronym has been superceded by DTV (digital television). [Current Briefing.]

AWRT: American Women in Radio and Television is an organization of women in broadcasting and allied fields established in 1951.
Executive Director: Jacci Duncan
American Women in Radio and Television
1595 Spring Hill Rd., Suite 330
Tyson's Corner
Vienna, VA 22182
703-506-3290
Fax: 703-506-3266
Web: www.awrt.org

AWC: The Association for Women in Communications, formerly WICI (Women in Communications Inc.) is an old and respected advocacy group for women in the media. AWC organizes the annual Clarion Awards competition. Formed in 1909, it focuses on the journalism and public relations industries.
Executive Director: Patricia Troy
Association for Women in Communications
1244 Ritchie Highway, Suite 6
Arnold, MD 21012
410-544-7442
Fax: 410-544-4640
Web: www.womcom.org

BBC: The British Broadcasting Corp. is known in the U.S. primarily as a supplier of quality public TV and radio programs. The BBC is the largest production house in the world, annually turning out more than 5,200 hours of TV and radio programming. BBC Worldwide Americas, a profit-seeking division that absorbed the separate syndicator Lionheart Television, sells BBC programs in the Western Hemisphere.
BBC Worldwide Americas
747 3rd Ave.
New York, NY 10017
212-705-9300
Fax: 212-888-0576
Web: www.bbc.co.uk

BDA: BDA International, the Broadcast Designers Association, is an international organization formed in 1978 with members in the TV graphics, animation, photography and effects industries. It organizes annual seminars and design competitions, acts as an employment clearinghouse and awards scholarships.
President: Glynn Brailsford
BDA International
2029 Century Park East, Suite 555
Los Angeles, CA 90067
310-712-0040
Fax: 310-712-0039
E-mail: BDAnet@aol.com
Web: www.bdaonline.org

BEA: The Broadcast Education Association, under the wing of the National Association of Broadcasters, was established in 1955 to bring professional broadcasters into the college classroom and arrange projects putting communications professors into broadcasting environments.
Executive Director: Louisa A. Nielsen
Broadcast Education Association
1771 N St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20036-2891
202-429-5354
Web: www.beaweb.org

BMI: Broadcast Music Inc. is the younger of the two large organizations (BMI was founded in 1940) that represent composers, music publishers and other copyright holders. The other is ASCAP.
President: Frances W. Preston
BMI
320 W. 57th St.
New York, NY 10019-3790
212-586-2000
Fax: 212-245-8986
Web: bmi.com

BPME: Former name of Promax International, the Broadcast Promotion and Marketing Executives Association. See Promax.

BTSC: The Broadcast Television Systems Committee developed the stereo sound system used today for TV in the United States. The system provides not only stereo sound but also a secondary audio program (SAP) channel and a low-quality communications channel for broadcasters' use. BTSC was a joint effort by the Electronics Industry Association (now the Consumer Electronics Association) and the NAB.

CATs: The Community Advocate Teams of APTS consist of lay (non-staff) representatives of stations, volunteers and volunteer-staff liaison who educate Congress and support public TV's legislative agenda. CATs were formed in 1995 through collaboration between APTS and NFPB.

Diane Papedo
National Volunteer Coordinator
303-620-5710
E-mail: d_papedo@krma.pbs.org

Suzanne Stokes
APTS Grassroots Coordinator
202-887-1700
E-mail: suzanne@apts.org

CBC: The Canadian Broadcasting Corp., created in 1936, is Canada's publicly funded (but not strictly noncommercial) broadcaster, which operates radio (noncommercial)  and television (limited commercial) networks in both English and French (SRC, Societe Radio Canada), as well as cable networks and Canada's overseas broadcast voice, Radio Canada International. CBC receives some $800 million in annual assistance from the Canadian federal government.
President: Robert Rabinovitch
Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
P.O. Box 3220, Station C
Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 1E4, Canada
613-724-1200
Web: www.cbc.ca

CC: Closed captioning provides visual captions for hearing-impaired viewers of television

CEI: The Center for Education Initiatives was the education service of the Illinois-based American Telecommunications Group (ATG), which ceased operations in 2003.

CEN: see ATG, above.

CIPB: Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting is a new independent membership group "dedicated to putting the public back into public broadcasting." Launched with foundation funding in November 1999, CIPB favors independence for public broadcasting from corporate and government influence.
Executive Director: Jerold M. Starr
Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting
901 Old Hickory Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15243
(412) 341-1967
Fax: (412) 341-6533
E-mail: jmstarr@adelphia.net
Web: www.cipbonline.org

COFDM: Coded Orthogonal Frequency Domain Multiplexing is a modulation technology used for digital TV broadcasting in Europe. It is less susceptible to ghosting or multipath interference than early generations of U.S. DTV standard receivers using 8-VSB modulation. Some U.S. broadcasters, led by Sinclair Broadcast Group, have urged the FCC to permit the use of COFDM in addition to 8-VSB. See also VSB.

CPB: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is the nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in 1967 to develop noncommercial TV and radio. The organization is in the difficult position of both upholding the public interest as seen by Congress and insulating the public broadcasters from undue interference by politicians. CPB funds public television and radio stations directly with Community Service Grants, supports productivity and revenue-development initiatives through its Future Fund, and assists program production through its Radio and Television Program Funds. See also Annenberg/CPB.
President: Patricia Harrison
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
401 9th St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20004
202-879-9600
Fax: 202-879-9700
Web: www.cpb.org

CPM: Continental Program Marketing was a national program distributor for public TV that operated as part of the American Telecommunications Group. ATG phased out program services in 2003 before ceasing operations altogether. See ATG.

CSG: The Community Service Grant is the basic operating support that stations receive from CPB. Derived from CPB's federal appropriation, it is one of the few station funding sources that is not earmarked for certain uses. It includes a flat base grant plus a variable "incentive grant" component based on the amount of nonfederal money raised by the station (NFFS). The base grant assures that small stations receive a substantial amount, and the incentive grant encourages stations to work on local fundraising.

CSRG: The Community Station Resource Group is an informal "affinity group" of large community-licensee (freestanding nonprofit) public TV stations that came together in the mid-1990s, following the model of public radio's Station Resource Group. In 1996, William Kobin, the former president of KCET in Los Angeles, became a consultant representing the stations' interests. The group is parallel to the earlier-formed Organization of State Broadcasting Executives, which represents state-owned public broadcasting organizations.
Contact: William Kobin
CSRG
2716 Westridge Rd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-472-1473

CTW: Children's Television Workshop. See Sesame Workshop.

CWEIS: The Community Wide Education and Information Services initiative (now discontinued) was launched in the early 1990s by CPB to encourage the development of local online networks involving public broadcasters and other community groups by providing partial funding. Pronounced "sea-weiss."

DAB: Digital Audio Broadcasting is the next generation of radio, using digital instead of analog technology for transmission. DAB technologies include IBOC (in-band on-channel) transmission from terresrial stations and direct satellite broadcasting by companies such as XM and Sirius.

DACS: Direct Access Communications System (pronounced "dax") is the acronym for electronic text messaging systems used by PBS and NPR between the early 1970s and the mid-1990s for distribution of internal schedules, memos, advisories and other messages between the stations and their national and regional organizations. In 1995 PBS replaced the DACS with PBS Express, based on newer computer technology.

DBA: Public TV's Digital Broadcasting Alliance was formed in 1996 to further cooperation among the public TV stations planning to experiment with digital TV transmissions. Initial members were WETA, Washington, D.C.; KCTS, Seattle; and Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland. WMVS, Milwaukee, and WGBH, Boston, joined later.

DBS: The idea of Direct Broadcast Satellite was introduced with fanfare in the early 1980s and became reality in the 1990s. Three commercial services are now distributing a cable-like menu of TV channels nationwide. Subscribers use small satellite dishes to receive the signal from high-powered satellites. Similar audio-only services are offered by commercial operators such as XM and Sirius.

DDS: Often confused with DBS, Direct Delivery by Satellite is the transmission of educational and instructional courses directly to schools and colleges using satellites and conventional dish antennas.

DEI: The Development Exchange Inc., is a membership organization that fosters effective fundraising in public radio and holds the annual Public Radio Development/Marketing Conference every spring. It was founded in 1982 as a spinoff of CPB's discontinued radio development activity, and moved to Minneapolis in 1997.
The Development Exchange, Inc.
1645 Hennepin Ave., Suite 312
Minneapolis, MN 55403
888-454-2314
Fax: 612-677-1508
President: Douglas J. Eichten
E-mail: info@deiworksite.org
Web: www.deiworksite.org

DMA: Designated Market Area is the geographic unit used in Nielsen Media Research television ratings.

DOIT: Digital Opportunity Investment Trust, a federally endowed fund for support of digital content production proposed by Lawrence Grossman and Newton Minow in April 2001.
Digital Promise Project
Web: www.digitalpromise.org

DSL: Digital Subscriber Line is a recent technology that speeds up the transmission of data on an ordinary phone line, permitting broadband services to offices and homes within a short distance of a telephone company central office.

DTV: Digital television. A catchall acronym for all the types of television broadcasting that use digital encoding and transmission. In the United States, DTV broadcasting began by a few stations in 1998. By the end of 2000, more than 160 stations were broadcasting digital signals, reaching more than 65 percent of U.S. households with TV.

DVI: Descriptive Video Information is a generic term invented by PBS for DVS (see below).

DVS: Descriptive Video Service is a WGBH trademark for a supplemental audio service for viewers with impaired vision, carried by many public television stations on the SAP (Separate Audio Program) channel. DVS provides narrated descriptions of key visual elements without interfering with the programs' dialogue. WGBH launched DVS as a national service over PBS in January 1990. DVI (Descriptive Video Information) is a generic term for the same service. The "D" symbol shown here represents both.
Contact: Patricia Cox
Media Access Group
WGBH
125 Western Ave.
Boston, MA 02134
617-300-3400
Fax: 617-300-1020
E-mail: access@wgbh.org
Web: www.wgbh.org/dvs

Media Access Group at WGBH 125 Western Avenue Boston, MA 02134 access.wgbh.org Phone: 617-300-3600 (voice/TTY)

EBU: The European Broadcasting Union, an association of public service broadcasters formed in 1950, is the primary distributor of news and sports programming in Western Europe, operating the 13-channel Eurovision system. CPB's membership in the EBU gives U.S. public broadcasters an entree to international broadcasting.
President: Albert Scharf
European Broadcasting Union
17A Ancienne Route
Case postal 67
CH-1218 Grand-Saconnex/
Geneva, Switzerland
+41-22-717-2111
E-mail: ebu@ebu.ch
Web: www.ebu.ch/

EDISON: EDISON stood for Educational Information Service Online, a computer network for public broadcasters operated by CEN (Central Educational Network) until it was discontinued in 1995—one of many "dial-up" bulletin board services that have been superceded by the Internet.

EEN: The Eastern Educational Television Network, the early interconnection of major public TV stations in the East, remains under a new name as the second largest program distributor in public TV. In the 1990s it was renamed APS and then APT. For years the organization served as one of the four major regional public TV networks (see CEN and APT listings) that provided regional representation and program acquisition and distribution services to their member stations. EEN was established in 1959 by Hartford Gunn, then president of WGBH-TV/FM, Boston, to provide interconnection and programs for northeastern stations.

EIIG: The Earned Income Initiatives Group is an informal group of public TV stations that lobbied Congress and PBS in 1995-96 for changes in regulations to permit stations to increase revenues from quasi-commercial sources. The group included such major stations as Chicago's WTTW and St. Louis's KETC.

EPG: An Electronic Program Guide on a cable system, a DBS service or in DTV permits a viewer to choose a program from a menu and be switched to the appropriate channel automatically.

EPR: This association of public radio stations is the descendant of Eastern Public Radio Network, formed in 1958 to distribute public radio programming. With the advent of NPR's interconnection system in the late 1970s and the rise of American Public Radio as a distributor, EPR's national importance declined. Member stations now turn to it for representation and training and as an issue forum.
Executive Director: Georgette Bronfman
Eastern Public Radio
P.O. Box 615
Kensington, MD 20895
301-943-2930
E-mail: gbronfman@earthlink.net
Web: www.easternpublicradio.org

EPS: Executive Program Services is a program distributor and consultancy for public TV founded by longtime programmers (and former PBS staffers) Alan Foster and Dick Hanratty, with offices in Alexandria, Va., and Bremerton, Wash.

Executive Program Services Alan Foster 635 Miriam Hill Drive Rocky Mount, VA 24151 540-483-4767 Web: www.epstv.com

, Dick Hanratty 6164 Oceanside Place, NE Bremerton, WA 98311 360-373-4856

eXploreRadio: A now-defunct partnership between NPR and Minnesota Public Radio that offered web services for public radio stations' websites in 1999-2000. See also the competing service, PI.

FCC: The Communications Act of 1934 created the Federal Communications Commission as an independent agency to regulate interstate communications. The National Association of Educational Broadcasters persuaded the FCC to reserve five radio channels nationwide for educational broadcasting in 1938, paving the way in 1952 to reserve 242 local TV channels.
Chairman: Michael Powell
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th St., S.W.
Washington, DC 20554
888-225-5322
Fax: 202-418-0232
E-mail: fccinfo@fcc.gov
Web: www.fcc.gov

FRP: Fundraising Programming is PBS's new term for its office that provides pledge specials for public TV stations. The office was formerly known as SIP.
Gustavo Sagustume, Vice President of Programming
PBS, Miami office
954-929-0993
Sylvia Bennett, Senior Director of Fundraising Programming
PBS, Alexandria, Va.
703-739-5000

GPN: GPN, formed in 1962 as the Great Plains National Instructional Television Library, was a major distributor of instructional media allied with public TV. It was a service agency of Nebraska Educational Telecommunications in Lincoln until 2006, when it was sold to Educate Inc., the owner of Sylvan Learning Centers. GPN was co-producer of Reading Rainbow with WNED-TV, Buffalo, NY.
Director: Stephen C. Lenzen
GPN
P.O. Box 80669
Lincoln, NE 68501
800-228-4630
Fax: 800-306-2330
E-mail: gpn@unl.edu
Web: gpn.unl.edu

GRP: Gross Rating Points is a measure of the volume or raw "tonnage" of audience response to a program. Specifically, it's the sum of all the average quarter-hour (or sometimes average half-hour) ratings accumulated within a period. It reflects both the number of households that tune in (the "cume") and the frequency with which they watch.

HDTV: High Definition Television will bring wide-screen, high-resolution pictures and multichannel, compact-disc-quality sound to broadcast TV. The pictures attempt to equal 35mm film in image quality. Analog HDTV systems were developed in the late 1970s by Japanese Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), and U.S. firms later developed digital systems, including the so-called Grand Alliance or ATSC system. The ATSC system encompasses 18 different picture formats, including six that deliver true HDTV, including 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080 lines) and 1280x720 pixels (720 lines). All six have 16:9 aspect ratios (ratio of width to height). The FCC adopted parts of that system as the national DTV transmission standard in 1996. HDTV is only one format that can be broadcast by DTV. See also SDTV.

HETC: The Higher Education Telecommunications Consortium, operated by the now-defunct American Telecommunications Group (ATG),served as a meeting ground and action group to assist colleges and universities in their management of licensed telecommunications and radio operations.

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language is a simple coding of text on a web page that displays it on a browser. When a user clicks on a coded hypertext link, it causes the browser to call up another specified web page.

HUT: Homes Using Television is a measure of the percentage of households in a market or in the country using their TV sets at a given time of day. The HUT is approximately the sum of ratings of all the broadcasters in a given area.

IAAIS: International Association of Audio Information Services, formerly NAARS (National Association of Radio Reading Services), was founded in 1977 for interaction among local radio reading services and other broadcast offerings for the blind and print-handicapped. Its mission: "encourage and support the establishment and maintenance of services which provide access to printed information for individuals who cannot read conventional print because of blindness or any other visual, physical or learning disability." Most reading services broadcast over subcarriers of FM stations (often public radio stations), which are picked up using special receivers. But other reading services use SAP channels of TV signals and other transmission media. The group's legal name is still NAARS.
President: Ben Martin
International Association of Audio Information Services
c/o WZTS
4235 Electric Rd., Suite 105
Roanoke, VA 24014
800-280-5325
Fax: 540-776-2927
E-mail: revtraskusa@netscape.net
Web: www.iaais.org

IBOC: In-Band On-Channel describes the technology chosen by the U.S. radio industry for digital radio broadcasting and proposed for FCC adoption as the national standard. The technology expedites the industry's transition to digital transmission by putting both the new digital signal and the old analog signal in the same spectrum — in the same AM or FM band and on the same channel. Digital TV, in contrast, will be transmitted on separate channels.

IBS: The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, formed in 1940, is an association for noncommercial, student-staffed college radio stations.
President: Norm Prusslin
Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Inc.
367 Windsor Highway
New Windsor, NY 12553-7900
845-565-0003
Fax: 845-565-7446
E-mail: ibshq@aol.com
Web: www.ibsradio.org/

IMA: Integrated Media Association is a group of public broadcasters interested in developing the Internet and other new media as platforms for public service. IMA, which adopted its name in 2003, was formerly PRISA (Public Radio Internet Service Alliance), which had grown from an informal group of a dozen public radio stations that began meeting in 1998.
Executive Director: Mark Fuerst
Integrated Media Association
P.O. Box 810
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845-876-2577
Fax: 845-876-2578
E-mail: markfuerst@earthlink.net
Web: www.integratedmedia.org

INPUT: INPUT is the annual international screening conference for the exchange of program ideas among producers, programmers and others involved in the making of good and innovative programming for public television. INPUT brings together hundreds of professionals from dozens of countries for frank discussions and screening of programs from around the world. Aarhus, Denmark is the site of the May 2003 event.
Contact: Terry Pound
U.S. INPUT Secretariat
South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Blvd.
Columbia, SC 29201
803-737-3434
Fax: 803-737-3505
E-mail: pound@scetv.org
Web: www.myetv.org/corporate/input/

INTV: Association of Independent Television Stations, the old name of ALTV.

ITC: Instructional Technology Council, an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges, promotes college-level distance education, tracks legislation and conducts professional development training. ITC sponsors the annual Tel e-Learning conference.
Executive Director: Christine Mullins
Instructional Technology Council
One Dupont Circle, N.W., Suite 360
Washington, D.C. 20036
202-293-3110
Fax: 202-293-0073
Web: www.itcnetwork.org

ITFS: Instructional Television Fixed Service is the FCC's name for a licensed service using multichannel microwave transmitters to distribute educational programming from one distribution point to several receiving locations, such as public school systems, businesses and other institutions. Many universities, schools and other ITFS operators help support their service by leasing out some of their channels to commercial "wireless cable" operators, known to the FCC as MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service) operators.

ITS: International Telecommunications Services Inc. distributes instructional programming to public radio and TV stations and educational institutions.
President: Bill Barnhart Sr.
ITS
2492 Freetown Dr.
Reston, VA 22091
703-476-4468
Fax: 703-476-2860
Web: its.itmonline.com

ITVA: The International Television Association has been renamed Media Communications Association. See MCA.

ITVS: The Independent Television Service is a production-funding and distribution mechanism that supports the work of independent film and video makers on public television. Created in 1988 in response to a congressional directive to CPB, and funded by CPB, ITVS is committed to increasing public TV's diversity, innovation and programming for underserved audiences. ITVS was headquartered at first in Twin Cities and moved to San Francisco in 1997.
Executive Director: Sally Jo Fifer
ITVS
501 York St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-356-8383
Fax: 415-356-8391
E-mail: itvs@itvs.org
Web: www.itvs.org

Audience research, radio, compiled by Radio Research Consortium.

Audience research, television, and other media terms, Nielsen Media Research
Formulas for computing TV audience stats

Audience research, TV, compiled by TRAC Media Services.

Digital TV, glossaries compiled by PBS and CPB (PDF file).

Outreach, compiled by National Center for Outreach.

Public radio (PDF), from NPR Station Manager's Handbook

Public Radio Satellite System, compiled by PRSS

Streaming media, compiled by Streaming Media Inc.

Telecommunications, compiled by the FCC

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