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Please note that many details in this section are out of date. The section will be overhauled when staff time permits. Send suggestions and updates to the editor at web current.org.

RMPR: Rocky Mountain Public Radio, a regional public radio organization spun off from the Rocky Mountain Corporation for Public Broadcasting, represented the interests of member stations in issues involving CPB and NPR. It merged with West Coast Public Radio and California Public Radio to create Western States Public Radio. See WSPR.

RRC: The Radio Research Consortium's primary job is to broker, on behalf of its 200 member stations, the purchase of Arbitron and Birch audience data and interpret and analyze it. RRC, formed in 1981, reflects public radio's recent emphasis on building its audience and producing programs that generate money.
Executive Director: Joanne Church
Radio Research Consortium
P.O. Box 1309
Olney, MD 20830-1309
301-774-6686
Fax: 301-774-097
E-mail: rrc@rrconline.org
Web: www.rrconline.org

RTL: The PBS Ready to Learn Service is a lineup of television programs for young children. The service includes a video and print curriculum for preschoolers preparing for their school careers. The concept was introduced by the late Ernest Boyer, author and former federal education official. Congress assists in funding the service with appropriations to CPB and PBS through the Department of Education.
PBS Ready to Learn Service
Web: www.pbs.org/learn/rtl

RTNDA: The Radio-Television News Directors Association is the leading organization representing journalists working in the electronic media. RTNDA, formed in 1946, also provides training and research for its nearly 3,000 members.
President: Barbara Cochran
Radio-Television News Directors Association
1000 Connecticut Ave., N.W., #615
Washington, DC 20036
202-659-6510
Fax: 202-223-4007
E-mail: rtnda@rtnda.org
Web: www.rtnda.org

SAP: The Separate Audio Program channel, a secondary capability of stereo television transmissions, allows TV broadcasters, including PBS and public TV stations, to deliver a second soundtrack for enhanced services such as second-language soundtracks or DVS (Descriptive Video Service). Only stereo TV sets containing SAP decoders are capable of receiving SAP audio. (Look for the little SAP switch on the control panel.)

SBE: The Society of Broadcast Engineers Inc., formed in 1963, represents the profession's interests, operates a professional certification program and holds technical conferences.
Executive Director: John Poray
Society of Broadcast Engineers
9247 North Meridian St., Suite 305
Indianapolis, IN 46260
317-846-9000
Fax: 317-846-9120
Web: www.sbe.org

SDTV: Standard Definition Television refers to digital TV broadcasts that provide about as much detail as ordinary analog broadcasts. Digital SDTV pictures will have 480 lines. Technologists expect that a digital TV channel will be able to carry, simultaneously, four or more SDTV programs, or some combination of HDTV, SDTV and other services.

SECA: The Southern Educational Communications Association, once one of the four major regional public TV networks, was succeeded by the National Educational Telecommunications Association in 1997. See NETA.

SERC: The Satellite Educational Resources Consortium, pronounced "sir-see," was formed in 1988 to make instructional TV available to students who would not have access to higher-level studies. Supported in part by federal Star Schools grants, SERC delivers instructional programming by satellite to schools in member states and cities. See also Star Schools.
Contact: Skip Hinton
Satellite Educational Resources Consortium
P.O. Box 50008
Columbia, SC 29250
803-252-2782
Fax: 803-252-5320
E-mail: serc@serc.org
Web: www.serc.org

Sesame Workshop: This nonprofit television program production house, known for 30 years as Children's Television Workshop (CTW), revolutionized children's television with Sesame Street.
President: Gary Knell
Sesame Workshop/Children's Television Workshop
One Lincoln Plaza
New York, NY 10023
212-595-3456
Web: www.sesameworkshop.org

SGPTV: Sponsorship Group for Public Television is a unit of WGBH that seeks underwriting for the station's national productions and those of Sesame Workshop. It was created when WGBH and other major producers pulled out of a joint sales agency, the PBS Sponsorship Group.
617-300-3787

SIP: Station Independence Program is the former name of FRP (Fundraising Programming), a PBS office that provides pledge specials, research and promotional material to public TV stations to help with on-air fundraising drives. SIP was established in 1974. See FRP.

SIPP: The Station Independents Partnership Production fund of ITVS provided matching production grants (up to $50,000 each) to production partnerships between public TV stations and independent producers. See LInCS.

SMPTE: The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers is an organization of visual arts professionals that works to establish technical standards for lighting, equipment and film. SMPTE was founded for the movie industry as SMPE in 1916.
Executive Director: Frederick C. Motts
Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers
595 W. Hartsdale Ave.
White Plains, NY 10607-1824
914-761-1100
Fax: 914-761-3115
E-mail: smpte@smpte.org
Web: www.smpte.org

SPC: PBS's Station Program Cooperative, discontinued in 1990, was an annual program market that brought together station funding for major national programs. In the six-month-long process, stations "voted" to buy programs, and those that drew the greatest "buying power" became part of the "universal buy." Other programs had to charge higher prices per station. PBS now delegates most of this authority to staff programmers.

SPR: Southern Public Radio is the regional organization that represents public radio stations in the Southeast; it was created after SECA discontinued radio activities.
David Spizale
Southern Public Radio
c/o KRVS
P.O Box 42171
Lafayette, LA 70504

SRG: Tom Thomas and Theresa Clifford, who helped form the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, organized the Station Resource Group in 1984 to represent member public radio stations on national issues. During NPR's 1980s financial crisis, SRG helped define the structure that now gives most of CPB's radio funds directly to the stations rather than to NPR. It is now building a capital fund to enable the expansion of public radio into markets where it is underrepresented. SRG member stations collaborate on development, planning and representation activities.
Co-CEOs: Theresa R. Clifford and Thomas J. Thomas
Station Resource Group
6935 Laurel Ave., Suite 202
Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-2617
Fax: 301-270-2618
E-mail: tclifford@srg.org or tthomas@srg.org
Web: www.srg.org

SSA: Noel Smith, as station manager of KNCT-TV, Killeen, Tex., founded the Small Station Association in 1987 to serve as a forum for small public TV stations (with annual budgets of $2 million or less).
National Coordinator: Chet Tomczyk
Small Station Association
c/o WTVP
1501 W. Bradley Ave.
Peoria, IL 61625-0001
309-677-2789
E-mail: chet_tomczyk@wtvp.pbs.org

Star Schools Program: The U.S. Department of Education's Star Schools Program, authorized in 1988, is one of the largest groups of public and private partners striving to build educators' capacity to make effective use of the information superhighway. The program encourages improved instruction in math, science, reading and other subjects and to serve underserved populations, such as those with low incomes, physical disabilities and limited English proficiency.
Star Schools Program
Office of Educational Research and Development
Learning Technologies Division
U.S. Department of Education
555 New Jersey Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20208-5645
202-219-2186
Fax: 202-208-4042
Web: www.ed.gov/prog_info/StarSchools
E-mail: Joseph_Wilkes@ed.gov

Telstar 401: This AT&T satellite was the prime delivery vehicle for public television services until it failed in January 1997. Most feeds were switched to Telstar 402R before moving to General Electric's GE-3 and GE-1 satellites in October 1997.

TRAC Media Services: Nielsen audience and market data for public TV programs were not regularly analyzed until 1979. The Television Rating Analysis Consortium was organized by the Pacific Mountain Network for the purpose. TRAC "crunches the numbers" for public TV stations and other public broadcasters, and conducts research and development to improve on-air pledging effectiveness. The private company, now independent of PMN, also serves as secretariat for the Public Television Programmers Association (PTPA) and holds several annual events for station programmers.
Co-directors: Judith and David LeRoy
TRAC Media Services
P.O. Box 65120
Tucson, AZ 85728
520-299-1866
Fax: 520-577-6077
E-mail: info@tracmedia.com
Web: www.tracmedia.com

TSL: Time Spent Listening is a measurement of the radio audience, the hours and minutes that the average listener spends with one or all radio stations during a given time period.

TVO: TVOntario is the government-funded educational broadcasting authority in Ontario. It is one of North America's largest producers of children's, science and documentary programs.

• TVOntario
  P.O. Box 200, Station Q
  Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4T 2TI
  800-613-0513, 416-484-2600
  Web: www.tvo.org
• TVOntario U.S. Office
  1140 Kildaire Farm Road
  Suite 308
  Cary, NC 27511
  800-331-9566
  U.S. Manager of Sales: Beth Garrett

URL: The Uniform Resource Locator is the Internet address of a web page, image or other file on the Internet.

U:SA: The University:Station Alliance was formed in 2000 to strengthen public radio by creating "a support system for stations licensed to universities," according to its statement of purpose. Though it was started at the national level, the alliance is developing grassroots activities to improve the relationships between universities and their stations.
Executive Director: Linda C. Carr
University:Station Alliance
St. James Center
121 N. Jefferson
St. James, MO 65559
573-265-8615
Fax: 573-265-6035
E-mail: carrcom@rollanet.org
Web: www.us-alliance.org

USPTV IC: The U.S. Public Television International Consortium was created in 1987 and disbanded 10 years later. It was developed to maintain ties with public broadcasters overseas for joint development and production of programs. The Pacific Rim Co-Production Association (PacRim), the Atlantic Co-Production Alliance and the Latin American Initiative were parts of the consortium; the groups included U.S. and foreign public broadcasters.

VBI: The Vertical Blanking Interval is a portion of the TV signal that carries, instead of picture or sound, such additional information as closed captioning, stock prices and other data. The VBI consists of the first 21 lines of each of the two interlaced fields that make up the TV picture. Line 21 is designated to carry captioning data.

VOD: Video on demand is a service that some observers believe will add nearly limitless variety to cable and other addressable delivery platforms. The viewer can choose a program among many on a long menu and see it at any time.

VSAT: Very Small Aperture Terminal is a two-way satellite technology that transmits and receives computer data and other narrow-bandwidth material. In the reconstruction of public TV's satellite system, PBS acquired VSAT equipment for all public TV stations to give them interactive capability, but the Internet now plays that role.

VSB: 8-VSB (8 Level Vestigial Side Band) is the modulation scheme chosen by the industry-wide Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service, recommended by ATSC and adopted by the FCC for DTV broadcasting in the U.S. After limited tests that found weak reception with indoor antennas, Sinclair Broadcast Group and other companies petitioned the FCC in October 1999 to permit DTV broadcasters to use COFDM, a technology used in Europe, as well as 8-VSB. The FCC dismissed the petition in February 2000, but said it would conduct tests.

WARC: The World Administrative Radio Conference is sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union, a worldwide association of national broadcasting authorities that regulates technical aspects of international broadcasting. WARCs are held irregularly to address issues in communications technology.

WCPR: West Coast Public Radio, organized in 1983, was succeeded by Western States Public Radio. See below.

WICI: Women in Communications Inc. has been reorganized as the Association for Women in Communications. See AWC.

WIT: Western Instructional Television is a for-profit company started in 1970. Unlike any other instructional TV distributor, most of its programming is produced in-house.
President: Donna Matson
Western Instructional Television
1438 N. Gower Street
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323-466-8601
Fax: 323-466-8895

WPR: Western Public Radio is the leading training center for public radio producers and production personnel. The nonprofit WPR was started by former NPR West Coast News Editor Leo C. Lee in 1987 with a Markle Foundation grant. After Lee's death in 1994, WPR and NFCB shared offices. NFCB has since moved out.
Western Public Radio
Fort Mason Center, Building D
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-771-1160
Web: www.nfcb.org/services/wpr.jsp

WRN: World Radio Network, based in London, distributes by satellite programs from more than 20 radio broadcasters, including NPR, PRI, ABC Australia and Radio Netherlands. WRN1 is available in North America via the Galaxy 5 satellite for rebroadcast without charge on AM and FM stations and on cable. WRN1 is available in Europe on the Astra satellite; in Africa and the Middle East on Intelsat 707; and in Asia and the Pacific on AsiaSat2.
Director: Karl Miosga
World Radio Network
P.O. Box 1212
London SW8 2ZF, U.K.
+44-20-7896-9000
Fax: +44-20-7896-9007
E-mail: email@wrn.org
Web: www.wrn.org

WSPR: Western States Public Radio succeeds West Coast Public Radio (founded 1983), Rocky Mountain Public Radio and California Public Radio.
President: Ron Kramer
Western States Public Radio
c/o Jefferson Public Radio
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541-552-6301 or 800-782-6191
Website: www.wspr.org
E-mail: rkramer@jeffnet.org

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