Fields' (left) latest goal was to introduce a bill in February, but the telecom bill could delay that. At right: Edward Markey, ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.Originally published in Current, Jan. 15, 1996
By Steve Behrens
Rep. Jack Fields (R-Tex.), the House subcommittee chairman who's likely to write the next version of the Public Broadcasting Act, accepts the proposal of a trust fund to finance public TV and radio, but still balks at most ideas for raising money for that fund.
Fields' (left) latest goal was to introduce a bill in February, but the telecom bill could delay that. At right: Edward Markey, ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.
Even so, pubcasters hailed the welcome news. An NPR memo to stations observed that both Fields and his Senate counterpart Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), chairmen of the two communications subcommittees, have expressed support for the trust fund suggested by pubcasters.
Fields said he would propose to establish a trust fund in a bill next month and hold hearings on the bill soon after introduction. The timetable may slip, however, if the two chambers of Congress can't resolve differences on the big telecommunications bill that will deregulate the cable TV and telephone industries.
To endow the trust fund, Fields indicated that he'd approve of letting public broadcasting generate revenue from vacant spectrum already reserved for noncommercial use, according to pubcasters who met with him Dec. 21 [1995].
The value of that spectrum falls far short of the $4 billion that pubcasting lobbyists are seeking to capitalize the trust fund, however. Fields estimated that the vacant spectrum would provide revenue of about $1 billion, says David Brugger, president of America's Public Television Stations, while a study for APTS by the Washington consulting firm CompassRose International Inc. estimates that its value would be negligible.
Most vacant channel allocations--the asset in question--are in very sparsely populated parts of the country and have limited value, commercial or noncommercial.
Fields rejects the major active hope for capitalizing the trust fund, proposed by APTS, NPR, PBS and Public Radio International: letting pubcasters generate revenue from surplus ATV ("advanced television'') channels that the FCC plans to give TV broadcasters for the transition to digital transmission.
Under the pubcasters' proposal, the trust fund would be endowed largely by revenue generated by two spectrum assets:
Under the proposal, the trust fund would continue to earn revenue from these assets until it has built up an endowment--$4 billion is the often cited figure--capable of paying out annual interest equal to present appropriations to CPB.
Fields "was basically saying those numbers aren't in the cards,'' recalls a station manager who was present in the Dec. 21 meeting with Fields, Rep. Scott Klug (R-Wis.) and colleagues from stations and national organizations.
The two subcommittee members "seemed to think we needed to cut down on the bureaucracy somehow,'' says the manager. CPB President Richard Carlson "exclained they had already cut their staff 25 percent, and they said, yeah, but maybe we have to cut some more.''
The congressmen reportedly said several times that pubcasters would not need as much federal money since CPB is proposing to hand out only one TV station grant per market in the future.
Some station people who attended the meeting with Fields and Klug were somewhat startled to hear a Republican leader talking favorably about the proposed new structure for subsidizing public broadcasting.
"The idea of the trust fund was discussed as if it were not controversial, that it will be the next iteration, and we're only arguing about [funding] mechanisms,'' remarks Kim Hodgson, NPR vice chairman and g.m. of WAMU-FM in Washington. "That was quite extraordinary.''
Constituent support for continued federal aid to public broadcasting was expressed so forcefully last year, Hodgson believes, that CPB funding became a "bad issue'' for budget-cutting congressmen to pursue.
"The meeting was full of very positive statements about public broadcasting,'' Hodgson recalls. "Fields once referred to it as a national treasure.''
"I am skeptical,'' says David Dial, president of WNIN in Evansville, Ind., and a leader of the smaller public TV stations. "I think if he could zero us out tomorrow, he would. But that's only my gut feeling.''
Politicians who accept the trust fund get some political cover and "the appearance of a winning solution,'' comments Hodgson. "The only problem is, to succeed it needs adequate funding.''
The subcommittee staff had estimated that leasing or auctioning vacant spectrum could raise $1.5 billion, which NPR President Del Lewis replied was not enough to meet the trust fund's objectives, Hodgson recalls.
Fields "made a particular point of saying, 'We can't take anything out of the money that's meant for deficit reduction and we can't do anything that looks like a tax,' '' according to Hodgson.
Fields indicated he was not willing to oppose proposals that stations be given the option of carrying or rejecting advertising, while most pubcasters in attendance opposed the idea, according to witnesses.
"Rep. Fields said, 'Well, it's not that we're telling you to advertise. It's that we don't think we should be in a position of telling you that you can't,' '' according to Hodgson.
It's not clear yet whether some pubcasters will continue pushing Fields to amend the Public Broadcasting Act to permit advertising as a local option.
After the holidays, public TV leaders met in snowbound Washington, D.C., to determine what they'll seek in terms of underwriting or advertising guidelines. APTS huddled with its Station Legislative Advisory Group on Jan. 7-8 [1996] to work out compromise positions on several issues, according to Brugger. He declined to discuss the proposed resolutions until participants in the meeting had briefed all station managers.
One other such issue, for example, is how "duopolies''--licensees that operate two public TV stations in a market--will be treated under the proposed trust fund. At public TV's Fall Planning Meeting last November, several duopoly managers objected to the APTS-endorsed plan that only one ATV channel per market would be used for public TV programming and the rest would be be controlled by the trust fund and used to generate an endowment.
Fields seemed interested in finishing work on the public broadcasting bill before he retires from the House at the end of the year, according to pubcasters who met with him, but at least some of them would prefer that the task would fall to his successor as chair of the telecom subcommittee.
"I think part of our strategy should be to keep dodging the bullet until after he leaves,'' says Dial. "He talks about [offering] a better deal, but the fact of the matter is he's not offering much of anything. ... The billion and a half is the olive branch he's holding out, but it's the slow way to death.'' Dial fears the declining federal contribution would lead the system to turn to advertising and noncommercial broadcasting would cease to exist.
Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio) is next in line for the chairmanship in the subcommittee, but W.J. (Billy) Tauzin (R-La.) is reportedly interested in the post as well. Tauzin has greater seniority, but was a Democrat until recently.
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