Audiences of public broadcasting: A Current Briefing looks at the listeners and viewers, with statistics and links to pertinent Current articles: Calls and letters from the audience. How public TV and radio compare with other media. Trouble signs in audience pledging trends. The youngest audience in TV. The oldest audience in TV (the late Lawrence Welk's). Groupies, noncommercial-style. The public TV stations that go for (relatively good) ratings and get them. And the changing economics of small audiences.

American Program Television (formerly APS): The second largest program distributor in public TV, with roots that go back before the start of PBS, hired former New Hampshire programmer Cynthia Fenneman as is fourth president in 2000. Her predecessor Joe Zesbaugh took the job in 1998, when the Boston-based company was already changing its traditional m.o. The distributor traditionally has been so low-key that until recently it didn't have a logo to identify its programs, which include the pop music series Sessions at West 54th.

Crime in public broadcasting: Public broadcasters as a group may wear halos, at least compared with some folks, but a few have been accused, admitted or convicted thieves. In Chicago, a former bill-payer at WTTW was charged with embezzlement in March after the station estimated $260,000 was missing. In New York, a young employee of WNYC went to jail after selling donor information to an identity-theft ring. In northern California and Philadelphia, licensee officials admitted offenses such as pocketing payments to nonexistent vendors.

Devillier Donegan alliance with PBS: With well-financed cable channels competing for documentaries, PBS has allied with  Devillier Donegan Enterprises, a subsidiary of Disney/ABC founded by two former PBS programmers, that not only makes deals but also finances half the cost. The DDE-PBS alliance does some of what the network was hoping to achieve with a failed pact with Reader's Digest Association.

Station facilities: The video images on the facade of WGBH's planned headquarters probably won't move around very much because both the station and a Boston city agency that will consider the proposal want to avoid distracting drivers on an adjacent turnpike. WGBH is in the middle of a multiyear process of moving public broadcasting's largest staff to a new headquarters in the Brighton neighborhood. Its one of a number of public TV stations that have built or planned new homes, often stepping up from rehabbed manufacturing plants and schools to buildings designed to look like media factories and that improve interaction with their communities. Cleveland's WVIZ-WCPN combo agreed to renovate a building in the theater district, and Connecticut Public Broadcasting to move to a new site in Hartford.

Fred Friendly: a major figure in public TV's early life: The legendary CBS News producer, who died in March 1998, left a major legacy for public TV, pushing for and providing funding for innovations in public TV as a Ford Foundation advisor and then inventing the series of "what-if" issue discussions that now carry his name.

Georgia Public Broadcasting — shake-up: In 1999, the governor of Georgia ousted Werner Rogers, the director of the state public TV and radio networks, and all of the appointed commission members that oversaw it, after the state auditor's office found mismanagement and red ink. The new network boss, former state auditor Claude Vickers, ousted several top managers soon after and fired six more early in 2000.

History of public broadcasting: The impressive, judicious man who headed public broadcasting's major organization during its ramp-up to national prominence and federal aid, William G. Harley, died in November 1998 at the age of 87. He moved NAEB to Washington, where it became the center of a push for federal aid, resulting in the Carnegie Commission and CPB. An earlier obituary tells how Jerrold Sandler and NAEB's radio division led a last-minute drive to put secure aid for radio in a bill that had been developed solely at television. And Harley himself tells of the key role played by the late LBJ aide Douglass Cater in establishing public broadcasting. See also Current's updated book, A History of Public Broadcasting.

Idaho Public Television controversy with legislators, 1999-2001: By February 2001, public hearings, legislative committees and its licensee board were showing support for keeping Idaho Public Television within the state government. Network manager Peter Morrill said public opinion and an outside financial study released in January 2001 helped turn the tide against the privatization campaign. That campaign -- which grew out of conservative complaints about gay programs carried by the network -- gained momentum last summer with an endorsement by the state Republican party.

KCTS, Seattle: Washington state's biggest public TV station run deficits six of seven recent years and cut more than a third of its staff over that period. The station, which suffers from the problems of a national program producer as well as a local station, may need to cut deeper to meet a no-deficits mandate from its board. The station, meanwhile, has been technological leader, signing on the first public DTV station and producing much of PBS's high-definition programming.

Multiple ("overlap") stations per market: Is it a blessing or a curse to have more than one public TV station on your dial? Many of the bigger stations say it undercuts them and outrages politicians. But CPB and PBS did working for a year or so with the smaller "overlap" stations to develop a second stream of national programming to make them a more valuable, nonduplicative asset for viewers. Such effortscould be a major turnaround from the traditional view in a field where each station developed locally with little guidance from national authorities. But early in 2000, PBS backed out of the second channel (PBS-2) project, citing other projects as higher priorities. CPB also has been active in encouraging cost-saving collaborations (such as joint master control rooms) between stations in a market.

Multiple stations per market — selling off: Several public TV operations that had dual stations in the same cities ("duopolies") have chosen to sell off their second channels for cash. The two latest are in the Albany, N.Y., area and in Oklahoma City. Earlier were Pittsburgh and Buffalo. And New York's city government sold its public TV channel, WNYC.

Outreach by public TV: Late in 2000, CPB announced it will back a new National Center for Outreach, based at Wisconsin PTV, succeeding the 14-year-old Public Television Outreach Alliance, based at five other stations. The change comes as producers like Bill Moyers have taken the lead in developing outreach campaigns. Moyers' project, On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying, spent as much on outreach as on production to make sure the program would be seen and productive for viewers. Past outreach projects, including a Moyers series on at-risk children, have closely evaluated their results — in part, to convince funders that they work. WGBH, which specializes in outreach to teachers, can cite statistics on that question.

PBS business plan: PBS's multiyear plan aims to reverse declines in stations' audience and membership, investing heavily in program development to differentiate public TV from cable channels. The network's board proposed a 5 percent increase in fees to stations. Management already began reallocating resources, laying off 60 employees at network headquarters in Alexandria, Va. In her first year in office, PBS President Pat Mitchell qualified for the nickname "Our Lady of Perpetual Motion," as she rushed around the country, building consensus for changes in the primetime schedule. In the meantime, she ordered changes in procedures to make it easier for independent producers to navigate the "maze" of program submission.

PBS-2 channel: See Multiple ("overlap") stations

PBS presidency: The network's first four presidents were station managers from Massachusetts and Utah, a marketing man and a Washington insider, but now for the first time it has a TV producer at its helm. Pat Mitchell, appointed in February 2000, is the prize-winning chief exec of Ted Turner's documentary unit for CNN/Time Inc. Television. She succeeded Ervin Duggan, who served 1994-99.

PBS programming chief: In 1989, CPB agreed to consolidate some of its program funding with PBS's when the network appointed Jennifer Lawson as chief program exec. Lawson served five years, resigning in 1995; PBS looked in vain for a private-sector entrepreneur who would work for PBS wages. The network promoted Kathy Quattrone to the top program position in 1996; she left in 1999.

PBS — No. 2 position passes from Bob Ottenhoff to Beth Wolfe: Maybe he got tired of the job after eight years, or maybe relations soured with the PBS president, Ervin Duggan. Anyhow, PBS's chief operating officer began phasing out his PBS duties as a consultant in mid-1999 and C.F.O. Beth Wolfe took on Ottenhoff's oversight duties as chief administrative officer.

Promotion—PBS as a brand: By what name(s) should public TV call itself? PBS sees advantages in "PBS." Consultants to the network said in 2003 that fundraising would go better for public TV stations that use the PBS brand as part of their local identity.

Promotion — PBS's new image campaign, 2000: PBS has shelved its slogan "If PBS doesn't do it, who will?," acknowledging that it doesn't work when several cable networks offer similar programming. The network will soon begin airing new "positioning" spots using "Stay curious" as a tagline. The spots were produced for PBS by filmmaker Errol Morris. Carole Feld, former promotion chief at the network, talked with Current about the need for a new slogan before she left for a new job at the Motley Fool financial information service.

Promotion — WNET image campaign, 1996: Usually, public TV's pitch to the public is that it's good for you. So the New York City station WNET started telling New Yorkers that it's fun and relaxing to watch, too.

Rural service: In many remote areas, public radio and TV are more important to their audiences than they are in cities and suburbs. Pubcasters have expanded deep into rural areas in the name of universal service, but only recently have they developed a consensus to give extra CPB aid to rural service. Prodded by strong rural voices in Congress, CPB in January 1999 gave final approval to boost aid to public radio in thinly populated areas, where other forms of financial support are sparse. Ten percent of Americans still can't receive public radio. In 1998, CPB put some more money into rural public TV service.

Salaries for executives: If nonprofit stations must earn more of their own revenues, how must should they pay their executives who give them success? And what if their for-profit sister companies start losing money? The issues arose in St. Paul and Dallas over the past year. In St. Paul, Minnesota Public Radio's enormously successful mail-order company had a bad season, while state officials probed its relationship to the network. In both cities, executive salaries became an issue in the press. Top Dallas managers resigned in April, though they gave other reasons for going. In 1998, the Minnesota attorney general's office announced it had found no wrongdoing at the radio network.

Station staff uprisings — Wichita, Palm Beach, Berkeley: After six weeks of active opposition from a majority of his staff, the president of Wichita's public TV station relinquished control in 1996. However, leaders of the revolt were later fired, leading to law suits by two former employees in 1999. The Wichita rebellion recalled earlier staff uprisings in public TV, including a 1992 coup at WXEL in Palm Beach, Fla. In a different scenario — an ongoing struggle over station policy in public radio — national management of the Pacifica Radio chain in July 1999 put the entire staff of Berkeley's KPFA on leave, prompting a rebellion by staff and public supporters.

WQED, Pittsburgh — sale of second channel and financial problems: After trying since 1996, Pittsburgh's WQED Multimedia concluded a deal in 2004 that will let it earn revenues from its second public TV license, WQEX: leasing out the channel to Home Shopping Network's America'sStore channel. When the FCC initially refused to dereserve the educational channel, WQED arranged a channel swap and sale with a religious broadcaster, but that fell through. The FCC approved dereservation in 2002, but another sale faltered. Critics of the station say it should let someone else use the channel for public service if it doesn't want to. The station's revenue hunt began when its national production business collapsed in the early '90s. New President George Miles launched the station's first try to dereserve and sell Channel 16 in 1996, but the FCC ducked the issue later that year and WQED's plan fell through in 2000. (The FCC quickly reconsidered, but had already set off a furor among conservative members of Congress.) WQED tried for a third time to get permission for the sale in 2001.

WNET, the major producing station in New York: WNET experienced a comeback that doubled its national program output in two years. The station's production operation had previously suffered a slump in funding, inspiration and morale during the mid-'90s. The station completed the largest capital campaign in public broadcasting. WNET President Bill Baker discussed the station's plans in a 1998 Q&A.

WNET — relations with arts world: The big station in New York continues to solidify its ties to the region's arts community, announcing in 1998 that it will package a block of largely local arts programming for cable TV in the tri-state area. The station has also won Emmys and a Peabody for its local arts series, City Arts, which calls attention to local stagings and exhibits while exemplifying a new generation of evocative camcorder journalism. The station's major national arts program, Great Performances, is celebrating its 25th anniversary [interview with producer Jac Venza].

WTTW — Network Chicago: The Third City's popular public TV station, WTTW, will invest millions from its ongoing fund drive to expand local production and, starting in 2000, establish a new multimedia identity, Network Chicago.