June 29, 2012 - Headlines

Like many of you, I am exhausted by yesterday's media circus over the Supreme Court decision on Obaamacare and the AG Holder contempt hearing.  The former provided good theater and political intrigued.  The latter demonstrated that circus clowns are still a little scary and creepy (Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) speech).

I did find one article to share about the future debate on Obamacare.  Other than that, I will only comment on posts on Google+ throughout the day and weekend.

Future of Debate on Obabacare

As a media professional, I can truly say that the media world is just plain crazy. Many years ago I saw an ad for a mid-level manger position at a station in New England.  The ad ending by saying, "Being crazy is an asset."  It was something to that affect, but definitely included the word crazy.

Currently, the craziest part of the industry is public broadcasting, specifically public television.  Many of the executives at PBS, CPB, and NPR believe they will continue to receive massive amounts of Federal support.  Station leaders have discovered the state funding well is dry or drying up.  The only recourse for many stations is to layoff people, forgo the purchase of programming and equipment, let transmission systems limp along at reduced power, and look for unicorns.  Station leaders often wonder, some out loud, why they should pay PBS one-third of their Federal funding on a program service that with very few exceptions has fewer viewers than many cable networks.

The recent airing of a mini-series on the Hatfield and McCoy feud on History was something PBS should have jumped at.  They didn't.  None of the major producing stations jumped either.  If PBS would have looked at it, it would have been given to Ken Burns and not been the highly dramatic series it was, but a multi-hour insomnia cure.

CPB recently released the results of a study created by Booz Co. on the scenario for stations when Federal funding is ended for public broadcasting.

The study which appears to be accurate based on my contacts with station leaders and PTV vendors.  The study reveals that 130 stations are at "high risk" for closure.  The study shows that 54 television and 76 radio stations would be affected and would not be able to find additional funding to maintain operations.

I know the loyal viewers and listeners would say that Federal funding is absolutely necessary to keep this valuable service.  Opponents would say these stations are poorly managed from an operational and financial model.  I would agree with the latter.  The failure of these stations or the reduction of their service to a community or region is due to overdependent on government funding.  Many stations have become complacent about government funding and are now feeling the heat in many states. 

States like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Rhode Island, Idaho, Indiana, and Ohio have all made cuts to public broadcasting.

The study has many interesting points and can be found here.

That's it for now.