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 A new home for UNC-TV
by Tom Campbell
April 16, 2009
A last minute budget trick by our Senate would move the state’s public television network from the University of North Carolina to the NC School of the Arts. While Senator Linda Garrou’s slight-of-hand isn’t likely to slip through the House, a move to the School of the Arts would be disastrous. Nevertheless, the subject is worth discussing.
Educational television, as it was called at the time, started in 1955 with grand visions by William Friday, Billy Carmichael, and Kay Kyser. As UNC President, Friday coaxed the General Assembly for funding to build towers and transmitters across the state. It made sense for the network to be owned and governed by the university then, but it is time to re-examine the value of this relationship.
Without demeaning UNC-TV it is accurate to say the network has never achieved its potential. It says something when the most popular and significant locally produced show is Friday’s North Carolina People, a one-on-one interview program.
UNC-TV’s biggest problems concern funding, governance and programming. Being owned and governed by the university puts severe constraints on programming that might be critical of either the university or the legislature. Senator Garrou’s special provision makes the point. We’re told she wanted the network to air programs from the School of the Arts and was irked when informed what it would cost while simultaneously asked for funding help. She attempted to get her way through hard-ball power politics. Nobody at UNC-TV, the University or the General Assembly will admit to deferential treatment of the legislature or university, but I worked for the network for four years and can tell you it is true.
UNC-TV has never had the budgets or the independence to produce quality public policy discussions, cutting-edge issues programs or other offerings. Our public television network is an incredible asset, delivering a state-of-the-art digital broadcasting signal to 95 percent of the populous of our state, the only true over-the-air statewide communications network. In addition to national PBS programming we could devote a channel exclusively to educational programs, another to full legislative coverage and still have capacity for more programming, both local and national. We have the facilities, we have the talent. What we don’t have is the funding and governance structure to achieve these goals.
Our state could follow the lead of others in setting up an independent public broadcasting authority, governed by an autonomous appointed board. Since it is unrealistic to believe UNC-TV will be self-supporting, due to underwriting and advertising restraints, we should establish a dedicated revenue stream from the state, perhaps a per-capita funding formula not subject to legislative whims.
It is time to consider a new home for UNC-TV, but it should be done only after a reasoned and independent study that, among other things, determines how the citizens of our state will benefit from such a move. It is called public television for a reason. |
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