Scarcity, Abundance, and Public Broadcasting

To borrow a phrase from the late Edward R Murrow, “This I believe:” The United States is a great country. I may strenuously disagree with our leaders and with my fellow Americans from time to time, but I never, ever doubt that America is great.

I admit that I’m in a privileged place, as manager of a public radio and media organization, but…just look around. Our country is beautiful, with plentiful natural resources and a resilient and resourceful population. The diversity of our culture, the ingenuity of our people, the world that surrounds us…it’s stunning. Most of us are rich in so many ways.

That’s why it makes my blood boil when I hear people propose that as a nation the money we spend on public broadcasting would be better spent to “fund the food stamp program” or “pay down the national debt.”

This time it’s mostly coming from conservatives, but we used to hear it from liberals too. The line I remember the most is, “Why are we wasting money on a space program instead of solving our problems here on Earth?”

It’s an example of the “scarcity principle” in action. The roots of the scarcity principle are fear and greed. It’s the idea is that our resources are so woefully limited that if we share what we have with others, even for a common good, we will somehow lose.

It doesn’t make sense. Our country isn’t poor. It is brimming with abundance. Can each of us afford $1.38 per year in tax dollars to operate the United States’ public broadcasting system, and keep public radio stations like KAXE on the air? Yes. Heck, if we want to, we could do that AND end hunger in our country AND send a manned expedition to Mars. We can do almost anything if we really want to—if we have the will.

We are a great nation. What we can do together is so much more than any of us can do alone. This is what governing and leadership are all about.

Funding for public broadcasting should not be held up “against” hunger or our country’s economic integrity. Financially, public broadcasting is a small thing, but what it adds to the quality of our lives and our communities is huge.

Maggie Montgomery, General Manager

Northern Community Radido

Help Save PTFP!

PTFP is an acronym for a federal program: the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program. PTFP is in trouble.

PTFP is the place public radio and television stations go to apply for federal funds to help build new stations. It also keeps existing stations on the air when the equipment wears out, and helps public radio stations prepare for or recover from hurricanes, floods or other natural disasters.

It is a good program. It has just 3 employees and low overhead. PTFP helped KAXE replace an ailing transmitter in the past, and we hope it will help us build KBXE in the future. It is a small federal program; a drop in the proverbial budgetary bucket. PTFP received a total $44 million in 2011, most of which will be distributed to public radio and television stations.

Yet, for some reason, PTFP has been targeted as one of only 4 programs in the whole government as examples of what the President wants to line item veto this year. Efforts to cancel the program have come from both Democrats and Republicans in congress. They have linked cancellation of PTFP with lowering the deficit.

At the root of this, there seems to be general misunderstanding about PTFP. Some people think it is redundant, because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds many aspects of public broadcasting, and has recently provided funding for digital conversion.

Unlike the CPB, the PTFP doesn’t only fund equipment if you're converting a station to HD radio or digital TV. PTFP exists to build stations. PTFP is the only place organizations like Northern Community Radio can go for federal funds to buy actual, basic broadcast equipment. The PTFP’s highest priority is to make sure public broadcasting is available to people everywhere in the United States. It won’t pay for everything—the program requires every applicant to leverage public money with matching private funds.

In 2007, the FCC opened what is probably the last window for applications for new noncommercial broadcast licenses ever (because the FM spectrum is pretty much completely full now). They granted hundreds of new construction permits, many to grassroots organizations—community licensees, colleges, nonprofits and American Indian groups, to name a few. Most of these new stations are not built yet. A loss of the PTFP right now will mean an irreplaceable loss in new community radio stations because the stations in the pipeline—that had counted on PTFP for help—may not be able to find enough money to build. If they can’t build in time, their licenses will go to wealthier organizations that can, and it is likely that no new licensing opportunity will ever come again.

This is a critical issue for all small and community-based radio stations in the public radio system. You can help! Here is a link to a letter you can send to your congressional representatives (by email or printable letter) about PTFP. It is on an NPR website, the Public Radio Action Center (when you fill in the identifying information, most of you will be a “non-station advocate.”)

Here is a link to write to your local congressperson: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

And another link to write to your senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Or, call KAXE if you want more information, and ask to talk to me! 218/326-1234.

-Maggie Montgomery, General Manager
Northern Community Radio