The Roanoke Times

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James Baum, president and CEO, Blue Ridge PBS

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

At the WBRA studio in Roanoke, executive producer and host Julie Newman interviews Dr. Aubrey Knight for a segment of "HealthQuest."

Glenn Gleixner, general manager, WVTF public radio

At a WVTF studio in Roanoke, broadcaster Fred Echols prepares for the local portion of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

James Baum flipped on the wide-screen, high-definition television in his conference room and played a video about Virginia's state parks. Images of Claytor Lake and the ponies of Grayson Highlands State Park rolled on-screen as a female narrator said:

"Coming to public television across the commonwealth in 2011 is the story of how this system, born in one of our nation's darkest periods, has offered relaxation, exploration, exhilaration and just plain family fun for visitors for 75 years."

Blue Ridge PBS, the Roanoke public television station Baum manages, is producing an hour-long documentary about the park system's 75th anniversary that will air statewide this summer.

"Who else is going to do this?" Baum asked after the slick-looking, three-minute documentary trailer ended.

In his opinion, no commercial broadcaster will.

And if funding cuts to public broadcasting make their way into the federal and state budgets, neither will Blue Ridge PBS, he said.

"Will we go off the air? No," Baum said. "Will we make cuts that people notice? Yes."

The loss of state funds could mean fewer local programs such as "JobQuest," an employment advice program that featured job listings and tips for getting hired. The 15-month series, which ended last year, was produced with commercial station WDBJ (Channel 7) and The Roanoke Times. "JobQuest" won several national awards and a regional Emmy award.

Likewise, at Roanoke-based public radio station WVTF-FM (89.1), general manager Glenn Gleixner is worried about the potential loss of funding. Locally produced programs such as "Evening Edition" and its Radio Reading Service for vision-impaired listeners could be affected. Station management will take a hard look at whether it can afford national programs such as "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Car Talk," shows Gleixner called "the lifeblood of public radio."

"Without state support, we will have to make cutbacks," Gleixner said. "Our budget has no frills, and curtailing our services is a serious possibility if we lose state support."

"If" is the operative word. In fact, they could stand to gain. While the House budget slashes funding for public broadcasting by $2 million (about 50 percent), the state Senate's budget actually increases funding for public broadcasting by $600,000. If budget conferees meet somewhere in the middle, however, the funding would still likely be reduced.

At the federal level, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed eliminating funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of sweeping federal budget cuts. President Obama's own budget, however, increased funding for the CPB, including an extra $6 million to help local TV and radio stations go digital.

In other words, stay tuned.

Blue Ridge PBS, which has a $3.5 million annual budget, receives about 20 percent of its funding from the state and another 20 percent from federal funds. WVTF, which has about a $3 million budget, gets 4 percent from the state and 10 percent from federal money.

"They're not going to balance the budget by cutting us," Baum said. "That's not what this is about. It's about ideology."

Gleixner agrees.

"We have let our detractors define us," he said.

Caught in the middle

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967, but the roots of educational and public broadcasting go back to the early days of radio, when communities, schools and churches started their own services, according to Radford University communications professor Bill Kovarik.

"Federal licensing for commercial stations basically pushed all those educational stations off the air," said Kovarik, who has written a media history textbook titled "Revolutions in Communication."

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 established the nonprofit CPB, which combined for a while with the then-existing, privately funded National Educational Television network. The intent was to provide a consistent funding stream for educational programming, which the limited number of commercial channels were not providing.

In 1970, the Public Broadcasting Service -- PBS -- was founded. National Public Radio was founded the same year.

Public broadcasters have often found themselves in the political cross hairs, although mostly at the national level. President Nixon tried to influence PBS programming in its early days, with little success. During the George W. Bush administration, CPB head Kenneth Tomlinson pushed for conservative programming and hired a consultant who determined that public TV and radio were liberally biased, although the findings were criticized by PBS and NPR.

Recently, conservatives were incensed by the firing of NPR news analyst Juan Williams, who also works for Fox News, after he made comments that his radio bosses deemed offensive to Muslims.

"There are folks in high places who want to defund it," said David Bailey, a Richmond-based lobbyist who works on behalf of Virginia's public TV stations. "But there is very strong support for public broadcasting."

According to Public Policy Polling's "TV News Trust Poll" released in January, PBS came out on top, with 50 percent of respondents trusting it and 30 percent distrusting it.

The modern era

In an age of satellite TV and radio, digital channels and even the Internet, some leaders believe that the necessity for publicly funding TV and radio programming has passed. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is one of those people.

In December, McDonnell singled out state support for public broadcasting as an item that should eventually be struck from the budget.

"Public broadcasting is a wonderful resource, providing quality programming that is cherished by many," McDonnell said. "However, in our modern media world there are thousands upon thousands of content providers operating in the free market."

Some top House budget writers agree. Said House Majority Leader Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, a member of the House budget negotiating team: "I just think times have really changed. There's so many stations. I mean you've got the History Channel, you've got the Discovery Channel, you have different types of stations that somewhat offer what public broadcasting offers. ... I have nothing against public broadcasting. I even watch 'Antiques Roadshow' [on PBS]. But I just don't think it rises to that level anymore."

Bailey, the Richmond lobbyist, said that public TV's education programs, from "Sesame Street" to "Sid the Science Kid," provide necessary alternatives to network and cable programming.

"Public broadcasting has an educational mission not yet matched by what you find on channels you get over the Internet," Bailey said. "Virginia is interested in creating more college graduates, and college graduates depend on the learning that children get early on. That makes this type of programming a core service of the state government."

Virginia has five state-supported television stations and five state-supported radio stations, not including the Allegheny Mountain Radio network, which receives some state money. McDonnell reduced grants to public broadcasting stations by $957,872 and cut funding for educational telecommunications and radio reading services by $1.1 million. The House budget went along with those reductions.

The Senate budget reduced the grants by about $200,000 but increased the educational money by more than $800,000.

At least one Republican delegate supports state funding for public broadcasting -- for now. Del. Charles Poindexter, R-Franklin County, said that many of his rural constituents lack broadband Internet access and do not have the same media options available in high-population regions.

He submitted a budget amendment to restore funds for the service, but it was left out of the House version of the budget. Poindexter, a member of the House budget-writing committee, said he hopes some funding will be restored in negotiations between the House and Senate, although he thinks the subsidy should eventually be eliminated.

Getting voices heard

Gleixner noted the irony in how the only Roanoke radio station that carried Gov. McDonnell's speech proposing the end of public broadcast funding was the public radio station.

"We were the only ones who got his words out, so people could hear them for themselves, unfiltered," Gleixner said.

Over the years, WVTF has expanded its reach from Richmond to the coalfields thanks to eight transmitters and 14 translators (also called relay stations, which stretch the signal farther than the original tower can transmit).

WVTF, which has 19 full-time employees plus a handful of part-timers and contract employees, entered the Richmond market a few months ago by obtaining a low-power translator that picks up the signal from its Charlottesville tower.

Even though Roanokers now must endure the Richmond weather forecast in the mornings and afternoons, Gleixner said the station could not turn down the opportunity to pump its programming into Richmond at virtually no extra cost. WVTF already is receiving contributions from listeners in Richmond, he said, which the station sorely needs. All told, the station covers an area where 1.3 million people live.

The station's budget has been roughly flat for several years at about $3 million, more than half of which comes through listener donations.

Gleixner said he does not believe that commercial radio -- which has significantly reduced local news programming over the past two decades -- will fill the educational and journalism void should WVTF lose funding.

"Nowhere else on the radio dial can one find the breadth and depth of our coverage both regionally and nationally," he said.

Kovarik, the Radford professor who has written about media history, said that the high number of media outlets does not mean there is not a need for public funding for broadcasting.

"Governor McDonnell is right in that there are a lot of choices in the free market," Kovarik said. "But just because there are a lot of voices out there doesn't mean that there are voices that validate information or give us perspective or high-quality programming. I don't see anybody else doing what public broadcasting does. I think it's needed."

Virginia's budget process will be completed this week. The federal budget won't be voted on until summer.

"I am so willing to take on this fight today," said Baum. "A robust public media service in America is part of the fabric of our country. It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. What should matter is that there is a place on the dial where children can go and be safe and adults can be informed, inspired and educated. We treat our viewers as citizens, not as consumers."

Staff writer Michael Sluss contributed information for this story.