Can someone please identify the "public" in this organizational chart?
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Submitted by Medea on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 18:37
At a faculty meeting I attended on Tuesday, Dean Wright presented the following Powerpoint to explain
the rationale behind his decision to reorganize the stations. It is now abundantly clear that there is no
longer a public broadcasting station. This merging of radio and TV entities will surely jeopardize UF's ability
to retain its PBS license. Perhaps someone with more experience in this area can weigh in?
No such thing as a PBS (or NPR) license.
The combining of radio and TV stations is a fairly common practice in the public broadcasting world -- they are called "joint licensees." WFME/Orlando and WJCT/Jacksonville are just two area examples of such entities. PBS and NPR are membership organizations and have little say in the programming and operational decisions made by local stations.
The FCC issues the non-commercial license to TV and radio stations. (Did you know that most religious broadcasters are also licensed as non-commercial stations?)
As long as WUFT TV & FM both operate within the parameters of the FCC non-commercial rules, they may keep their license.
The FCC long ago declined to weigh in on local programming matters -- as when a station changes format so any appeal to them would be moot.