HOORAY FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
Despite challenges, public TV and radio stand tall.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that it’s easy to be critical. I used to work on a newspaper where criticism was a way of life. Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing. It makes the world go around, so to speak. Well-meaning criticism can alert others to a problem.
But as we know from perusing the internet, criticism can get out of hand.
Sometimes what we need are ideas, not shots across the bow. Take public broadcasting, for example. The federal government removed all funding for public TV and radio, claiming some kind of political bias. At a Congressional hearing held last year, NPR was actually accused of having “a communist agenda” by one representative (the since-departed Marjorie Taylor-Greene).
Now this was a hearing headed by a small group of Republicans with their own political agenda. Only now that the dust has settled, and public broadcasting has been defunded, where are the ideas? Any suggestions? Something called public broadcasting needs to involve public input, not political grandstanding.
First, one has to survey the field to see where public TV and radio can fit in. There’s an awful lot of TV out there handling what once was the exclusive province of PBS. I’m talking about cooking, travel, history, and science shows that I remember from a different era. I’m not writing those categories off, but when you’ve got a Food Network, a Travel Network, and Netflix running documentaries every week, it makes it kind of tough to compete.
I should emphasize that PBS maintains some topline shows like Nova, Frontline, and the ever-present Ken Burns, not to mention children’s shows that remain popular. But it’s getting harder and harder to get noticed when viewers are faced with so many choices these days.
A big opportunity has opened called local programming. Newspapers across the country, especially in your smaller towns, are shadows of their former selves. That’s not breaking news at this point. But the demise of the printed page and the features that went with it opens a door for other media.
But here’s the problem. WTVP, Channel 47, public TV in Peoria, has a very small staff and a limited budget. I think one could compete with local TV stations in the news arena, but that takes money and staff not yet available. What’s needed now are ideas you can execute on a shoestring.
Okay, here’s one: a contest with area schools sending in short films on a specific subject. For example, how about one on transportation? How I get to school could be interesting with a mix of bus, car, and bike videos. How about depicting the school lunch? Guess we might have to be careful here, but a little humor might do us all some good.
How about a contest on the views of local alleys? That could be funny, sad, scary, or all three. It might even be informative.
The other thing I’d like to see would be WCBU (the Peoria public radio station) and WTVP working together on website entries from the public. Everybody and their brother are shooting videos, selfies, and so forth. Why not a creative outlet for some of this stuff?
Prizes are nice, but recognition is good, too, plus if you get the schools involved—and I’m not leaving out local colleges—you’re going to get folks tuning in to see if their stuff is being used.
Public broadcasting is like the kid on the playground who got picked on by a small group of bullies. Do you let that stand, or do we give this kid some help?
