roundtable: RE: RELISTNAMEHEREgt;TPR-NE and PBS -Reply

roundtable: RE: RE>TPR-NE and PBS -Reply

RE: RE>TPR-NE and PBS -Reply

Terry Dugas 813-598-9737 (DUGAST@mail.firn.edu)
Fri, 20 Jan 1995 02:04:21 EST 

Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 02:04:21 EST
From: Terry Dugas 813-598-9737 <DUGAST@mail.firn.edu>
Subject: RE: RE>TPR-NE and PBS -Reply
In-Reply-To: <sf1e24a6.098@dcccd.edu>
To: "roundtable@cni.org" <roundtable@cni.org>
Message-Id: <D65ZVPA3GVSZ*/R=FIRNVX/R=A1/U=DUGAST/@MHS>


You say commercial; I say underwriting.

Exactly what a business can say on a PBS station is regulated both by 
law and by FCC regulations (with the FCC being the actual arbiter.)  
What separates PBS from both the commercial and cable stations is what 
we cannot include:

no "qualitative or comparative language" (no "SALE, SALE, SALE!" no 
"best deals in town.")

no "price information" ($29.95, today only)

no "call to action" ("buy now!")

no "inducement to buy, sell, rent or lease."

and the big difference, "an underwriting announcement may not interrupt 
regular programming."

The exception is for non-profit organizations and their non-profit 
activities.

I'll admit, though, that some TV and NPR stations push these to the very 
limit.  Others, though, have far more restrictive rules.  It's that "local 
thing" I've harped about.

The real problem is the amount of time PBS leaves between the end of one 
show and the beginning of the next.  We have anywhere between 3 and 10 
minutes to fill, depending on the source of the show.  So we have a far 
more serious problem with "clutter" than the commercial stations.

And that's where comments like yours are most perceptive.  If a PBS show 
is underwritten, it might have three acknowledgments at the end.  Then 
the local station comes on with three on four acknowledgments of 15 
seconds.  Then they tack on two minutes of promos.  Then three more local 
underwriters.  Then a couple of national underwriters for the next show.

The total time devoted to these underwriting credits is less than a 2:00 
break in a syndicated show, but the impact, the "clutter," is far worse.

Now, if Congress would only increase my station's CPB appropriations by 
25%, I could banish all local underwriters from my air!

I won't hold my breath for the extra revenue :-)

Terry Dugas
WSFP-TV
Ft. Myers/Naples, FL
<DUGAST@mail.firn.edu>

"We don't need no budget recession/
 We don't need no thought control/
 No dark sarcasm with our funding/
 Congress, leave CPB alone...
 HEY, CONGRESS, leave CPB alone."
 - P-Head Floyd

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