In permitting a limited amount of commercial matter, the bill may also open up a new source of funds to stations greatly in need of them. Because of their isolated locations public stations in rural Alaska have access to only limited sources of funds. New funds generated by limited commercial matter may provide important assistance to stations performing an important mission. At the same time a limited amount of commercial matter would provide new information about products and services. residents of these communities are not usually served by other media, and have not before had easy access to this information. The public stations would not of course try to become commercial stations, and the bill's restrictions on commercial matter accurately reflect the restraint the stations would exercise themselves. The Public Broadcast Stations Should Not Be Charged License Fees The marginal financial existence of most of Alaska's public broadcast stations also underlies the APBC's opposition to the proposal in H.R. 3333 to impose annual license fees on public broadcast stations. The bill establishes two annual license fee components. Public broadcasters will not be required to pay a fee based on the value of the radio spectrum they use. They will however be required to pay an annual fee based on the cost to the Regulatory Commission of processing their licenses. Imposition of a licensing fee on public broadcast stations, especially the ones struggling to provide essential services like those in rural Alaska, is unwarranted and not in the public interest. Public broadcast stations in Alaska already cannot support themselves financially and require state assistance for survival. This is so for precisely the same reason that their Given the limited wherewithal to support services are so vital. a radio station in most of these distant communities, these stations alone will provide the service. The result is simple; if the existence of these stations is threatened, so is continuation of the essential service they provide. An annual license fee which could jeopardize their financial existence should not be adopted. Funds To Be Distributed To Public Broadcast Stations Should Be Distributed On A Per Station Basis, Not On The Basis Of A State's Population The final point I want to make today is tied into the same theme I have returned to throughout. The public stations in rural Alaska serve isolated communities and often are the only stations serving these communities. Because of this, even though Alaska public stations serve their audiences far more intensively than is the case in a community with many media, the aggregate population they serve is much lower. Alaska has, and requires, more public stations per capita than a state with an urban population. An endowment of funds for public broadcast stations which distributes the funds on the basis of a state's population will seriously disadvantage Alaska's stations in a way they are helpless to avoid. H.R. 3333 proposes creation of an endowment to support the production of cultural and educational programming and services. One third of the total funds would be allocated to public broadcast stations for programming. These measures deserve much praise, but the formula for distribution of the funds to the stations is unfair to Alaska. The endowment will make available to the stations in a state an amount proportionate to that state's population in comparison to the total population of all the states. Let me illustrate the unfairness to Alaska of this distri bution formula. According to the current Broadcasting Yearbook there are 982 noncommercial radio stations and 260 noncommercial television stations. Alaska, with 11 radio stations and 4 television stations, has 1.2% of the noncommercial radio stations and 1.5% of the television stations. In contrast, according to 1977 census figures, Alaska holds about .18% of the total United States population. Alaska's population was 407,300, the United States' 216,332,300. The result of the distribution formula provided by the bill would be that Alaska's noncommercial stations, which comprise 1.2% of the nation's radio and 1.5% of its television noncommercial stations, would receive .18% less than two tenths of a percent of the funds distributed to all noncommercial stations. This, in a state where public broadcast stations play a particularly important role. Put another way, for every dollar distributed to an average public radio or television station in the United States, the average Alaskan station would receive fifteen cents. The Alaskan stations all together would receive one dollar for every 531 distributed. And if this seems unfair by itself, remember that the Alaskan stations would be assessed license fees on exactly the same basis as other noncommercial stations. Under the bill Alaska's noncommercial stations would be taxed equally and would receive one seventh the funding. There is only one equitable formula for distribution of endowment funds. Each station should be treated equally. Funds should be allotted to noncommercial radio and television stations on a per station basis. Not only would this formula be equitable, it would encourage the development of noncommercial broadcast stations where none now exist. I thank the Committee for this opportunity to show the members that new communications legislation can both greatly benefit, and in the absence of advance consideration, greatly harm noncommercial broadcasting in Alaska. Thank you. NOW NATIONAL FOR WOMEN NEW YORK CHAPTER 84 FIFTH AVE., RM. 907, N.Y.C. 10011 (212) 989-7230 July 5, 1979 Honorable Lionel Van Deerlin, Chairman Subcommittee on Communications Room B-333 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D. C. 20515 Attention: Stella Jackson Dear Congressman Van Deerlin: Enclosed as you requested are two copies each of written 1. Robert J. Schack, WNCN Listeners Guild 2. Fred Silverman, Children;s Media Design Center 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Tom Stokes Abby Keningsberg, Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting, Inc. Susan Harwig, Social Concerns Committee, Judson Women's Division, State of New York, Executive Also enclosed is a summary of all of the testimony presented at this hearing. On behalf of the New York Citizen's Committee for Responsible Media, I request that these statements and the summary be included in the record. |