III. Subjecting Public Broadcasters To Auctions – And Thereby Taking Back Government Funding Through Auction Payments – Contradicts Both Logic And A Long History Of Support For Public Broadcasting.
In addition to audience contributions, a significant portion of a public radio station’s budget is derived from government funding. Many public radio stations receive Federal funding through CPB community service grants and national program acquisition grants. In addition, public radio stations can apply to the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, administered by the NTIA, for grants to purchase equipment and extend signal reach. States and communities also provide grants to public broadcasters, and in some cases are public broadcasting licensees. Federal government funding constitutes on average 14%-16% of an NPR member station’s budget, although it may constitute as much as 50% or more of the budgets of some rural public radio stations, including some stations licensed to Native American tribes. Whatever percentage of their budgets consists of Federal government funding, public broadcasters rely upon this funding to provide high-quality and diverse services to their communities. Given the high prices that auctions and commercial radio and television sales have garnered in the past, the money required to prevail in an auction would likely equal or exceed a public radio station’s total Federal government funding.
By subjecting public broadcasters to auctions for frequencies outside of the reserved band, the Commission would merely take back government funding in the form of auction payments – in the unlikely event that public broadcasters could afford to participate in auctions in the first place. This would contradict both logic and long-standing precedent exempting public broadcasters from the fees imposed by the FCC, including application fees and regulatory fees.
During the 1995 debates over the status of government funding for public broadcasters, the American public threw its support behind the continued public funding of noncommercial educational broadcasting. A recent Roper poll found that, when given the choice of twenty services, the American public judged public radio and public television the second and third best values in return for tax dollars spent, trailing only national defense. The Commission should not void this support by reclaiming government funding from any public broadcaster which seeks a new broadcast frequency to improve service to the public, reach unserved or underserved communities, or maintain an existing level of service.