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NY Times      February 10, 1997
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Noncommercial Radio Struggles With New Standards for Federal Funds

      By ANDREA ADELSON



     F or the first time, public radio stations are being asked to
     demonstrate their relevance to their own communities or risk
     having their federal funds cut off. The demand for accountability
     is forcing a new discipline on smaller broadcasters, who are
     struggling to broaden their appeal without crossing the line into
     commercial radio.

     In the Los Angeles area, three of the six local public radio
     stations, which all occupy the lower end of the FM dial, received
     notice they would fail to meet the new funding criteria set by
     the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federally financed
     entity that will provide 620 public stations with $260 million in
     support this year. On average, stations rely on federal money for
     15 percent of their annual budgets.

     Los Angeles has about 80 or so commercial stations, nearly all
     owned by group broadcasters who have bid up station prices in
     recent years and now rely on mass appeal formats to generate
     sufficient cash flow for debt service. Only at the lower end of
     the radio dial among the noncommercial stations is there room for
     long discussions on issues, and idiosyncratic programming.

     The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's criteria, developed in
     the face of fewer federal dollars and prodding from Republicans
     in Congress who question taxpayer support for public
     broadcasting, is based on a complex set of standards. Under them,
     a station must demonstrate a minimum audience size and a certain
     level of local financial support, depending on its market's
     population and the geographic reach of its broadcast signal.

     In a reflection of the fractious, fragmented character of public
     radio, each of the small Los Angeles stations under threat is
     using different strategies to satisfy the new qualifications.
     About a dozen other stations elsewhere around the country --
     including KDHX in St. Louis, WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and
     KBOO in Portland, Ore. -- have also been warned that their
     federal funds might be cut off this year because their audiences
     and local financial support fell short of the eligibility
     threshold.

     Even operators of strong public radio stations, with bigger
     budgets and audiences, are heeding the self-help message. Some
     are adopting the business practices of their commercial cousins,
     although under different guises, by consolidating cost-saving
     operations and making alliances to jointly raise funds.

     Critics of the new approach say its consequence is to squelch
     distinctive public radio programming by pushing stations to adopt
     more successful, uniform formats. Because only 10 percent of
     listeners financially support public radio, the new rules also
     force more reliance on corporate support, which some critics
     believe jeopardizes independent broadcasts.

     But Robert T. Coonrod, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's
     chief operating officer, said: "These standards are reasonable.
     Mature institutions ought to periodically assess their impact on
     the community. We're not suggesting they have to become rock 'n'
     roll stations to get reasonable support."

     In fact, the music itself was removed from the programming at
     KPPC in Pasadena, Calif., which became the region's first
     all-talk alternative public radio station.

     Rating figures show KPPC's audience is climbing, but still short
     of the mark, said Rod Foster, the station's manager. KPPC, which
     operates from Pasadena City College, faces the loss of $175,000
     in federal funds from its $1.5 million annual budget.

     "We hope we will make the CPB number by the fourth quarter,"
     Foster said. "If not, we hope it's enough to convince them to
     stick with us."

     At KPFK in Studio City, Calif., one of five public radio stations
     operated by the Pacifica Foundation, which also operates WBAI in
     New York, the new guidelines came as management was imposing more
     structure on a chaotic programming schedule that catered to
     different ethnic and interest groups.

     The California station, a standard bearer for leftist ideology,
     eliminated such programs as ones devoted to medicinal hemp,
     atheists and Central America. Others were shifted to different
     time slots, like the one featuring former California Gov. Edmund
     G. Brown Jr. As a result, there was a revolt by some defiant
     volunteer programmers, who in February 1996 briefly seized
     control of the station, accusing KPFK of going mainstream.

     "Our independence speaks for itself," said Mark Schubb, the
     general manager, who frantically threw the switch to take the
     dissidents off the air. Pacifica's network is among a few public
     stations that reject corporate sponsorships. About 80 percent of
     Pacifica's $8.5 million budget comes from listener donations,
     while the remainder -- which the station says is crucial -- comes
     from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

     Along with program changes, KPFK's pleas for money moved
     listeners to increase donations by 37 percent last year, to $1.3
     million. Schubb believes the station now meets the new
     financial-support standards.

     At KCSN, a classical music station located on the Northridge
     campus of California State University, taxpayer funds of $115,000
     makes up 30 percent of the station's budget.

     "Were assuming the worst, that we'll lose it," said William
     Toutant, the station's acting general manager and associate dean
     of the college of arts, media and communications. "We have not
     been aggressive enough in tapping corporate underwriting. The
     classical music audience is not a mass audience."



     Lynn Chadwick, president of the National Federation of Community
     Broadcasters and a member of a task force that established the
     funding criteria, said, "The intent of this redesign was not to
     kick stations out but to help them focus on getting listeners and
     listener support."

     "It is a threat," she added. "It has helped some stations move in
     a direction they needed to."

     In Seattle, for example, the two public radio stations, KUOW and
     KPLU, have begun offering joint underwriting, giving corporate
     sponsors a simpler way to reach the stations' cumulative
     audiences and for the stations to save money.

     In New York, WFUV at Fordham University has focused its format on
     music, dropping several specialty programs aimed at ethnic
     groups, and news from The Christian Science Monitor. The
     station's audience increased.

     "Today, we have a much healthier station in terms of economic
     support," said Ralph Jennings, WFUV's general manager. But the
     station's audience is still insufficient to meet the new
     standards. "They don't believe public broadcasters should serve
     fragmented tastes," Jennings said.

     A harsher critic of the standards is Schubb of KPFK. He thinks a
     loss of federal support will make public radio too reliant on
     corporate support and will chill independent programming. "The
     national news brought to you by Archer Daniels Midland," he said,
     quoting a sponsorship tag line from recent National Public Radio
     broadcasts. "These things seriously compromise democratic
     debate."







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