Protesters steer clear of KCET board meeting
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Fans in the Los Angeles area who are upset about KCET’s decision to drop its PBS affiliation and strike out as an independent station had a chance to vent Wednesday at a KCET board meeting in Hollywood.
Except nobody showed up. There wasn’t a single speaker, protester (or supporter, for that matter) during the public-discussion portion of the morning meeting. ‘Questions? Comments?’ asked KCET board Chairman Gordon Bava. ‘Anyone?’
Crickets chirped. The gavel fell. Meeting adjourned.
Blog comments and message board postings at the L.A. Times, KCET and elsewhere have spewed a significant amount of anger over KCET’s decision, announced late last week, that the station would no longer be part of the PBS system.
The defection means that KCET will not air fan-favorite series such as ‘Masterpiece,’ ‘PBS NewsHour,’ ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Nova’ after Dec. 31.
Three other L.A.-area PBS-affiliated stations -- KOCE in Orange County, KVCR in San Bernardino and KLCS in the L.A. Unified School system -- have said they will step up their program offerings so that viewers will continue to be able to watch PBS series and specials at the times they’re accustomed to seeing them.
Wednesday’s meeting, open to the public, had been announced on KCET’s website, and Bava said he was surprised that so few attended. Instead of viewers and fans, there were a few dozen KCET employees, a couple of reporters and the board members in a cavernous KCET auditorium.
A gathering without dissenters meant that KCET executives could present their version of the protracted battle with their corporate parent largely unchallenged. The split was inevitable, according to KCET officials, after PBS refused to lower its programming fees. Bava characterized the decision to break away as ‘a very courageous and very positive decision for our future.’
KCET President and Chief Executive Al Jerome said the station had tried, as recently as this fall, to strike a deal with PBS to become one of four equal affiliate stations in the area, which would’ve meant slashing its PBS programming fees. The stations, through a consortium that’s now up and running, would cooperate on fund-raising, scheduling and internal operations to save money and streamline program offerings.
That coalition continues now, just without KCET, Jerome said, because PBS insisted that KCET be the one primary station in the market that carried the bulk of its programming.
Jerome called PBS ‘unyielding and inflexible’ in rejecting KCET’s request to become a limited-service station. He noted that KCET’s dues to PBS have jumped 40% over four years.
Both he and Bava said the departure from PBS won’t mean the end of quality programming on the station. Jerome said he’s been in touch with a number of producers and program suppliers who want to help fill the shelf space, and that there will be more opportunities to cover the diverse local community.
-- T.L. Stanley