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Page 16A ■ Friday, March 26, 1982 ■ The Brownsville HeraldPublic TV station may be on air soonBy OHIO FIEO Herald Staff WritarAfter several months delay, the Rio Grande Valley’s new public broadcasting television station may be on the air by early April, perhaps within a week.Station spokeswoman Karen Le-Fevre this morning said KZLN Channel 60 is awaiting authorization from the Federal Communications Commission to begin a broadcast test, and that the station’s equipment is ready for inspection.Once approved for broadcast, the station will present “Masterpiece Theater,” “ Nova,” “ Carl Sagan’s Cosmos” and other high cultural, non-commercial programming, in addition to the popular children’s television programs, “Sesame Street,” “Mr. Rogers,” “Electric Company” and others, Ms. Lefevre said.The station, an affiliate of the Public Broadcasting System, will be receivable with a UHF antenna and adapter on UHF Channel 60. It will also be available on cable television in coming weeks, replacing PBS station KEDT, channel 16, in Corpus Christi.But even with tower contraction delays and other difficulties finally out of the way, the station’s biggest troubles are already looming on the horizon.Funding resources for the non-commerical station have been threatened by the Reagan administration, intensifying the need for more contributions from private individuals, businesses, lending institutions and local governments.“Here in the Valley we’re starting out at a rather difficult time for PBS,” said Ms. Lefevre. “We’re expecting to have pretty drastic cutbacks.”The station receives major funding from the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA), a federal agency, with grants totaling about $1.3 million,including a one-third matching local contributions of $200,000 from the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville.Another 196,000 local matching contribution comes from Tierra del Sol Broadcasting, KVEO Channel 23, which shares its tower in La Ferla with KZLN.And some $100,000 has been raised through local fundraising and station memberships, and from $18,700 in contributions from the city administrations of Brownsville, Harlingen and Edinburg.But with cutbacks from the Republican administration in Washington, KZLN will no longer be eligible for NTIA grants, said Ms. LeFevre.“They’re drying up. By 1906, PBS is working on being totally independent, being totally weened off federal funding. They’ve initiated a project, called Station Independence Program, to meet those needs and they’re experimenting with alternative financing measures,” she said.An experiment with 10 PBS affiliates throughout the nation will test the viability of selling advertising, she said.Community Service grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting currently total $200,000, and Ms. LeFevre said she expects the station will not lose that source in the near future.The station is seeking underwriting grants for 25 PBS network programs, and has already received four major contributions from local firms.“The Electric Company,” has been underwritten by the electric company: Central Power LightCo.First National Bank of Brownsville has underwritten “NOVA,” Texas Commerce Bank in Brownsville and McAllen has underwritten the “MacNeil/Lehrer Report”; National Bank of Commerce of Brownsville has underwritten “Mr. Rogers”; and the A.G. Edwards Sons investment brokerage has underwritten “Wall Street Week.”
Newspaper Details
Brownsville Herald
Brownsville, Texas, US
Fri, Mar 26, 1982
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Sammi B.
NA 08 Feb 2020
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