NEW FUNDING METHOD IS APPROVED FOR RADIO

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting on Friday approved a new method of funding public radio for fiscal 1987 that will give noncommercial radio stations unprecedented authority over their selection of programs.

Under the new plan, CPB will allocate 71% of its public-radio funds for community service grants, which are used primarily for programming, and will designate 22% of its funds for national program production to stations--much of which is paid to National Public Radio under production contracts.

The remaining 7% will be reserved for a fund for innovative programming.

Douglas J. Bennet Jr., president of National Public Radio, termed the board’s action “a very important clarification” for public radio stations to know how they can spend these funds.

“We now have the ability to plan for 1987,” he said.

By law, CPB is required to allocate 22.5% of its congressionally approved budget to public radio. With a $200-million appropriation for fiscal 1987, CPB plans to provide $32 million for community service grants and $13 million for national program production.

With the shift of most funds directly to local stations, CPB will allocate only $3 million directly to NPR.

“We think this fundamentally changes our relationship with NPR,” said CPB vice president David J. Brugger, who presented the management recommendations to the board at its Friday meeting.

In fiscal 1971, for example, CPB provided virtually all of NPR’s almost $1-million budget. By comparison, in fiscal 1986, CPB provided 55% of NPR’s $22-million budget. The new business plan, which was proposed by NPR, recommended that CPB contribute less than 5% to NPR’s 1987 budget.

In recent years, CPB has been increasing the funds that go to public radio stations. For example, in fiscal 1973, CPB allocated 63% of its public radio funds to national program production through NPR and 37% to community service grants. By fiscal 1986, 32% of the funds were allocated to national program production with 68% to community service grants.

A CPB-funded study concluded that the public radio marketplace is changing and that stations “have more programs available than can be used.”

A CPB management report also noted that while CPB’s appropriation will increase by 25% in fiscal 1987--from $159.5 million to $200 million--the increase in the size of community service grants would be smaller because the funds will be distributed to 328 radio stations instead of 289 stations. According to CPB calculations, the average grant in fiscal 1987 will be $96,997, a 15% increase over the average grant of $84,441 in the previous year.

With the prospect of considerably less money going to NPR, several board members expressed concern at Friday’s meeting about how CPB would continue to fulfill its legislative mandate to assure that high quality, innovative and objective programs are available to stations, and also about what obligation CPB has to continue to monitor NPR as a result of the funding reductions to NPR.

At the meeting, Bennet said he believed that “public radio has matured to a point that it can effectively execute the mandate of Congress.” He also urged the board not to increase reporting requirements for the stations that would stifle their initiative.

And, in a letter to CPB chairman Sonia Landau, five regional public radio organizations expressed their collective fears that creation of a new bureaucracy to oversee the allocation plan might actually end up imposing more restrictions on the radio stations. The groups also asked the board for more discussions on implementing the allocation plan.

After more than two hours of discussion, the board opted for more time to sort out its management role. By a vote of 5 to 4, with one abstention, the board adopted an amendment to delay a decision on how CPB management will implement the allocation plan until its meeting in January.