PUBLIC TV STATION TO AIR MINORITY PROGRAMMING

Beginning in May--the exact switch-on date is still uncertain--Los Angeles will have its first public-television station controlled by and programmed for blacks and other minorities.

KDDE-TV Channel 68 will beam at least four hours a day of programming targeted specifically for minority audiences--not only the black community but also Filipinos, Vietnamese and Pacific Islanders.

KDDE general manager Booker T. Wade Jr. said the station’s primary goals are threefold: to broadcast PBS-style programs that are of particular interest to minority audiences, to produce black programming not available now, and to offer other, non-black minorities a chance to create their own programming.

But Wade is quick to recognize the appeal of KDDE to the non-minority community as well. “Every time there’s something new on television, people watch it, at least at first,” Wade commented. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the non-minority population of this city who watch us will outnumber the minorities. It’s really going to be different.”

Budget constraints will prevent the fledgling station from much original production its first year on the air, though Wade said plans are afoot to create several news-magazine-style programs to air sometime in September.

“One will deal with weekly news of particular interest to the minority communities, and the other will concern itself with the state of black business enterprise,” Wade said.

On Wednesday nights, as soon as the station goes on line, KDDE will offer “Mahogany Theater,” a 26-week series of “black” films not shown elsewhere and originating from such sources as Africa and the Caribbean island nations.

A good deal of black programming will come from Britain’s independent Channel Four, which produces material for that country’s large immigrant black community.

The four hours per day of minority programming will grow to eight by the end of September, Wade said, eventually to form an 18-hour-per-day bloc. And as with other public TV stations, fund-raising drives will take place occasionally.