KCET BOARD OK’S $33.8-MILLION BUDGET

The largest budget in the 23-year history of KCET Channel 28 was approved Thursday by the public TV station’s board of directors--up 34% from the previous year and double what it was five years ago.

The budget of $33.8 million for the fiscal year that began Wednesday is continued evidence, KCET President William Kobin said, that the station has bounced back from its financial difficulties of the early 1980s, when a $5.5-million debt resulted in the layoff of 77 employees and sharp reductions in the station’s programming efforts.

“This new budget makes an important statement,” Kobin said. “It indicates that dramatic growth and a commitment to production is achievable while maintaining a balanced budget and operating an efficient organization.”

Kobin said that the 1986-87 fiscal year that ended Tuesday produced a projected surplus of $300,000 on unaudited gross revenues of $25.2 million. It was the fifth consecutive year that the station has finished with a budget surplus, which will allow the station to build up its cash reserves.

In his annual end-of-the-fiscal-year report to the board of directors, Kobin said that, along with the budget, KCET’s viewership also has increased dramatically in the last five years--to 2.2 million households a week during May, up by 1 million households from five years earlier.

Due to KCET’s telecasts of the congressional Iran- contra hearings, the last week in June was the most-watched week in Channel 28’s history, he said. (“And it wasn’t even Fawn Hall week,” Kobin said wonderingly in an interview.)

In the interview, Kobin attributed the increased budget for 1987-88 to growth in production throughout the organization: local, national and educational enterprises. He also noted that the number of KCET subscribers and contributors climbed from 320,000 to 335,000 last year, with a corresponding increase in income from $12.4 million to $13.6 million.

Kobin said that the station won an award from the Public Broadcasting Service this year as being the best major-market station in the public-television system in all areas of subscriber development: on-air, direct mail, telemarketing and special events. He added that KCET will continue its on-air fund raising, which, though annonying to some viewers, is extraordinarily successful.

Kobin cited new local and national programming as reasons for increased viewer interest. He mentioned “7:30,” a five-minute local news strip, and “California Stories,” a critically praised half-hour informational series that debuted in January, as important local shows that will continue next year.

Kobin added that KCET will have “extremely high visibility” on the PBS national schedule in the coming year, with production up to 45 hours from 30 last year.

New programming will include “Trying Times,” an anthology series of six half-hour comedies.

Other KCET national productions for the coming season include the premiere episode of “Nova,” a study of the history of aerial surveillance techniques from carrier pigeons to spy satellites; a co-production with New York station WNET and the BBC on the history of U.S.-United Kingdom relations; a co-production with WNET and England’s Granada television on the history of television; a co-production with WNET of a “Great Performances” installment starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, and a special on the music of Harold Arlen.

New product from KCET’s educational division includes “Watch Me Move,” a history of black popular dance in America; “Kids in Motion,” a one-hour children’s video for school and home use, co-produced by CBS/Fox and now on sale; “American Ticket,” the station’s adult literacy project; “Vista,” a wide-ranging series on topics of interest to the Latino community, and “Sida Is AIDS,” a bilingual special to educate the Latino community about AIDS.