PBS Places a New Spin on Its Spots : Television: ‘Enhanced underwriting’ has led the way to non-commercial commercials.

To the management of KPBS-TV (Channel 15), San Diego’s public broadcasting station, it is not a commercial to show a shiny new car, name the car, and then show someone putting golf clubs in the trunk of the car while an announcer says the car makes it “easy for you to car-pool.”

Nor is it a commercial to show the logo of a bank, followed by a catchy quote from Will Rogers about banking. “A darn good bank” is then flashed on the screen above the bank’s logo.

That’s not a commercial?

Not when it’s on KPBS. After all, public television is commercial-free. Besides its willingness to air programs with English accents and documentaries no one else is interested in, the commercial-free status is what sets public broadcasting apart from the commercial pack.

Both the car and bank spots, which run before and after the local broadcasts of the “MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour,” are examples of the new breed of “enhanced underwriting” used by public broadcasting to sponsor programs. They’re not commercials, just a way for sponsors to elaborately identify themselves, KPBS management says.

It is a cheesy distinction that most PBS stations have few qualms exploiting as they struggle to make financial ends meet in tough times.

Of course, each series of KPBS commercials, err . . . underwriter announcements, is followed by the ubiquitous mention that PBS is made possible by “viewers like you.”

Yet, as public broadcasting continues to immerse itself in the world of advertising, much of PBS programming is being supported less by “viewers like you” and more by viewers like Cadillac and Pepsi.

PBS still relies heavily on money from members, but these days public broadcasting stations are focusing increased energy on such underwriting announcements.

The Federal Communications Commission’s attitude toward underwriting announcements has wavered over the years, opening the door for public broadcasting stations to explore the boundaries of their limitations. Not coincidentally, the spots are more noticeable to viewers these days, simply because there are more of them.

“We’ve put an emphasis on it the last couple of years because we’re trying to diversify the funding base,” KPBS marketing director Doug Myrland said.

Instead of seeking out the civic-minded foundation or individual looking for a way to support alternative, commercial-free television, PBS stations are wooing corporations that might fit public broadcasting into their marketing strategy.

“Every underwriter is doing it for their own reasons,” said Judith Lemoncelli, corporate development director for KPBS. “Some do it for philanthropic reasons, some do it because they want new business coming through their doors.”

To help companies understand the marketing potential of public broadcasting’s upper-crust audience and to dispel some of the myths about public broadcasting shying away from blatantly shilling for them, KPBS wants to show advertisers that “it’s easy to work with public broadcasting,” Lemoncelli said. For the first time, they are working to cultivate advertising agencies, a relationship that would have been unthinkable several years ago.

In the near future, stations will be focusing more on “multi-market underwriting,” in which a company underwrites programs in many different markets, Lemoncelli said. The automaker Saab, for example, has already produced a spot that has been used to underwrite programs in 27 different markets.

The costs for underwriting vary from program to program, depending on the show’s popularity (much like commercial television), with KPBS allowing a maximum of three underwriters per program. It might cost $18,000 a year for a company or individual to underwrite “Wall Street Week,” while a company would have to fork over $24,000 a year to sponsor one night a week of “MacNeil-Lehrer,” Lemoncelli said.

What they get for their money is often determined by what the public broadcasting stations believe they can get away with.

For example, it might be OK to show a car driving down a winding road. But it would be crossing some vaguely defined line to show smiling people getting into the car, or to show the car whipping around a test track, Lemoncelli said.

There are gray areas to the restrictions, she said, an impression confirmed by the FCC.

“The test is whether it identifies or promotes a product,” said Tom Dunlap, communications analyst for the FCC.

When the car spot was described to Dunlap, he thought it crossed the line because it advertised a specific car. But the bank ad--”A darn good bank”--probably did not.

“It really isn’t specific enough to promote a product,” he said.

The difference is meaningless, though, since the Cadillac dealers, Pepsi, AT&T; and other advertisers clearly view it as advertising. Why else would Pepsico spend thousands of dollars to air a spot featuring a little globe with the logos of its many corporate children--Taco Bell, et al.--if not to improve its corporate image?

Lemoncelli said stations understand that they are treading on dangerous ground. Viewers can put up with pledge breaks and public broadcasting’s constant attempt to troll for members on the grounds that it is the only way to keep PBS independent and different. But that might be more difficult to rationalize if viewers see more and more corporations advertising on the stations.

Questions about the relationship between underwriters and programming content have already been raised by media critics and audience members, and those potential conflicts strike at the core of public broadcasting’s existence.

“You have to be extremely sensitive,” Lemoncelli said, noting that restraint should be shown in the number of spots sold. “Just because you have more inventory to sell doesn’t mean you should sell it.”

She’s right. If stations aren’t careful, PBS viewers might be prompted to think of a term commonly used in the advertising world: It’s called “selling out.”

Fed up with the Arbitron ratings service, several of San Diego’s top radio stations are turning to a new radio ratings service, which is making its major-market debut in San Diego.

Kurt Hanson, president of Strategic Radio Research, which is putting together the “AccuRatings” service, said he expects to have signed up “six or seven of the top billing stations” in San Diego within the next few days.

Stations like KFMB, KGB and KIFM are already enthusiastic supporters. Earlier this year, KGB and KFMB refused to sign new contracts with Arbitron, citing the wild fluctuations in the numbers and the small polling sample.

“If I could cancel Arbitron today I probably would,” said KIFM general manager Bruce Walton, who has two years remaining on his Arbitron deal.

Attempting to take advantage of the stations’ discontent, AccuRatings will use phone surveys instead of diaries, offer ratings based on broader day parts instead of on the antiquated “quarter-hour” system used by Arbitron, and AccuRatings promises to use a polling sample four times larger than Arbitron’s.

The new service will also be cheaper. Arbitron costs stations anywhere from $60,000 to $175,000 a year; AccuRatings expects to charge about 10% of that.

Arbitron consistently defends its methodology, and chalks up much of the dissension to stations attempting to renegotiate their deals with the ratings service.

Station executives acknowledge that advertising buyers will probably continue to use the entrenched Arbitron, but they hope the success of AccuRatings or some other service will expose the flaws in Arbitron’s methods.

The $21-million deal Robert Sillerman and local Norman Feuer put together to buy KKCW-FM in Portland has fallen apart. This is the second time in a year that Sillerman and Feuer have announced a deal for a station, only to see talks break down. . . .

Cox Cable pay-per-view guru Marty Youngman said he doesn’t understand all the sarcastic remarks from reporters and comedians dubbing the Olympic “Triplecast” a flop. Like most cable systems, Cox has only received a few thousand signups, despite the huge media push, but most pay-per-view customers plunk down their money at the last minute, he said.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: DOUBLE-BILLS AT THE GUILD

For those who thought the double-feature had gone the way of Tiny Tim’s musical career, the Guild Theater in Hillcrest is now featuring regular double-bills. The price will be $3.50 for two relatively current flicks.

There are certainly economic reasons behind the move, considering that the Guild is right down the street from Samuel Goldwyn’s new Hillcrest Cinemas. This is a way for the Guild to carve out a separate audience, while spending less on film rentals. Other so-called second-run discount theaters--theaters featuring movies that have already opened elsewhere, such as the Strand in Ocean Beach--have managed to survive in a competitive market.

Of course, the Guild will be different from theaters like the Strand because it is operated by Samuel Goldwyn (formerly Landmark Theaters), which means it’s not going to be offering double bills of “Father of the Bride” and “Home Alone.” If anything, it will probably be more like the Ken Cinema, it’s sister theater, which is a repertory house.

This weekend, through July 30, the Guild’s double bill will be “Lovers” and Pedro Almodovar’s recent “High Heels.”