KPBS Deep in Financial Quagmire : Public Television: Station’s recent woes may have as much to do with a lack of direction as with the slow economy.

SAN DIEGO — The KPBS financial tightrope began to unravel in May, and once it started to go it came apart quickly.

The first blow came when a direct mail “sweepstakes” piece raised $100,00 less than expected. Then two teleconferencing events that would have brought in $30,000 each were canceled for reasons beyond the station’s control. A few weeks later, a June $50- to $250-a-ticket concert by piano-playing political comedian Mark Russell, which management had hoped would raise about $40,000, lost $7,000.

Suddenly, San Diego’s public broadcasting station, home to KPBS-TV (Channel 15) and KPBS-FM (89.5), was spiraling into the worst of the long series of fiscal crises that has plagued the station. By July, the end of the fiscal year, the station had put a temporary hold on all expenditures.

The crisis culminated in October with yet another round of layoffs and the sudden retirement of Paul Steen, the station’s general manager of the past 18 years.

Faced with an expected $500,000 deficit for the 1991-92 fiscal year when the station completes its annual audit, the San Diego State Foundation, the nonprofit group that oversees the station, has stepped in and demanded accountability from station management, an unprecedented move for the normally laissez-faire foundation. The station has accumulated a deficit before, but in the past there was always a cash reserve to bail it out. This time there is no cash reserve.

This was supposed to be a gala year for KPBS, marked by a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the television station and the hoped-for completion of the fund-raising for a new telecommunications facility.

Instead, KPBS is again wrestling with defining its place in the community amid internal charges of questionable management and a re-examination of what role the station should play in the community.

With tight restrictions placed on all expenditures, for everything from copying to videotape, management is attempting to shape a new future for the station, examining every aspect of its operation, with an eye toward possible changes.

At the same time, staff members and many San Diegans are wondering why KPBS has been unable to establish itself as a local programming force after 25 years.

Interviews with more than a dozen current and past employees of the station reveal a widely held belief that the station’s recent woes have as much to do with a lack of a clearly defined direction for the station as with the slow economy.

While everyone acknowledges the tough economic climate, KPBS’ revenue actually was up 7% in fiscal year 1991-92.

“I would characterize them as having unrealistically predicted revenues and running the station based on that,” said Harry Albers, general manager of the San Diego State Foundation, which supports various university endeavors not fully funded by the state. It also is responsible for covering the station’s deficit.

“They should have been able to balance the budget, I think,” Albers said.

At the urging of the foundation and a recently hired management consultant, deputy general manager Doug Myrland, the interim head of the station, last week announced a reorganization of management and set forth a set of “major goals,” ranging from completing the capital fund-raising campaign to developing a contingency plan to handle any future revenue shortfalls.

At the top of the list, No. 1, is “adopt a new mission statement to assure a clear and focused vision for the future.”

Staffers often talk about the “vision thing.” Even those reluctant to criticize the station acknowledge that something has been missing in recent years. While radio has gone in a new direction, attracting higher ratings for a new blend of local and national news and talk programs, the television side has remained essentially stagnant.

“There has not been a clear mission identified in terms of what our role is in the community,” said senior producer Paul Espinosa.

Although not complete, the new mission statement will “clearly say that the most important thing is broadcasting programming for the community,” Myrland said, making clear that he foresees additional focus on developing local programming.

To many at the station, such talk is a breath of fresh air.

“It feels like a 10-ton brick has been lifted off my shoulder,” said one staffer, who, like many at the station, asked not to be identified. “A period of change has started.”

There currently is little local programming produced at the station, outside of a hodgepodge of arts programs, some forums and two weekly in-studio talk shows. The Phil Donahue-style “Seniors Speak Out,” carried nationally on 170 PBS stations, and the weekly round-table talk show of local journalists “San Diego Week” are both in danger of being canceled after losing the majority of their sponsors. With few exceptions, the only programs that get produced are those able to attract grants from outside the station.

“My question is, what is the purpose of local public broadcasting if the purpose is just to be a satellite transmitter for national programs?” said Matthew Eisen, a producer and writer who left the station in 1989, after nine years.

Although Steen, the station’s general manager for the past 18 years, is often praised for his national public broadcasting advocacy, some producers portray him as having been a detached, uninvolved manager, who spent more time on national issues and society fund raisers than internal problems and local programming.

“I constantly had the feeling that the station was leaderless,” Eisen said.

Steen said he “doesn’t buy the notion” that he was detached, noting that if anything he has been more involved with programming since the retirement of longtime program director Brad Warner in 1990. He also said the station’s problem are not as severe as some believe.

“Everyone’s attention has been focused on money across the university and the station has come under more intense scrutiny than in the past,” Steen said. “I don’t mean to minimize it, but I don’t think it should be blown out of perspective.”

Although Steen’s decision to accept a retirement package was described as voluntary, there is no doubt he was feeling pressure due to the economic hardships, insiders say. Within the building, it was widely believed that Steen, 60, would retire after the capital campaign was completed for the new building.

On Aug. 25, the foundation, which is financially responsible for any debt incurred by the station, told Steen to come up with a business plan plan to handle the deficit and any future problems, according to a source close to the scene.

In the next few weeks, Steen submitted two plans to the foundation and both were rejected as inadequate; the second rejection coming just a few days before Steen surprised staffers by announcing his retirement from the $97,000-a-year post.

Steen says he was not pressured to leave, noting that economic ups and downs are not new to the station. “I’ve been here for 25 years, that’s a long time,” he said this week, adding that he’d had to decide whether to take the state’s retirement package by Oct. 2--Steen actually was a university employee, while most staffers of the station are technically employed by the foundation.

Even Steen’s critics acknowledge that it is unfair to lump all the station’s woes at his feet. Most of the managers, other than Myrland, have been at the station for 10 years or more, as have most of the staff producers.

Some say the station has outgrown its longtime managers. In general, the management team didn’t seem open to new ideas or criticism, staffers say, and were constantly worried about offending the station’s wealthy patrons.

Some point to a segment of “Seniors Speak Out,” targeted as part of the 25th anniversary celebration, that brought together station staff and alumni to reflect on the station past and present. The show was never aired, in part some believe, because toward the end of the taping it turned into a grousing session. Station managers were particularly sensitive about how it would be received by its most devoted and wealthy supporters, since it was meant to air on the night of a big fund-raising bash.

The episode “wasn’t the celebration and exciting program that we hoped it would be on our anniversary day,” said Gloria Penner, who remains part of the team in charge of station’s programming. Penner said that the discussion of the issues “was the best part” of the show, but the program was not effective television.

In recent years, KPBS staffers have often felt that local programming was something of an afterthought, if not an annoyance to management.

An internal memo listing the priorities for on-air promotions during October featured all national shows. KPBS-produced shows like “Seniors Speak Out” and “San Diego Week” were listed well down on the list, under, “Other Shows to Promote.”

“One thing that frustrates me is that there are some people here who don’t agree with my point of view that the most important thing we do is programs,” senior producer Paul Marshall said before last week’s announcement of new goals.

One problem is that over the last 10 years, as budgetary pressures increased, the station has gradually lost the support personnel necessary to produce the shows through layoffs and attrition. At one time the station was noted for regularly producing science-oriented shows and local documentaries.

In June, 1990, the entire staff of producers was laid off as part of a “restructuring” of the staff. And though most were rehired, the end result was the elimination of two producers’ jobs--Sarah Luft and Anasa Briggs-Graves.

Both filed lawsuits. Luft charged sexual discrimination; Briggs-Graves, who is black, alleged sexual and racial discrimination. Both suits were settled out of court. As part of the settlements, both agreed not to talk about KPBS.

Through the same period that the station was cutting staff, staffers say, KPBS rarely went out into the community to recruit new talent with new ideas, or to link up with community groups for special projects.

Among the goals listed by Myrland last week were calls for increasing the role of the station’s Community Advisory Board and to “establish a variety of relationships and activities designed to more successfully integrate the functions of KPBS with the educational and academic mission of SDSU.”

“In order to produce programming for the community we need to form a lot of partnerships,” Myrland said.

Staffers point to the retirement of program director Warner in 1990 as a pivotal point in the station’s recent programming history.

“When the station lost Brad Warner I think we lost part of our heart and conscience,” Marshall said. Warner was seen as a leader who provided a strong sense of focus for the department. He also served as an important link between the producers and upper management.

Initial efforts to recruit a top-level replacement from out of town were unsuccessful, and eventually put aside by budget constraints. Instead, Warner was replaced by a troika of longtime KPBS employees--Peggy Cooley, Tom Karlo and Gloria Penner, and the result was management by committee.

“There was no sense that one person was leading the TV side,” said Doug Waldo, host of “Seniors Speak Out.”

The troika system was cumbersome, and often made the station slow to react to situations, Myrland acknowledged. Last year, when a national controversy erupted over a program called “Stop the Church,” a program about demonstrations by the gay community against the Catholic church, the station decided to air the program. But the decision was not finalized for several days and wasn’t announced until after local groups had picketed the studios.

“It looked like we had bowed to pressure,” Myrland said. “Our heart was in the right place but the internal process slowed us down.”

After Warner left, the production and programming departments were not represented on the seven-member management council, the group that develops strategy for the station. Karlo said that the troika held weekly meetings with Steen and that he was “our voice” on the management council.

Last week the troika was dissolved. Cooley was put in charge of programming and Karlo was named manager of television operations. Both were given seats on the management council.

Noticeably absent from the new arrangement is Penner, one of the most visible members of the KPBS staff for 23 years. Cooley has more experience in the scheduling aspects of the programming job, but some were still surprised that the ambitious Penner was passed by.

Among staff members, Penner, the host of “San Diego Week” and the station’s election specials, is often noted for controlling her “turf.” They say her length of service at the station and her connections in San Diego’s society--her ex-husband is a Port Commissioner and she lists City Council members and other politicos as friends--give her an excessive amount of influence over the station.

“Much of the programming decisions were based on ego and vanity with no sensitivity to the needs of the community,” said one longtime producer, claiming Penner was the chief cause.

Penner said that she has been “overt in expressing what I believe is important,” but denied that that should be construed as “protecting my turf.” She applauds the changes at the station.

“This new configuration will work,” she said.

The new management council will have to deal with a widely held perception among staffers that local productions have taken a back seat to revenue-generating projects at the station, such as teleconferencing.

About 12% to 15% of the studio’s time is devoted to teleconferencing--renting the studio to groups such as the agency that trains police officers throughout the state or a plastic surgeons association, so that they can link up with similar groups in other areas.

Whenever scheduling conflicts arise, producers believe that teleconferencing has had priority over local programming.

Karlo, who schedules time, says that perception is “absolutely false.” There have been times where it has been possible to adjust the schedules of producers to accommodate a teleconferencing client, but that “many times” teleconferences have been bumped because of commitments to local programming, he said.

That type of problems may be solved by the new telecommunications facility. With $7 million the current goal, the station has raised about $3.5 million, with another $3 million already pledged, including more than $1 million donated by the Copley publishing family and its associated charities.

Although the station had originally hoped to break ground this fall, the goal is now to begin work on the facility this spring.

For the first time, it will bring together all the different elements of the station, which are currently scattered around the campus, and provide the station with more editing and taping capabilities.

The possibility that the capital campaign may be completed in the near future is just one of several elements that has staffers believing better times may be ahead for the station.

The station has started a research project, which will eventually include audience research by an outside company, designed to detail the preferences and interests of the KPBS audience.

“This is the first time in recent years that we’re looking at it as a station-wide effort,” said KPBS-FM program director Michael Flaster, who has been conducting the interviews with employees. “This is part of the maturing process for the station.”

Although there are philosophical questions about a public broadcasting station attempting to please a mass audience, most see the research project as a step in the right direction.

“A period of change has started,” said one staffer. “This is the first step that makes other changes possible.”

With Myrland still listed only as an interim general manager and the management consultant still investigating the operations of the station, still to be determined are how the station will balance the desire for economic stability with the need to provide the community with a meaningful programming entity.