PBS Chief Could Be Named in Few Weeks

Amid an atmosphere of growing tension within public television--a tightening of money for programming at a time of increasing competition from cable and other video services--PBS is moving toward selecting a new president.

The chief executive--who would become the fourth president in the non-commercial network’s 23-year history, earning $148,800 a year--could be named as soon as a week or two after Thanksgiving.

“We’re very close” to narrowing the field of candidates to one, said Ted Capener, head of the six-member search committee and a vice president at the University of Utah and former PBS board chairman. “We’re down to a couple of finalists. We intend to submit one name.”

The selection must be ratified by PBS’ board, headed by Gerald L. Baliles, a former governor of Virginia who is also on the search committee.

Widely viewed as a leading contender is Robert G. Ottenhoff, PBS’ executive vice president and chief operating officer, who has been “executive in charge” since the departure in August of Bruce Christensen, who had been president for nearly 10 years. Ottenhoff is keeping his plans to himself.

“I don’t think he’s really comfortable talking about this,” said a PBS spokesman. “He feels the best person to talk to about timing, candidates or anything else would be Ted Capener.”

Capener, however, isn’t talking names--beyond confirming that former CBS newsman Marvin Kalb had been a candidate before taking himself out of the running.

Also said to be under serious consideration is Ervin Duggan, a member of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by former President George Bush. Duggan was not available for comment.

Duggan’s name got thrown into the ring after a speech he gave in Atlanta in late September before a consortium of Southern public-TV stations. He decried the notion that government should retreat from supporting the arts, even in hard times.

“A government that only dispensed Social Security checks and delivered the mail would be a government in danger of ignoring those enduring fundamental purposes that great leadership always advances,” Duggan said. He dismissed the argument that PBS’ mission of delivering cultural, educational and public-affairs programming might be redundant amid the coming 500-channel universe: “Imagine asserting that the dozens of private commercial art galleries in Washington makes the National Gallery obsolete.”

Ottenhoff’s candidacy acquired added heat after PBS programming chief Jennifer Lawson took her name out of contention in early November.

Asked recently what prompted her withdrawal, Lawson said, “Just looking at the financial difficulties that are here and feeling that programming, so essential to public television,” needs to be “strengthened. Having other voices that speak on its behalf would be a positive thing.”

She explained that PBS’ programming budget is increasing at a slower rate than in previous years. For the fiscal year that begins next July, PBS’ draft programming budget is $115 million, she said, “an increase of about 1.3% when in the last couple of years it’s been 4%, and before that there was a 6% increase.”

Many within PBS are hoping the new president will be a figure of national prominence.

“What a number of us would like to see,” said KCET-TV Channel 28 President William H. Kobin, “is somebody who can speak out strongly, forcefully as a representative for the PBS service nationwide. Someone who has impact and stature . . . a good manager, a superb diplomat, somebody who would walk over the mountains. (Like) Frank Stanton (president of CBS from 1946 to 1972). When he went to Washington and testified before a congressional committee, it was news .”

A spokeswoman for Bill Moyers, whose name has been mentioned as a possible contender, said he is “not a candidate for any administrative job. He is going to remain a broadcaster.”

Burnill F. Clark, president of public-TV station KTCS in Seattle, said he spoke to the committee but concluded he was more interested in staying in Seattle.