Soft Commercials Air on KCET in a ‘Test’ for Funding

This holiday season, during such network shows as “ER,” you could catch Wells Fargo’s commercial about the stagecoach arriving in a Western frontier town, bearing goodies including Christmas trees from the outside world. A boy shouts excitedly that the stagecoach, which happens to be the bank’s icon, is coming.

The same 30-second spot is also being shown on KCET-TV Channel 28, Southern California’s flagship public television station.

The commercial is definitely soft sell, and it runs only between programs. Still, for more than a year, you have been able to see on KCET commercials from American Airlines, Infiniti, Secure Horizons, Chevrolet, Lufthansa and a recent addition, an ad depicting scenes from the movie “The Crucible.”

At KCET, the preferred term is “corporate messages.”

Yet what are commercials by any name doing on noncommercial television?

The station, as noted by KCET President Al Jerome in KCET’s December program guide, is trying to generate new revenues to support KCET programming “by accepting a limited number of 30-second corporate messages that run between--not in the middle of--our programs. These messages . . . provided about $500,000 to the station in fiscal 1996.”

Jerome, not shy about naming the companies, called the funds “critical” to being able “to continue our quality broadcasting.”

On average, Jerome noted in an interview, about three or four of the messages air nightly during prime time.

Despite the fact that the ads have been running for more than a year, Jerome, who took office last February and is also general manager, calls it “a test--and that test is continuing. This is a work in progress.”

KCET’s current crop of 30-second messages began in September 1995 under the watch of KCET’s longtime president and general manager, William H. Kobin. American Express was first, touting its financial assistance to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Donald G. Youpa, executive vice president and chief operating officer, explained that before the ads could be aired, KCET had to obtain permission from its board of directors.

In an interview with The Times in April 1995, Kobin signaled that the attitude of KCET’s management was changing. He said he would like to be able to give a “longer period of time to major underwriters” than PBS guidelines allow.

“We have lost corporate underwriters to cable because they feel we are not a good enough buy. We have to figure out a better way.”

Kobin’s remarks came amid heavy congressional debate over funding for public broadcasting, which prompted an equally intensive debate within public television over how far to go with commercials.

Under PBS guidelines, no more than 15 seconds are allowed for a single underwriter and two underwriters are permitted 20 seconds. Only three or more underwriters, a rarity, would get the maximum 30 seconds.

On the content side, both PBS and the Federal Communications Commission bar qualitative or comparative language, price information, a call to action to buy or any special inducements. Station officials say KCET adheres to content guidelines.

But the FCC has no formal rules on a time limit, although in a 1989 letter to radio station KUNV-FM in Las Vegas, the commission wrote that “90 seconds can contribute to the perception that an announcement is unduly promotional.”

Both Jerome and Youpa say they heard no complaints from PBS when it went to the 30-second spots, although PBS President Ervin S. Duggan has been a vociferous opponent of slackening of the guidelines.

Peter Downey, PBS’ senior vice president for program business affairs and the senior executive at the network responsible for underwriting guidelines, said there has been no complaint, “as far as I know.”

KCET, he explains, is hardly alone. “This is clearly a trend, particularly among community licensees, stations not affiliated with a university or state government” when there is no obvious source of income for a station. “KCET is hardly the first and I doubt that it will be the last station that has gone in this direction. This is a phenomenon that has been in discussion in public television circles for two years now, and most accept it as a natural order of things.”

Of the top 25 major market stations, Downey said, at least 20 now carry the 30-second spots.

As for those guidelines, he said, “PBS has rules that apply to PBS [on] programs that we distribute nationally, and individual stations are free to do what they want.”

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He pointed out that the reason PBS prefers stations to comply with its rules is that disparity between local stations and the national network “creates confusion” in the corporate world, as when they see 30-second spots on local outlets while the national networks requires an individual corporation to trim down to 15.

This is not the first time KCET has experimented with such messages. According to Youpa, the station tried them out about a dozen years ago--including the same Wells Fargo ad that just aired--and there was such a “real outpouring” of discontent that the ads were removed.

That was the period after then-President Reagan threatened to cut public broadcasting funds substantially, and public television was mandated by Congress to experiment with commercials.

An 18-month test on nine public stations (not including KCET) determined that commercials were not the way to go, but it led to a loosening of underwriting policies permitting the use of brand names and trade names.

Youpa explained that things started changing when KCET representatives went to corporations for the 15-second spots and were told that it was not in their interest to make spots that would air only on public television.

KCET’s federal grant in fiscal 1995 from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting was $2.4 million and in fiscal 1996, which ended June 30, it was $2.5 million, about 5% of its overall budget.

What has really plagued KCET is a shrinking subscriber base. Dollar amounts provided by new members as well as the actual number of new members dropped 26% from fiscal 1995. Primarily because of that, the station fell $1.6 million short of its $17.9-million goal for subscriptions and contributions.

Said Jerome: “When you take into consideration the membership issue, and the flattening out of federal funding or the diminution of federal funding, we really do have to look at corporate underwriting as a potential opportunity.”

The station has undertaken a wide-ranging viewer and membership survey to gauge reaction to the advertisements, with results expected next month.

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Still, Jerome did not pledge that the ads would be scrapped if viewer reaction was negative. “I wouldn’t want to say that,” he cautioned. “I am, of course, very sensitive to the response of our members, our viewers, but given our overall financial needs, I wouldn’t make any judgment on what we do.”

So far, he said, “the reaction I’ve seen through mail has been relatively little reaction. The prevailing sentiment among the few letters I’ve gotten is, ‘You don’t need my membership dollars if you’re taking corporate underwriting.’ I respond, ‘Of course we do. Membership is by far the predominant source of funds.’ ”

Youpa insisted that the public’s attitude has changed about the corporate messages. “What has happened is that the public has heard so much about public television, the government cutting back, that the feedback I get just walking around is that they’re tolerant as long as we don’t interrupt shows.”