The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 53

'We have a general survival problem if we lose our federal funding The station budgets for the replacement of one tube each year, but "this year we had three of them go on us." Most of Vermont ETV's studio and transmitting equipment has been in service since the station went on the air, and some of it is so old that repair parts have to be specially manufactured, says Kip Campbell, director of engineering. A part that might have cost $150 to $200 when it was stocked as a replacement item could be as expensive as $1,800 if it must be specially made. Campbell said broadcast manufacturers "generally shelve spare parts for about 10 years," considered the average life expectancy for broadcast equipment. Vermont ETV's tube-type transmitters were designed in the early 1960s and Campbell said they have tended to age more quickly than the newer solid state equipment. Further frustrating the station's efforts to get out of the red are a couple of "Catch 22" situations both hinging on the need to get financial assistance from the state.

The first involves the four transmitters on Mount Mansfield and on mountaintops near St. Johnsbury, Rutland and Windsor. The efficiency of these transmitters is essential to maintaining complete regional broadcast coverage, Ms. Green says, and that coverage is necessary if the station expects to continue receiving 32 percent of its annual operating capital from membership contributions. But since the equipment is so old, parts sometimes are unavailable and repairs are costly and difficult, Ms.

Green fears a major breakdown could disrupt service to certain parts of the state. So in December, the station asked the Legislature for money to overhaul The control room at Vermont ETV's studios and update the transmitters. The request, amounting to about $419,000, was the highest priority item on a $723,000 capital equipment package the station submitted. Replacing the four old transmitters would cost about $3 million, Campbell says, but the existing installations could be overhauled and modernized with the $419,000. Campbell compares the proc videotaping equipment, the item given second priority on Vermont ETV's capital equipment request to the Legislature.

The station wants to serve the state with programs of special interest to Vermonters around the state, something Ms. Green said would help increase the viewing audience and, hopefully, financial support from viewers. "But it's extremely hard to do this when you're limited to the studio," she observes. The portable videotape gear would allow production crews to do more in-the-field filming at increased efficiency and lower cost. Whenever crews go on location currently, they must use 16-millimeter movie film, which requires cumbersome special lighting and expensive film processing.

Then the filmed images have to be transferred to broadcast tape on the studio's massive tape decks, frequently ess to "owning a car and deciding you're going to do a motor job on it rather than trade it." He says the renovations would save power and help ensure that the station continues to broadcast at full strength. None of ETV's capital equipment requests was included in Gov. Richard A. Snelling's proposed budget for fiscal 1982, although the $419,000 for mitting equipment appears on the governor's 1983 budget proposal. A second twist involves portable The cost of quality: prices of ETV shows before they are edited.

This process must be scheduled at a time when the station's five tape decks are not being used for broadcasting, for taping studio programs, or for taping satellite broadcasts for future use. With the portable equipment, production crews could edit the material more easily before transferring it to the large format broadcast tapes and cut production costs as well. Mrs. Curran cited "Crossroads," a new monthly video magazine program, as an example. The program now costs about $1,500 per episode.

With portable videotape equipment that expense could be cut by nearly one-third, she said. And as if Vermont ETV's local financial problems were not enough, another loop soon may be added to the Gordian knot tightening around the future of all public television stations. Economic strategists for President Ronald Reagan's pending battle to control federal spending and balance the budget have recommended that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting "be abolished when its current funding authorization runs out in 1983," according to "Broadcasting," the journal of the National Organization of Broadcasters. One member of the team was quoted as saying that if stations can't find enough public support, "obviously some stations will die." "We have a general survival problem if we lose our federal funding," Ms. Green admits, noting that while federal funds for public television have been authorized through fiscal 1983, they have not been appropriated and "nothing is certain." "I'm definitely going to have to do that kind of contingency budgeting," she says, but adds quickly, "It wouldn't mean lopping off part of the state.

I would not consider at all taking any transmitter off the air. We can be on or off together." Instead, Ms. Green and the Vermont ETV staff are prepared to weather the financial storm by cutting expenses where they can and trying to generate as much local support as possible. "The threat of that (losing federal money) just means we have to build up the other sources as fast as we can," Ms. Green says philosophically.

"Build up membership." Ms. Green points out that member-Continued on Page 6 VermonterSunday, February 15, 19815 spend to get the program on the air in order to come up with a total cost figure. Transmission costs include such things as an engineer's salary, power and general maintenance. Last year they were figured at about $235 for each hour of programming. Some programs, such as Cosmos, Masterpiece Theatre, Washington Week in Review and Once Upon a Classic, are totally underwritten by corporations or government funding and cost the station nothing.

The only expense for these programs is the cost of transmission. Here are the amounts Vermont ETV paid last year to put several popular programs on the air. Programs that are bought by a large number of stations generally cost less, as do programs that are partially underwritten and long-running children's programs. The latter have been shown before and are frequently repeated, thereby reducing production costs. Ninety percent of the evening programs seen on Vermont ETV are not locally produced and many must be bought out of the station's budget, according to Ann Curran, the station's director of public communications.

Most of these programs are purchased from either the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) or the Eastern Educational Network (EEN). Hope Green, Vermont ETV's general manager, says the station can "buy" a program for a certain price (acquisition), but then it must add transmission costs the amount it will ACQUISITION TRANS. TOTAL $12,866 $39,233 $52,099 $26,088 $15,793 $41,881 $25,307 $41,863 $67,170 $19,276 9,495 $28,771 $15,155 $23,500 $38,655 $13,303 6,110 $19,413 4,832 $30,785 $35,617 1,305 $15,275 $16,580 7,071 1,880 8,951 2,187 6,110 8,297 9,984 7,638 $17,622 PROGRAM Sesame Street (130 programs) Great Performances (25 programs) McNeilLehrer Report (261 programs) NOVA (20 programs) Dick Cavett (200 programs) Bill Movers' Journal (26 programs) Mr. Rogers (260 programs) Electric Company (130 programs) Evening at Pops (8 programs) Wall Street Week (52 programs) Over Easy (65 programs).