Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 56

THE STATE JOURNAL Sept. 22, 1 979 Raising money an eternal challenge ADVERTISEMENT tHE Bean 406 S. Washington 485 7027 8 6Sat. 10 4 ing methods. DIRECT GRANTS are often received still by producers and stations to pay for production of a specific type of program.

For example, the Michigan Council for the Arts underwrites the production costs for a number of fine arts programs created by WKAR-TV. Program underwriting helps local member stations buy programs produced and distributed nationally. For example, local organizations have paid for the acquisition of such programs as Washington Week in Review, Wall Street Week, and Evening at Symphony. Michigan State sports broadcasts are underwritten by local supporters. Membership is the most diverse means of raising money, and although it has not been embraced by all public television stations, it gives local stations a major degree of independence from special interest groups who could use their funds as an editorial lever in programming policy.

MEMBERSHIP PLEDGE drives are not a source of joy to viewers, but are certainly the most efficient means for public television stations to reach an audience. From its beginnings, public television has had its share of ups and downs the ups mostly in programming and the downs in financing. In the struggle for survival, enduring often takes as much art as programming. Today, membership accounts for the single greatest segment of WKAR-TV's public support. During the last fiscal year, more than 14,000 people gave more than $530,000 in membership income, making channel 23 the most successful "small market" public television station in the country in terms of direct contributions from the public.

BUT MEMBERSHIP support is a method of acquiring operating funds that has evolved over the lifetime of public television. Many fund-raising methods have been tried. In 1955 KQED-San Francisco invented the television auction during its first six months of broadcast in order to raise enough money to stay on the air. The auction worked for them and has since been picked up by other stations. Everything from art and antiques to specifically-built new houses are auctioned each year by public television stations.

Some stations auction Caribbean cruises and romantic flights to exotic watering holes. Some stations raise a few dollars by playing host to enormous gourmet dinners and wine tasting parties. Others sponsor group travel plans to Europe and South America. WKAR-TV received the money from a Bastille Day street fair in East Lansing two years ago. VQ Jjn0 1 ilii.Mri,irriiriii''''i'i: iiramifclajMM mti ranr iiiij Tom Hurley, Larry Swartz and Barbara Sutton during on-the-air funds solicitation that raised more than $260,000 in the Festival '79 pledge drive MIKE O'BRIEN DRIVE THE BEST DRIVE CHEVROLET FIAT WATCH JV 23 IT'S THE BEST SHAHEEN CHEVROLET-FIAT 394-0330 S.

LOGAN BUT THE most consistent source of independent funding over the years has been through membership, local underwriting, grants and auction, gathered under the umbrella title of "Development." The Ford Foundation began offering grants in support of educational television as early as 1951, and contributed heavily for more than 20 years. When direct support was withdrawn, the Ford Foundation supplied funds to establish the "Station Independence Program," as a separate department in the Public Broadcasting Service to help stations raise money locally. Local stations now pay dues to SIP and that money is used to create conferences, distribute research and marketing techniques and alert local managers to the possibility of future fund "Every fund raising group has its own way of reaching its audience," Membership director Tom Nurley points out. "We don't use payroll deduction plans or coin boxes on store counters. When we want to talk to the people who watch public television, we talk to them over our own air." mnmmmmm uij.ij ,11 ramni HOM THC STUOtOS Of WFMK 99 Finally, Ch.

23 Concluded from previous page able by 1968. Shared time was less and less desirable. If Mid-Michigan was going to have a public television station, it was going to have to have a channel of its own. Shortly after Robert Page became station manager at the then-WMSB in October, 1968, Clifton Wharton became president of Michigan State University. Page took the problem of shared time to President Wharton, and asked for consideration for a full-time station for Michigan State University television.

Through a series of events over the next four years, including the appointment of President Wharton to Michigan National Bank Robert Page Congratulations to the first Public Broadcasting Service board, WKAR-TV took back its maiden name and came home to Channel 23 in September, 1972. Michigan State University television had a full-time, full-color, PBS affiliated station on its own channel. Tim Skubick, whose "Off the Record" show features interviews on timely topics WKAR-TV 23 on 25 years of excellent public television. WKAR-TV Congra illations U)KAR-TU You're 25 Doing Great THE Country Store FURMITURG G4LLGRIGS 401 E. NORTH STREET.

LANSING, PH. 372-8600 PHONE 3511160 3101 E. SAGINAW.