Lexington Herald-Leader du lieu suivant : Lexington, Kentucky • 50

a 1 Lexington Herald-Leader Books E4 Farm E6 Editorials E8 Section Sunday November 22 1987 strategy: Will it bridge troubled waters? yen returned to at least that level Toyota's engine plant would cost an additional $107 million Toyota is Japan's largest manufacturer and its cars 'are a major contributor to the trade imbalance not that happy to come here They have Toshiaki Taga Wharton Business School Such' savings are crucial for Toyota because its net income for fiscal 1967 dropped about 25 percent Toyota has also raised its prices seven times since 1986 to cope with the rising value of the yea By Alecia Swasy Herald-Leader business writer The problems of the auto industry have hit Toyota and other automakers like a tsunami While many of their competitors will succumb to die Japanese tidal wave Toyota is developing a strategy for its Kentucky plant that will see it through the political and financial storms The recent announcement of a $300 million engine and component plant in Georgetown mid Uix government approval last week of a foreign trade subzone are key elements of that strategy US-Japan trade problems The other motivation driving Toyota's rapid investment in Kentucky is the trade problems between the United States and Japan record lows of 135 yen What that low rate means is that companies like Toyota lose money when dollar profits are converted back into yea It also means the company can buy more US assets for fewer yea Consider $300 million engine axle and steering components plant which will produce enough of those high-value components for die 200000 Camrys it plans to build each year If Toyota waited to build the engine plant it took a risk that the dollar would regain value on the currency markets One way to show how expensive that could be is to consider that last spring the dollar was valued at 210 yea If die goods can be exported to the States Perhaps one of the greatest uncertainties scaring Toyota and others is the world-wide shakeout in the auto industry The Japanese see die handwriting on die said Ronald Glantz an auto analyst with Montgomery Securities yen is appreciating so much they afford to just export their Yen-dollar exchange In recent times economists estimated that the yen-dollar exchange rate would not go below 150 yen to the dollar down from levels in the 200s But the dollar has dropped further to Like all Japanese exporters Toyota is shifting mare manufacturing to the States because of the record-low value erf the U5l dollar which makes it cheaper to invest here Toyota is Japan's largest manufacturer and its cars a mjor contributor to the trade said Toshiaki Taga director of the Wharton Business School's U5 Japan Management Studies Center not that they're happy to come here They have (Turn to TOYOTA'S E3) File pnolo Gov Collins with Kaneyoshi Kusunoki of Toyota at engine plant announcement The Japanese also know die new year could bring tougher Uix trade laws that limit how many cars engines or other Public television 0 9 Legislature may have to settle education flap 0 Twenty years after the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act Is the of the airwaves going commercial? V- jV 111 Jr By John Corry New York Time New Service NEW YORK Public television is supposed to be in crisis: Where is its soul its reasoa its purpose the spirit that would make it as Elk White once wrote Lyceum our Chautauqua our and our It is hard to say although for time now the crisis has been cast in terms of God overcome by mammon Twenty years after the act that created it was signed public television is supposed to be broke Phrases like federal and figure in almost all descriptions If public television gets more money truth justice mid beauty will win Consequently the Senate Commerce Committee recently took a giant step toward what it says will correct things: It approved legislation that would levy a tax of 2 percent and more on the sale of commercial radio and television stations with die new money to be used for our Lyceum and Chautauqua Well perhaps Federal support is supposed to be essential for public television although it has never been quite dear why Public broadcasting radio and television is now a $1 billion-a-year industry with income from many sources Earlier this year the National Association of Public Television Stations said that public television should be a billion industry by the 1991 fiscal year That year the association said the federal government should contribute between $676 million and $797 million to public television Gramm-Rudman the national deficit and other fiscal problems aside the association said that with a straight free That was understandable history was on public side Although the perception may be that federal support is declining it has in fret been rising The Corporation far Public Broadcasting which disburses federal funds for radio and television is operating this year on a m3 5f John Brock taken over yet as superintendent of public instnictioa but already knee-deep in a dispute with the Kentucky Board of Education that can only get bigger The dispute is over the request for money to hire its own staff independent of the Department of Education Brock who will take over as chief of the department in January feels strongly that the board need its own staff and have one The board feels just as strongly that it should have one with fall access to department information The state board sets policy but it has no authority over the elected superintendent Its information has come from the superintendent and department staff But if the board and the superintendent are at odds as they sometimes were during the administration of Superintendent Alice McDonald the board can have problems getting information In fact a disagreement with McDonald sparked the board's request far its own staff more than a year ago The board fearing a lawsuit backed off Now comes Brock Neither the board nor Brock wants to start off on the wrong foot They seem to like each other But neither is budging on the issue And now others are jumping in The issue came up last week when the Central Kentucky Association of School Administrators met Brock who is a former local school superintendent found some ready allies among the members who invited him to be their guest speaker Several administrators told Brock they would help fight the request A separate staff would usurp his authority and create even more bureaucracy they said Barbara Cockrum principal of Eastern Elementary School in Scott County said a group of elementary school principals felt so strongly that it had passed a resolution opposing the move Woodford County Superintendent Joe Gormley suggested that administrators lobby their legislators Some already have Brock told them he leading any movement against the board but he made his stance clear will be in charge of the staff at the Kentucky Department of he said me there will be no one directing that staff but John Brock said he hoped the board would drop the request but board Chairman Clay Parks erf Dry Ridge said it was on its way to the legislative and executive brandies has absolutely nothing to do with John Parks said just happens to be the player on die budget of $2342 million and Congress has authorized increases for the next three years If the Senate Commerce Committee bill becomes law and it very well may it is estimated that the corporation will receive $304 million with further increases each year after that But to what purpose? Twenty years after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act on Nov 7 1967 public television is at a crossroads Increasingly it locks like just another commercial network Commercial networks especially on cable increasingly look like public television TV Guide in a recent two-part survey found that WTTW in Chicago most-watched PTV no longer even refers to itself either on the air or on its stationery as a public television station WTTW shows late-night movies and CNN news Wonderful World of and TV Guide also found that figure was means The figure of 100 million seems to include viewers who drop in far a few moments and then move on to other stations The only sure thing is that when public television locks most like our Lyceum or Chautauqua viewers tune out in droves Public television and most of its hierarchy have made a decision: They will pish for higher ratings more viewers will lode far say than far Bill Moyers Meanwhile the figure now proclaimed is that 100 million viewers watch public television each week The sizes of public television audiences have always been mysterious Nielsen or other ratings are not flashed around When (Turn to PUBUC E5) The same story in TV Guide cited an internal PBS memo: 71 of the 319 public TV stations broadcast syndicated programs 1 Spy" far instance difficult though to tell what that KET director sees loss of teaching role Herald-Leader LEX! Leonard Press you go to a convention and listen to the new generation of public television programmers talk you realize they a bt closer to being commercially oriented than educationally Press said in a dialogue that found him alternating between pessimism and optimism generation is still running tilings now but in another 10 years wet be Question: Is public television really in crisis? Answer Yes I think it is I think in crisis of survival as much as it is in crisis of maintaining its proper direction What is the proper direction? Turn to KET E2) Leonard Press was invoked in public television even before die Cor-m poration for Pubtic Broadcasting was formed 20 years ago In 1958 Press helped begin planning for the creation of the Kentucky Educational Television Network and when KET went on the air as the largest statewide network in 1968 he was its executive director Since then Press has also become a major force in national pubtic television tircles He has served as chairman of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and as chairman pro tem of the Public Broadcasting Service board of directors In 1981 he served on a task force that studied long-range financing plans for public broadcasting In 1982 he was ace chairman of the National Association of Public Television Stations In this interview with Herald-Leader television critic Susan White Press compares public television present status to its original mission Leonard Press unhappy at concern with ratings (Turn to LEGISLATURE E2J Can the Democrats succeed by returning to their roots? Celebrating the advantages Fund raising for Wilkinson of living in Appalachia stop with election Page E5 Page E9 Opinion: Books: Page E4 I i.