FCC Dereserves TV Channel So WQED Can Sell It

By Steve Behrens
Originally published in Current, July 22, 2002

After six years of roller-coaster whips and plunges for WQED, the FCC last week removed the noncommercial reservation on a public TV channel so that Pittsburgh's major pubcaster could sell the channel and get out of debt.

ShootingStar Inc., owned by commercial broadcaster Diane Sutter, will pay WQED $20 million for Channel 16. WQED says it will now have the money to pay $9 million in debts, create a local programming endowment, repair its facilities and make the transition to digital transmission.

"It's a perfect example of when patience and persistence pays off," Sutter told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

WQED President George Miles says he expects to complete the license transfer and sale by the end of the year.

Miles, whose persistence was matched by critics opposing the sale, isn't claiming the fight is definitely over yet, but leading opponent Jerold Starr told Current last week that he doesn't expect to appeal the FCC order released July 18.

Starr, whose Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting and related groups fought WQED at nearly every step, sees no point in asking for reconsideration from the FCC, which voted 3-1 for dereservation and which probably would reach the same conclusion even after a vacant Democratic seat is filled. And he wouldn't expect to win in the conservative 3rd Circuit federal appeals court, either.

"We did feel we caused the FCC to narrow this decision in ways that should preclude greater damage," Starr said. He and Miles agree the FCC constructed a narrow decision that wouldn't open the door to mass sell-offs of reserved channels.

"Our decision here is based on a set of unique facts," the FCC said. It stated that "only under compelling circumstances will we consider deviation from our policy disfavoring dereservation of noncommercial channels."

Among the factors cited:

• WQED "remains in severe financial distress," impairing its operations, the FCC said. Though the station has reduced its debt from $14.5 million in 1995 to about $9 million, it barely generates a budget surplus and couldn't pay big debts, much less the high costs of DTV conversion. About half the debt is a bona fide debt to WQED's own program endowment, the commission found. And the FCC accepted the station's assessment that the shrunken Pittsburgh economy can't support two public TV stations.
• The second channel is no longer necessary for meeting the city's educational needs, including its original 1950s purpose of serving classrooms, the FCC said. When WQED gets the money to go digital, the commission added, it will be able to air multiple channels including instruction.
• Pittsburgh, which has just seven commercial stations, would gain additional program diversity by adding another, the FCC said.

Michael J. Copps, lone Democrat on the FCC, voted nay. In his dissent he objected to an "unprecedented waiver" of reservation policy, allowing WQED to sell the channel when another noncommercial applicant might be able to operate it. Copps also objected that the $20 million proceeds from the sale will go to the former licensee rather than to the public treasury.

The FCC decision was seen as supporting the view that one public TV station is enough for a city. WQED circulated a statement by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.): "Given the alternative sources of programming available today, the region's educational programming needs can be well served by one noncommercial television station - a stronger WQED."