Public broadcasting is primarily a “vanity press” for the liberal elite as well as the politicians, except that unlike privately-owned vanity publishers — you & I are forced to unwittingly (unwillingly ?) subsidize their excesses.

WQLN-TV perhaps served a legitimate purpose in its original incarnation by efficiiently delivering instructional & cultural television programming, coverage of the region’s governmental meetings and local sports, etc. where no existing alternative capabilities existed at the time (1960s-1970s).

However, with the advent of widely-available multichannel cable TV and low-cost teleproduction equipment in the 1980s, this role became largely superfluous. Nowadays technical and sociological advances such as the Internet, webcams, DV camcorders, DBS, Tivo, YouTube, PC-based multimedia applications, and the like have rendered it an expensive Edsel in a 21st century world.

Similar sentiments could apply to WQLN-FM if you substitute radio’s realities for those of television.

Combine all of this with the innate tendency of bureaucracies in general (not just WQLN’s management, mind you, but especially public-funded organizations) to constantly self-justify needless expansion/enhancement and the picture becomes clear.

Unfortunately, all of this carries a heavy personal toll for those who have been involuntarily separated from their positions. Let’s hope our colleagues land on their feet with minimal disruption …. and sanity prevails in the bigger scheme of things when it comes to throwing public funds at these sorts of boondoggles in the future.

In this day of myriad cable and satellite channels, PBS has become irrelevant. Anything worthwhile PBS does may now be found on other channels in spades.

What by the way is Dwight Miller’s salary? Without knowing that, his “ten percent cut” is meaningless, though it appears to be an attempt to portray him as more selfless than his colleagues.

I agree with Citi and Heavy D. Let WQLN try and sell advertising. If they succeed that is wonderful, if not then they can go the way of WSEE-TV. It’s survival of the fittest these days. WSEE couldn’t make a go of it and look what happened. Time to see if WQLN can survive on its own without taxpayer funding.

citi