PBS World

Unless you’ve been alive over a half-century, you probably learned how to count through the efforts of The Count, the friendly vampire on Sesame Street seen locally on WQLN.

Fast forward to the current decade, and the complex mathematics of state budgets and advances in technology has the local public media outlet doing some counting of their own.

On the positive side of the balance sheet is the addition of PBS World to the 54.3 standard def lineup. When it was launched in 2007, the purpose of PBS World was to be

a  new channel featuring documentary, public affairs, and news programming from public television’s award-winning signature series and acclaimed independent filmmakers

During the day you’ll see episodes from the PBS Kids lineup, proving to be a strong alternative to the regular PBS fare on 54.1 and the Create channel on 54.2.

On the liability column is the loss of the popular but expensive Marketplace radio show, which aired at 6:00 PM with morning updates through June 30th. WQLN President Dwight Miller had warned us that because of the severe budget cuts made by the state, the damage would be felt by the viewers and listeners. Marketplace was one of those casualties.

Some think that in this age of 500 digital channels and audio and video on demand, the public media service is becoming obsolete. I couldn’t disagree more. Free educational broadcasting, with programming as excellent as Marketplace, allows every citizen to be informed, and helps keep the playing field level.

Because of that, the loss of even one half-hour daily finance show that helped the common person understand the complexity of finance and economics will be sorely felt.