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Wednesday, February 9, 2000
KEDT seeks $3.2 million for upgrade project
Separate fund drive will come late this summer for new digital equipment
By Andrea Jares
Caller-Times
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| John Kennedy/Caller-Times |
| Don Dunlap, KEDT's president and general manager, sits in front of some new digital equipment. The new unit sits between two old analog units. |
KEDT, Corpus Christi's public broadcasting station, asks its viewers every year to contribute to its $1.7 million operating budget.
This year, it will ask for more than $3.2 million in additional donations from the community to pay for its federally mandated switch to digital signals.
KEDT will begin the push for the additional funding late this summer, a separate campaign from the station's three other annual fund-raising drives.
The Federal Communications Commission is requiring that commercial television broadcasting stations be ready to broadcast digitally by the end of 2002 and public stations by 2003.
Broadcasting digitally will allow stations to offer higher resolution and will serve as a bridge between televisions and computers, officials said. Television stations, both commercial and public, will spend millions to convert towers and other equipment in time for the deadline. The largest chunk of the multimillion-dollar tab is the $1.7 million conversion of a transmitter in Petronila, said Don Dunlap, the station's president and general manager. The station spent $200,000 last spring to buy digital video editing equipment.
The new digital age will allow stations like KEDT to embellish their broadcasts with more information that will become increasingly more personalized, Dunlap said. Digital television will add depth to the types of images that come onto viewers' screens. In the future, viewers not only will be able to watch a symphony, but also can learn about each musician or follow along with the music on their television screen.
People will be able to choose camera angles or have more information downloaded to a home computer. A tour of a museum will bring 360-degree panoramic scenes in which viewers will be able to zoom in for a closer look.
"At the same time people can download a coupon for a box of soap off a commercial, we can be printing teachers' guides," Dunlap said.
Multiple broadcasts
The digital signal will give stations the option of using the same station to broadcast more than one show at the same time. It would be possible for five different episodes of the same show to be broadcast digitally.
Dunlap said this would mean opportunities for items of local interest to be televised. Attractions such as the Lexington Museum on the Bay and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge could have a forum for information and promotion, he said.
"There's a real opportunity for KEDT to serve people we haven't served before," Dunlap said. These programs could also be used for local literacy programs.
Dunlap said the additional bandwidth will be welcome, especially when there is already more programming than the station is able to air.
"There's at least four times the public broadcasting than we have time to air," Dunlap said.
More local programming
KEDT wants to use this technology to offer more local programming, Dunlap said. This might include classes from one of the local colleges or segments on area attractions. Talks are planned with local colleges as to what kinds of programming could be offered.
Telecourses such as history and English have been attracting out-of-district students for years, growing 11 percent from last year, said Don Tyler, assistant dean for business learning at Del Mar College. Interest is also growing with Internet-based courses, he said. The two are beginning to merge with classes that use both the Internet and television, he said.
The $3.5-million price tag for a digital switch will be significant for KEDT, one of the smallest community-owned stations in the country.
"It's going to take a lot of loaves and fishes to make this possible," said Jeannie Bunton, spokeswoman for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funds for public radio and television. There are some 350 public broadcasting stations in the United States, facing a total $1.7 billion in equipment changes. The public broadcasting industry needs $1.9 billion annually to keep it running.
Community money needed
Dunlap said the funding for the transition will need to come from the community, as there are no state dollars available. On Monday, President Clinton proposed a budget that included $393 million earmarked for the digital switch between 2001 and 2003. Public broadcasting organizations had asked for more than $600 million to be written into the budget, Bunton said.
Business writer Andrea Jares can be reached at 886-3678 or by e-mail at jaresa@caller.com
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