Struggle and Growth

From its inception, public broadcasting—radio and television—has had an uneven, sometimes contentious relationship with government. In the early 1970s, fueled by distrust of public broadcasting’s attention to politically charged current events (NPR, for example, was providing live coverage of the Watergate hearings) the Nixon Administration tried to terminate all of PBS and NPR’s political coverage. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a report asserting that the White House was attempting to “intimidate” and “starve” public television and radio.

Without a substantial endowment or sufficient foundation backing, public broadcasting was forced to subsist on one- and two-year federal allocations. President Nixon vetoed congressional authorization of $65 million in federal funding to CPB in 1973. As Bill Moyers commented in the Boston Globe on June 10, 1973, “Uncle Sam isn’t a benevolent philanthropist; when he gives you an allowance he expects to be invited to Sunday dinner, at least. Anybody who says you can get money from Congress and the White House with no strings attached must have been reading a 1950 high school civics book.”

Eventually, signs of expansion and financial stability started to appear. In 1975 CPB began a Coverage Expansion Grant program designed to assist new noncommercial stations in qualifying for NPR membership. The following year Congress appropriated a landmark three-year funding plan, a first for public broadcasting. In 1977 NPR merged with the Association of Public Radio Stations, the successor to National Educational Radio, which advocated on behalf of public radio to Congress and federal agencies.

With the merger, NPR was able to evolve from its initial role—largely a production and distribution center—into leadership of a full-fledged membership organization providing member stations with training, program promotion and management, and representing the interests of public radio stations before Congress, the FCC and other regulatory organizations. At that time, NPR had a network of 198 public radio stations, 65 percent of them licensed to universities. Fifty percent of its national programming was produced by NPR, 25 percent by its member stations, and another 25 percent came from other sources. Through CPB, the federal government provided one-third of public radio’s $65 million budget; the rest came from state, local and subscriber contributions, and from foundations.

In 1977, at the request of NPR and the CPB, Carnegie Corporation convened a new commission to revisit the funding issues and review the progress and technological possibilities of public broadcasting. The Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting, chaired by Columbia University president William J. McGill, issued the report, A Public Trust, in January 1979, addressing what it called a fundamental dilemma: “How can public broadcasting be organized so that sensitive judgments can be freely made and creative activity freshly carried out without destructive quarreling over whether the system is subservient to a variety of powerful forces, including the government?”

The Commission recommended replacing CPB with a new entity, the Public Communications Trust, a private, not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization with a nine-member governing board appointed by the president. For National Public Radio, the Commission proposed adding an additional 250 to 300 stations to assure a truly national reach. Although CPB was not abolished by Congress, NPR soon experienced unprecedented growth, with Frank Mankiewicz (son of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz) as its new president. He oversaw the opening of foreign news bureaus, the 1979 debut of Morning Edition, a sharp increase in programming hours and in 1980, the linking to a satellite network—greatly enhancing the sound quality for its membership of 250 stations and an audience of over 8.5 million people.

Those successes were tempered, however, by unchecked expansion, insufficient support from Washington and programming decisions that could now be considered shortsighted. For example, NPR passed on the opportunity to distribute a new show produced by Minnesota Public Radio, A Prairie Home Companion, which contributed to the creation of a new noncommercial production and distribution entity, American Public Radio (now known as Public Radio International), a significant public broadcasting competitor. In 2004, Minnesota Public Radio left Public Radio International in order to form the new division American Public Media to produce and distribute its national programs-Prairie Home Companion included.

In 1981 threats of reduced federal funding and the possible elimination of CPB led Mankiewicz to respond with Project Independence, a strategy of new fundraising initiatives that would enable NPR to wean itself from government support by 1988. Project Independence comprised three separate campaigns: a fundraising drive to secure donations from grants, foundations and corporations; NPR Ventures, which would create commercial partnerships to utilize the unused portions of NPR’s satellite radio channels; and NPR Plus, designed to increase programming and charge a fee to member stations for broadcasting rights. Setting these ambitious ventures in motion cost NPR money it simply did not have. With morale low and NPR running on a multi-million-dollar deficit, Mankiewicz resigned in the spring of 1983. Soon thereafter NPR made painful yet necessary budget cuts (including the layoff of some 60 staff members), secured a $6.4 million loan from CPB and orchestrated a pledge drive in which member stations raised $2 million.

In testimony before a House committee in early 1984, Frederick Wolf of the General Accounting Office said, “NPR’s financial problems…occurred because the organization was not properly prepared for and, in fact, failed in its ambitious plan known as Project Independence.” In his view, the key causes of failure were that management operations were not properly structured to undertake the major expansion, and that NPR’s ability to raise funds from private grants and contributions had not been fully developed, meaning revenue goals were not realized. Additionally, NPR did not have a functioning financial management information system to provide essential reports, such as comparisons of budgeted and actual revenues and expenditures, to enable management to monitor operations during a critical period.

In 1985 NPR’s new president, Douglas Bennet, oversaw the completion of its financial restructuring, which included having member stations receive funds directly from CPB—not through NPR—to acquire national programming. Listeners heard Fresh Air and Car Talk debut on NPR in 1987, while news shows began broadcasting seven days a week along with gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Iran-Contra hearings.

In the 1990s, NPR initiated more new programming, established a presence on the Internet and began to build a more reliable funding base. It was a productive decade, as this timeline illustrates:

• 1991: Talk of the Nation made its debut. NPR provided round-the-clock coverage of the First Gulf War.
  
• 1992: The NPR Jazz Initiative was launched distributing, among other programs, Jazz Profiles, JazzSet, Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz and Jazz from Lincoln Center.
  
• 1993: NPR began broadcasting its programming to Europe through an international satellite system. The NPR Foundation was established to achieve greater financial stability.
  
• 1994: NPR.org arrived on the Internet.
  
• 1995: All Things Considered expanded from ninety minutes to two hours.
  
• 1996: The NPR Foundation reached the $5 million mark in assets. Performance Today highlighted classical music seven days a week.
  
• 1997: On the Media and The Diane Rehm Show debuted.
  
• 1998: Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! was launched. NPR News opened bureaus in the Midwest and New Delhi. NPR Worldwide began, sending programs throughout Asia, Africa and Europe.
  
• 1999: Morning Edition celebrated its 20th anniversary.

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