----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The notion of commercial interests utilizing non-commercial radio and
television channels is not as easy as it seems.  Most, if not all,
non-commercial stations broadcast on channels set aside for non-commercial use.
To use these channels for commercial endeavors would require at the very least
a FCC rulemaking procedure.  Of course, Congress could step in and legislate it
but how likely is that?
 
The issue of federal support for non-commercial telecommunications is complex.
To be sure, there are numerous small market stations that would be hurt if they
were to lose their community service grants (federal dollars).  And, I'm not
entirely sure that commercially-based enterprises would be there to present the
programming, see Owens, _Video Economics_.  But as one who toiled in the
vineyards of non-commercial braodcasting for many (too many) years, I can point
to inefficiencies, political pandering (from both sides), and internal politics
that continually harm the system.
 
It appears to me that the non-commercial system is poorly prepared for the
inevitable rduction, if not outright elimination, of federal funding.  AS
draconian as it may seem, recall that much of the programming you see on PBS is
funded through fedeeral sources other than the funds that are channeled to the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
 
The bottom line is that public broadcasting will survive.  What we should be
dealing with is the form of its survival.  Recall that on the television side
the system is decentralized and the stations have geat power over the
programming that is made available. The strength of the system is the system
not CPB.
 
 
Marvin Smith, Dept. of Radio-TV, Eastern Washington University