Corporation for Public Broadcasting Fiscal Year 2009

In 2009, CPB embraced digital media as never before and launched a dialogue with the public broadcasting system through the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Public Service Media about public media in the digital age. In the Roundtable discussions, CPB emphasized the importance of collaboration, partnership, innovation, engagement, and diversity. Or as we now refer to these values, the three D's—Digital, Diversity, and Dialogue. Today, a significant number of stations are collaborating across platforms and increasing the number and depth of their local partnerships. In addition, the My Source platform is being used in innovative and creative ways, raising public awareness regarding the value of public service media.

In addition, we invested in the successful election and economic collaborative, which have now helped to inform and shape an important initiative that is both collaborative and innovative. At the same time, as health officials anticipated the return of the H1N1 influenza virus, CPB moved quickly to activate fluportal.org, designed to help public radio and television stations cover the pandemic on-air and online. The site highlights coverage by public media organizations and stations and directs stations to government and other resources to inform in depth coverage. Widgets and tips for posting H1N1 information on stations sites are also available. The site was designed to enhance a station's ability to be relevant in the local community by aggregating information that will be easy for individuals to use.

Engagement and the Economy

CPB investments help Americans get information and direct them to the resources they needed to cope with the impact of the economy. Through the "Facing the Mortgage Crisis" initiative at 57 stations in 35 markets, the public is responding through hundreds of phone calls and emails during town hall programs, and community partners report increased demand for foreclosure resources. Through our "Engaging Communities on the Economy" grant program, an additional 37 stations have been addressing other economic issues in their communities—homelessness, hunger, lack of health insurance—for a variety of audiences, including seniors, college students, and recent immigrants. Further, 20 stations are undertaking larger-scale, multi-year "Economy Response" projects. These initiatives will address complex economic issues, using emerging technologies and new partnerships. For example, Iowa Public Television will work with stations in Kansas, Wisconsin, and Nebraska to address rapidly declining farm income, a situation threatening rural families and communities. In sum, CPB is supporting economic projects at 102 stations in 71 markets that are making a real difference in the lives of Americans throughout the nation.

Reinforcing Engagement

Two excellent videoconferences demonstrated the success of CPB's coordinated investments in programming, community engagement and public awareness. The first videoconference brought together over 900 participants to watch the National Center of Media Engagement's "Pipeline Live 2009" on PBS satellite or via live web streaming. The videoconference focused on public media programming and services addressing the economic crisis, including the CPB-funded economy collaboration and Sesame Street family special. The second involved Rich Harwood, of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. Mr. Harwood was joined by station leaders Flo Rogers of KNPR-FM in Las Vegas, Joe Krushinsky of Maryland Public Television, and Mikel Ellcessor of WDET-FM in Detroit. The second video conference, "Stations Turning Outward Engagement Videoconference" addressed public media stations' essential role in communities, especially in times of economic hardship, and discussed why community engagement must be a strategic priority, essential to long-term sustainability. More than 500 public media professionals either participated in the original webinar and/or have accessed the videoconference online.

Finally, in the past nine months we have been working closely with Wisconsin Public Television to transform the National Center for Outreach into the National Center for Media Engagement to serve as the central source for community engagement and program engagement resources, including training, tools, best practices, and small grants.

Education

CPB has been working to bring the current cycle of Ready To Learn (RTL) to a successful conclusion while preparing for the Department of Education's anticipated release of the guidelines and criteria for the next round of RTL.

CPB awarded seven STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Digital Media Resources Production Grants totaling almost $900,000 to seven public television stations across the country. The grants ranged from $80,655 to $226,000. Under the grants, public television stations will produce content on STEM concepts with a focus in this funding round on earth sciences and climate-literacy content for middle-school students. This content will be shared among public broadcasting stations and educational organizations.

Public Media: Focus on Local Journalism

One of the most exciting new projects that CPB is undertaking is the creation of Local Journalism Centers (LJCs). Public radio and TV stations aspire to give their communities high-quality, fact-based journalism—especially in the face of a declining newspaper industry. But often their aspirations are not matched by resources. CPB is preparing to fund in 2010 five local journalism centers where small groups of public radio and TV stations will come together to provide in-depth, multimedia coverage of one topic area—commonly called "verticals". Each station will hire new reporters and a common editor to create a team of journalists who will produce video, audio, blogs, slideshows, and more to become the "go-to" resource on that topic. For example, stations along a river valley can combine forces to report on the environment in that watershed. Or stations in areas hard hit by the economy can work together to report on how their communities are recovering. In addition to reporting, the stations will form partnerships with community organizations and engage with local residents who will inform and disseminate the content.

Diversity and Innovation

CPB has built a new department focused on diversity and innovation. CPB is working to ensure that diversity and innovation are core values, both internally and externally, for public service media. As part of this effort, we have been working with the minority consortia, and the Public Awareness Initiative team, to deepen the relationship between public media and diverse audiences. With CPB's guidance, the consortia have been working with 15 television stations to produce local and national My Source testimonials for use on-air, online, and in print. These testimonials will highlight the impact of public media on engaging culturally and ethnically diverse community members.

CPB has also been working with WEAA to support a dynamic new daily radio program that features one of the country's leading African American voices, Michael Eric Dyson. Dr. Dyson is a well-known author, scholar, and commentator. He is also a professor of sociology at Georgetown University, where he teaches courses in theology, English, and African American studies. WEAA is located in Baltimore at Morgan State University—one of the Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs). The program will provide analysis on issues related to the African American experience through conversation with newsmakers, journalists, and a cadre of expert roundtable guests.

Our Public Radio Talent Quest winners, Al Letson and Glynn Washington, have been developing their respective radio programs. Al's program, State of the Re:Union, is a unique multimedia project that combines hour-long radio episodes with short video documentaries, images, music, and blogs to immerse the audience in new and exciting ways. As you know, Letson is a writer, producer, director, and poet, and all of his talents shine through in his work. The program explores the themes, stories, challenges, and cultural components that create communities across the country and celebrate the commonality that links us as a people. Glynn's program, Snap Judgment, combines intimate storytelling with innovative technology. It invites listeners to step into the shoes of people confronting decisions that matter. Glynn is giving his audience many ways to tell their own stories, through video, audio, text, and mobile phone applications.

CPB conducted a workshop, The Power Public Radio Stations Bring to Their Universities, in the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. WEAA general manager LaFontaine Oliver, Dr. Earl S. Richardson, president of Morgan State University, Dr. Baruti N. Kopano, chair of Morgan State's Communication Studies Department and Craig Beeby, executive director of the University: Station Alliance, also participated. The workshop provided university presidents and staff with information on CPB's support of the public radio stations licensed to HBCUs, the use of new media platforms to enhance diversity and innovation, and community engagement and success stories from WEAA and its licensee, Morgan State University in Baltimore. The workshop also demonstrated the way to calculate the value public radio stations bring to their university licensees using the University: Station Alliance's metrics, which were developed by a CPB-funded project.

The best of Latino culture is being showcased on national public television in a series called Voces (Voices), which aired in conjunction with National Hispanic Heritage Month. This innovative, dynamic, 13-part series is a presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting, featuring a diverse array of documentaries and musical specials that celebrate the rich variety of the Latino American experience. Each show will be introduced by acclaimed actor Edward James Olmos.

CPB and PBS continue to collaborate on primetime event programming. The Program Challenge Fund series Latin Music U*S*A* premiered this fall with award-winning actor Jimmy Smits as narrator. The series explores the creation of one of the most compelling and important musical movements in the world today, as well as the story of an ever-evolving American culture in the 21st century.

In Performance at the White House "Fiesta Latina" celebrated Latino music genres and culture during Hispanic Heritage Month. The series will continue in February 2010 with In Performance at the White House "A Change Is Gonna Come: Celebrating the Songs of the Civil Rights Movement". The program will showcase nine musical classics performed by singers from the civil rights era and contemporary artists.

CPB is defining strategies to merge traditional broadcast programming with digital media to more effectively reach new audiences, especially diverse communities. One example is the Through a Lens Darkly project that marries a traditional documentary broadcast focusing on understanding race, culture, and identity through photography, with a robust online social network. Through the use of online tools, the producers of Through a Lens Darkly are enabling African American, Latino, Asian, Native American, and other families to not only upload their family photographs and tell their own stories, but place their memories in the context of other users and the history of America.

Digital Innovation

As the digital transformation continues in public broadcasting, CPB is taking the lead to achieve agreement across the system on a commonly accepted set of digital media tools and standards. Digital media provides opportunities for collaboration resulting in significant efficiencies and innovation. One example is the NPR application programming interface, or API. An API is a "digital doorway" that facilitates the ability to get information about NPR stories, news and music, and provide all of this on their specific site. For example, the NPR API powers the ability for member stations to have NPR news reports on their Web site rather than sending people to NPR's site. It also powers multiple iPhone applications, such as PRX's iTuner project that has had more than 1.7 million downloads. CPB has been working with NPR, Public Radio International, American Public Media, the NewsHour, and several stations to broaden the NPR API so it can become a "public media API" that will allow stations, on their own terms, to share content across the system and power innovation.

CPB, together with NPR, PBS, and ten stations, sponsored the first Public Media Camp. This event comprised more than 250 non–public media technologists gathering in Washington, D.C. to focus on writing code, developing prototypes, and creating tools and products for public television and radio. Public broadcasters attending the camp learned how to replicate lessons learned for their stations. At the end of the event, they received a "public media camp in-a-box" to help them plan their own events, as well as small, $2,000-4,000 sponsorships to start their own projects.

We are working in an environment where the introduction of over-the-air mobile television is becoming a reality. Commercial and public broadcasters have been mounting a demonstration project in the Washington, D.C. area to test the delivery technology, consumer devices, and consumer interest and use of various content products and services. CPB is supporting public television's participation. We are working with public broadcasting participants to test content formats and consumer response and behavior. CPB will also support the development and evaluation of interactive features and electronic program guides designed for mobile use.

American Archive

This initiative utilizes technology to provide the American people with access to the public media treasure trove of information, education, and cultural programming, made possible by the taxpayer, foundations, corporations, and contributors over four decades.

CPB presented a two-year investment strategy to create and launch the archive to the members of the CPB board of directors' American Archive Task Force. The stated goal is to develop a resource that will comprise our legacy audio and video programming and today's digital content. We have implemented a $16.5-million, three-phase investment strategy to ensure the archive becomes a reality. Further, we have established an Office of the American Archive within CPB and are in the process of engaging an executive director. At the same time, we initiated a system-wide inventory of public media including content from local stations and select national producers. We anticipate the inventory process will take place over the next 18 months.

Our partners at Oregon Public Broadcasting are working on the American Archive Pilot Project. The pilot project will inform future investments and establish appropriate protocols for accepting content and managing storage and other technology challenges. Through the pilot project, we will begin to create the public face of the archive, as defined by an accessible online service (Web, mobile and Internet-enabled television) for easy access by the American public.

CPB's work in the year ahead will continue to be guided by the strategic priorities of: Digital and Innovation; Diversity; Dialogue, Engagement and Awareness; Education, and Journalism. Through this framework, we will design and develop the public media system of the future.