Bishop urges broadcasters be made to air more public interest shows

Published: 2006-06-07

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Television stations should be required to air more public interest programming before the expected conversion of broadcast signals from analog to digital is to be completed in 2009, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' communications committee. In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin released June 6, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., said a "substantial effort to provide programming that better serves the public" should be required of broadcasters in exchange for the new spectrum rights worth "tens of billions of dollars" that they will receive with digital broadcasting. "Today, even as the broadcasting industry continues to benefit from its subsidized use of the public airwaves, broadcasters' observance of meaningful public interest obligations has declined," Bishop Kicanas said in the letter, which was dated May 23.

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