WQPT plans for future after funding cut

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By David Burke | Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:36 AM CDT | () comments

WQPT-TV will try to remain status quo, general manager Rick Best said Tuesday, despite an announcement that Black Hawk College will cut its funding of about $335,000 to the Moline-based Public Broadcasting System station.

“The plan is to maintain operations as they currently exist,” he said. “We have reserves on hand, and staff and services will stay as they are for now.”

Best said station personnel will meet soon with a consultant hired by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting who is a specialist in funding and strategic planning for small stations.

“That will help WQPT staff and our board get our heads together and make some serious plans for the future,” he said. “What that’s going to be, I don’t know right now.”

The college cut funding for the Public Broadcasting System, or PBS, station by about $100,000 for this fiscal year, which ends in June. Board members of the Greater Quad-Cities Telecommunications Corp., the community advisory panel for the station, were told of the cuts at their meeting Monday.

“It was somewhat expected,” Best said. “The college has been telling us for a while that we should probably anticipate that. Now, it’s official in writing.”

Between the loss of funding from the community college and the increased cost of PBS programming, Best said, WQPT faced a deficit of $187,000 for the current fiscal year. By the midway point of the year, that deficit was down to $87,000, he said. Now, it is at about $16,000.

“We’ve made a heck of a lot of progress over the past several months in bringing in more funds,” he said. “The public is clearly getting the message and responding.”

Membership contributions have increased by about $75,000, he said. The station’s December pledge drive brought in its highest amount ever, and a recently completed pledge drive totaled $54,000 — slightly less than a year ago but without new “blockbuster” PBS programming, he said.

In addition, organization memberships, travel and training budgets were cut completely.

“Anything that we could eliminate this year, we have,” he said.

Best and Black Hawk College President Keith Miller said discussions have been held with other entities in the Quad-City community about major support for WQPT, but no firm commitments have been made.

“We have been, and we continue to look for other partners in the community,” Miller said. “There is interest within the Quad-City area for the PBS station and being able to continue that effort.”

Miller said budget cuts are being faced in all facets of Black Hawk College, which is focusing its efforts on education and vocational training.

“The college is having to do the very same thing,” he said.

Fred Leggett of Kewanee, Ill. — a member of the telecommunications board as well as chairman of the college’s board of trustees — said both entities had to undertake careful consideration of the future.

“They have to look at what they do the same way Black Hawk did,” Leggett said of WQPT. “Black Hawk has a core mission of providing educational services. WQPT has a mission of providing culturally beneficial programming, plus local programming. What are they doing, beyond that, so they could save money if they didn’t do?”

The college, Leggett said, is looking at a $1 million deficit.

“We have to look at those aspects of what we do that don’t directly contribute to our core mission and, unfortunately, de-fund those,” he said.

Best said WQPT is not only facing cuts from Black Hawk, but also a 10 percent increase in the cost of its core PBS programming and an increase in PBS membership fees.

“We have whittled down considerably the deficit we started with,” he said. “But going into this next year, we’re looking at an additional hole of $335,000 or more.”

Best said the station will be looking to the Quad-City area for not only additional funding, but also advice on where it wants to see its PBS station in the future.

“Community input would be very helpful at this point in time,” he said. “It always has been, but we’re obviously in a different situation right now.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

ABOUT WQPT

WQPT-TV, Channel 24, signed on the air Nov. 2, 1983, and has been housed since then on the Black Hawk College campus in Moline. It serves about 309,000 households in western Illinois and eastern Iowa. It has a staff of 17 full-time employees and a budget of about $2 million per year.

Its mission statement reads: “Lifelong learning is vital to the progress of our community. WQPT Quad-Cities PBS provides a pathway to lifelong learning through the delivery of high-quality educational and culturally enriching television programming and related outreach services.”