 | Don Checots
(CHEE-CAUGHTS) is a native of Pennsylvania. He left there in 1965 to join the United States Air Force. While in the Air Force Mr. Checots became involved with Armed Forces Radio and Television, and helped install AFTN radio and television services in Thailand. From there, he assumed more responsible management positions in public broadcasting stations and eventually moved to Bemidji, Minnesota where he built a full-service public TV station. While there, he received a Bush Foundation Summer Fellows Award and attended the Harvard Business School's Public Broadcasting Executive Management Program. After Bemidji, he moved to South Bend, Indiana as President/General Manager of public television station WNIT. In January 1997, he moved to Wichita as President/General Manager of KPTS and works with the Board and community to reinvent public broadcasting in South-Central Kansas. Don may be contacted by phone at (316) 838-3090, or by e-mail at dchecots@kpts.org. |
Media
2002-01-01 14:20:00
Where is the program?
Question: Why is it sometimes I read in an article somewhere that a particular program is going to air on PBS but it is not televised for weeks after?
Answer: Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question. There can be many factors that can cause this to happen. First, PBS differs from other networks in that each local station is autonomous and decides which programs to televise locally. Practically speaking, however, most stations will follow the PBS national schedule fairly closely. There are a number of reasons for this. PBS and the local affiliates have agreed that each station will carry a certain number of programs at the time that PBS schedules it nationally. This allows stations to take advantage of national promotion of the program by scheduling it at the same time as the other stations. In addition, companies and foundations, which supply funds to produce the program, want to know when the program they funded will be televised. However, there may be locally produced programs, or other local events that cause a station to delay the broadcast of a national PBS program. For instance, a station may be offering live coverage of an important address by the Governor, causing the station to have to either pre-empt (not air at all) or reschedule a national program. Meanwhile, the producer and PBS may independently have provided promotional information to various local and national publications about the program, not knowing the local station will be pre-empting. As a result, erroneous information may get published.Finally, PBS may change its mind about when it is going to schedule a program, due to unforeseen events, and this update may not get to publications before the issue goes to press. This may seem like a long answer to a fairly simple question, but the process of programming a public television station is subject to many outside forces. However, the unique and high quality programs offered in the end product to the millions of viewers of public television are worth the challenge.
