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Feasibility Report on the Unification of Statewide Public Broadcasting

KUAC-Fairbanks, KTOO-Juneau and APTI-Anchorage have released a report on the feasibility of a unified statewide public broadcasting organization. We are still only in the planning stages, but since KUAC FM and AlaskaOne TV will be affected, we need input.

KUAC invites you to carefully examine the report (http://www.alaskapublicmedia.blogspot.com/) and identify what you see as potential opportunities or challenges of a statewide merger. We welcome and encourage your posts to the blogspot. This report is the first of many steps that could change the face of public broadcasting in Alaska, so every opinion is important.

TO: KUAC TV/FM Community

FROM: Jake Poole, Interim General Manager, KUAC

RE: Discussion on broad-based transformation of public media in Alaska

The general managers from KTOO, KUAC and APTI have been meeting on a regular basis this last year to discuss emerging needs and pressures in public media and to imagine better futures. These wide-ranging discussions settled upon the view that nothing short of transformation is required for public broadcasting and its core values to survive and flourish in our communities in a transformed media environment.

We have had lengthy discussions at the general manager, staff and board of directors level on the possibility of looking at some type of consolidation between our three operations that would allow us to operate as a broad-based unified public media organization while at the same time being faithful to meeting the local needs of the communities in which we serve.

To assist us with this endeavor, we worked with Dennis McMillan with the Foraker Group, who interviewed stakeholders and community leaders from each of the three communities. We have also been working with Tom Livingston of the public media consultation company Livingston Associates out of Baltimore. Many of you have been interviewed by Tom, and that is one of the most important parts to this whole process --- to make it completely transparent and to provide opportunities for staff, volunteers, board members, leadership council members and other key stakeholders to weigh in and make comments.

Late last month, we received the final report from Livingston Associates and have posted it to a newly created blog at http://www.alaskapublicmedia.blogspot.com/. Other supporting documents will be posted there as well, and we will use the blog to keep you informed as we move forward. The most important feature of the blog is that it allows the opportunity for you to offer comments and suggestions. We ask that you cast a critical eye at the report and other documents and identify what you see as potential opportunities and challenges with such an endeavor.

Please keep in mind we are still in the discussion stage of all of this. No changes are going to be made at this time, as any type of change would have to be approved by our various boards. And while there are numerous questions that still need to be answered, we are unified in our excitement over the possibility of what a transformation such as this could do for our station, our audiences, the communities in which we serve, and the state of Alaska as whole.

There will be much more discussion on this in the weeks and months to come. Thank you for your dedication to and support of public media in Alaska and KUAC.

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