9:00-9:15 am

Welcome and conference outline from Carroll Joynes , Executive Director, Cultural Policy Center at The University of Chicago.

Session 1

9:15-10:00 am

"The Future of Public Television," a keynote address by Pat Mitchell, President and CEO, PBS.

Ms. Mitchell will address the complicated funding issues facing public broadcasting. She will also discuss both new PBS programming and the programming opportunities afforded by the development of digital channels and other technological advances.

Session Two

10:00-10:30 am

“An Alternate View of the Future of Public Television,” an address by Dr. Jerold M. Starr, Executive Director, Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting.

Dr. Starr will discuss the possibility of a major restructuring of public broadcasting as an independent trust comparable to the Red Cross or the U.S. International Olympic Committee.

Session Three

Kathleen Cox, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will address the conference.

11:00 am-Noon

A moderated analysis of the first three conference addresses and audience Q & A.
Participants will include:

• Newton Minow, former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
• Lawrence Grossman, former President, PBS and NBC News
• William J. McCarter, former President and CEO, WTTW, Chicago

Possible points of discussion:

• Is the very term “public television” counterproductive given that many viewers think their tax dollars fund public television, when in reality, many stations exist on a preponderance of non-tax funding?
• How does PBS plan to deal with declining audiences on a national level? How much should ratings matter in public television? What should we make of pledge drives, detested by so many television critics?
• How is public television coping with the competition from cable channels and other outlets that now specialize in programming once dominated by public television-the Arts and Entertainment Channel, Disney, Odyssey, C-Span, Bravo, the Discovery Channel and Discovery Kids and Science, the History Channel, Nickelodeon, and BBC America-just to name a few examples?
• Where is the real power in the public television system-with the stations? PBS? The Corporation for Public Broadcasting? The state legislatures? Ideally, how should the power be distributed?

“The Stations’ View the Future of Public Television,” an address by John Lawson, President and CEO, The Association of Public Television Stations

The Stations Speak

John Callaway will moderate a panel discussion between executives from a variety of public television stations.

Participants will include:

• Dan Schmidt, President and CEO, WTTW Chicago
• James Pagliarini , President and CEO, Twin Cities Public Television
• Sherri Hope Culver, General Manager, WYBE, Philadelphia
• Sandra Session-Robertson, General Manager, WCEU-TV, Daytona Beach

Questions for the panel from the audience.

Possible points of discussion:

• Are the interests of large public television stations so irreconcilable from the smaller stations and state systems that a kind of “U.N. Security Council versus U.N. General Assembly” system is needed?
• Why are so many communities served by “overlapping” public television stations? Are there too many public television stations? What are the financial and viewership consequences of these overlapping stations?
• Some of the smaller public stations mostly "push the button" to relay the national programming schedule. They provide little in the way of local programming. Why should they exist?

"The Politics of Public Television," an address by Ken Auletta, author, media critic for The New Yorker magazine.

Mr. Auletta will discuss how politics can affect public television funding and programming.

Respondent: Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, Law School, Department of Political Science, and the College

• In the past, conservative critics have threatened to abolish public television—are both parties now on board with Big Bird?
• Is public broadcasting a plaything of “the liberal elite?”

How do the major commercial media outlets view PBS and to what extent to they limit funding of public television?

Session One

9:00-9:15 am

Welcome back from Carroll Joynes, Executive Director, Cultural Policy Center at The University of Chicago.

Should Public Television Listen to the Radio?

Moderated panel discussion with radio executives, including:

• Kevin Klose, President and CEO, National Public Radio
• Torey Malatia, President and General Manager, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio
• Steve Robinson, Senior Vice-President for Radio, WFMT Radio, Chicago

Questions from the moderator and the audience.

Possible points of discussion:

• Why does national public television lack the kind of national and international news service provided by National Public Radio, and should public television produce such a service?
• Why can't public television stations make the kind of program contributions to PBS national television programming that local reporters, producers, and programmers make to the national public radio services?
• Local public radio stations are provided with all kinds of opportunities to "cut into" NPR news programs with local updates. Why is this resisted by the Lehrer News Hour on PBS?
• WFMT Chicago is a non-profit fine arts radio station that runs commercials. Could this be a model for some public television stations?

10:30-10:45 am

Break

Session Two

Independent Producers and Dissenters

This session will be moderated by András Szántó, Director, National Arts Journalism Project, Columbia University.

• Karen Bond, Board Member, Chicago Media Action
• Alvin Perlmutter, Executive Director, Independent Production Fund
• Tom Weinberg, Executive Producer/Director, Fund for Innovative TV

Questions from the audience.

Possible points of discussion:

• What role should independent producers play in the future of public television?
• For those who feel public television has abandoned working people and minorities, what course of redress is available?
• What can public television learn from such institutions as public access stations and C-Span?

Noon-1:00 pm

Lunch

Session Three

Public Television for Kids: Views from the Academy.

Cybele Raver of the Harris School of Public Policy at The University of Chicago will moderate a panel discussion between eminent researchers in the fields of communications and psychology.

Panelists will include:

• Dale Kunkel, University of Arizona
• Deborah Linebarger, University of Pennsylvania
• Monique Ward, University of Michigan

Questions from the audience.

Possible points of discussion:

• How crucial is children's programming to the mission of public television?
• How well has PBS children's programming served the needs of children and families?
• How well does public television serve the needs and development of older children and ethnic minority adolescents?
• If most public television's children's programming migrated to commercial outlets, what effect would this have on public television audiences? On children?

2:15-2:30

Break

Session Four

Now Tell Us What You Really Think

Veteran broadcast journalist John Callaway will lead a plenary session of all the presenters and panelists who have stayed for the second day of the conference. This will be a “last chance” opportunity for those who have participated in the panels and members of the audience to raise questions not yet answered or to underscore arguments made earlier in the sessions. Mr. Callaway will attempt to identify both the “calls to action” that have been made during the conference, and the policy recommendations that have emerged.