Holiday 2017 Ratings

https://ratings.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb011



WNIC dominated as is typical for this time of year, WOMC, despite playing Christmas tunes itself was a distant second. WWJ was a respectable third. WCSX and WMXD rounded out the Top 5. The Ticket had a large drop, as did WYCD. NASH was flat. 105.1, surprisingly, saw higher ratings for this period. WDET remained below a 1.0 share. Why does CPB money subsidize this again?

umfan said:

Why does CPB money subsidize this again?

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Because they meet the qualifications. Same with WUOM.

That is a great reason to zero out CPB. Funding something only because they meet some minimal qualifications, irrespective if the service is being used or providing any real benefit, is not a responsible use of taxpayer provided resources.

umfan said:

That is a great reason to zero out CPB. Funding something only because they meet some minimal qualifications, irrespective if the service is being used or providing any real benefit, is not a responsible use of taxpayer provided resources.

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This is how government works. The service provides a great benefit because commercial broadcasters have forsaken their mission of serving the public interest in favor of serving their stockholders. All of this has bipartisan support, and has had bipartisan support for 50 years. You can't complain about public broadcasting's mission on the one hand, and then come back and say they have the resources to fund themselves. They don't, and the reason is because the law as it was written prevents them from competing against commercial broadcasters. The NAB insisted on this when the law was written. The only choice here is for Congress to repeal the Public Broadcasting Act, and eliminate the non-commercial radio classification. And of course the far right doesn't have the votes to get this done. The money has already been appropriated, and it will cover them until the next election.

You're incorrect regarding the appropriation. The only money APPROPRIATED now is that under the Continuing Resolution which ends next month, and yes CPB has funding in there. There was a blueprint, or budget authorization for two years, which now must have follow on legislation that would actually appropriate funds. There are thousands of programs or initiatives each year authorized yet never have funds appropriated. CPB could well be zeroed out, or provided funding solely to wind down operations as part of the appropriations process. Something should be cut and it may as well be something that provides minimal to zero value like the CPB. A $1` appropriation would provide technical compliance with the law but force the CPB out of business. Not hard, and the votes may well appear if the choice is between that and something that is actually useful.

umfan said:

Not hard, and the votes may well appear if the choice is between that and something that is actually useful.

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The votes aren't even there to bring the budget to the floor for a debate. You know that. Speaker Ryan addressed the press yesterday, and the topic of the president's budget didn't even come up. The money will be appropriated the way it's been done for the last few years. They don't pass budgets, and haven't for a very long time. They go from CR to CR. This year will be no different.

A lot has changed. There is pressure to pass a budget and a lot of important items that could be facing cuts. This makes less than useful items like the CPB vulnerable, and rightfully so.

umfan said:

A lot has changed. There is pressure to pass a budget and a lot of important items that could be facing cuts. This makes less than useful items like the CPB vulnerable, and rightfully so.

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"Pressure to pass a budget?" Really? From where? If there was, they would have done it last year. This is a Congress that can't agree on the color red. They can't even get Republicans to vote together. This is another issue they don't agree on. You know it's true.