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Remarks

Paula Kerger
Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission meeting
Owings Mills, Md
Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Thank you, Rob, and good afternoon to you all. I appreciate the opportunity to visit with you today. This has been a good meeting.

I know everyone is eager to get to the wine bar, but I want to take a few moments to share with you some of my thoughts on public broadcasting, where I see our industry headed and the essential role Maryland Public Television and other local broadcasters will play in the future of this nation.

I'll begin with a few personal perspectives.

As Rob suggested in his introduction, coming to Owings Mills is like coming home.

I grew up about 20 miles from here in Woodstock, Maryland – not far from the Patapsco Valley State Park, where I would sometimes play as a little girl.

Even then, public broadcasting played an important role in my life.

My grandfather was a professor of electronics at the old Baltimore Junior College, the school we now know as Baltimore City Community College.

In 1951, he helped found a public radio station – WBJC – which is almost single-handedly keeping the classical music format alive in this region.

As a child, I remember sitting close to my grandfather at night, listening to radio programs transmitted from far away. It felt like magic, and indeed, it was.

The first opera I heard was on public radio. The first ballet I saw was on public television. "The Forsyte Saga," "I, Claudius," "Brideshead Revisited" – they were all a part of my life before I joined the public broadcasting family.

And while I am too old to have been part of the "Sesame Street" generation, "Hodge Podge Lodge" was an important part of my life.

I suspect there are lots of people in this room who can say the same thing.

We, of course, are not alone. PBS reaches 9 million viewers each week. Public television is a daily part of American life, and this nation is a better place for it.

But as an industry, we are being challenged like never before.

The digital revolution has turned television – commercial and public alike – on its head.

Today, you can download "CSI" to your iPod, watch "Lost" on the Internet and have "The Sopranos" delivered to your cell phone.

This flood of new technology has even washed away the lines that once divided media.

Earlier this month, Amazon.com – the online retailer – introduced its own weekly talk show. Every Thursday, you can go to the Amazon site and download the latest episode. When the program is over, you can hang around on the Web site to buy the books and music that were hawked on the show.

And then there's the ESPN cable network, which is selling its own mobile phone service, complete with video and text alerts that provide you with up-to-the-minute scores and headlines from your favorite team.

Some look at the changes taking place around us and see threats. I look at them and see opportunities. I hope you do, too.

After all, if technology has done anything, it has emboldened and empowered American consumers. We now live in a world where people choose not only what media they want to consume, but when and where they want to consume it.

That's good news for public television.

Because when the consumer has the power to choose, they will choose quality. When everyone's time is limited, when everyone only has an hour here or there to watch a TV show or to listen to a news report, they will want to spend that time well.

And as everyone in this room knows, every minute spent with public television is a minute well spent.

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