June, 2008

Smoky Hills operates on a Fiscal Year that starts in July, and ends on June 30th. That’s when we wrap up our books. I’ll report on our plans for the new year next month.

We feel that it is very important to be responsible stewards for the funds that you donate to your community through Smoky Hills. It’s a vital part of our compact with you.

As you know, it costs about two million dollars to provide 6,570 hours of broadcast service to you each year. That’s about $305 per hour! This pays for the electricity to run the transmitters ($175,000), buys the programs from PBS ($226,000), fills the gas tanks to take our producers all over central and
western Kansas ($25,000), pays the salaries and benefits for our talented staff ($970,000), and more.

We must raise about half of this cost from members like you, businesses in your community, and our other activities that generate cash. At the end of the year, we come to you to make sure that our revenue matches our expenses for the year. That’s why there is a short pledge drive in June, and why your mailbox may see an extra letter from us. Please help us out of FY 2008 and into the new year with a fully balanced budget.

At a time when the Federal budget picture is stretched by the cost of the war, the results of tax cuts
and the cost of natural disasters, national funding for public broadcasting continues to be a periodic target. The latest round: The Department of Commerce is charged with conducting the U.S. Census.
The Census keeps getting more expensive, and Commerce doesn’t have enough money to pay for it. They have proposed raiding other programs within their department budget, including the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, which provides matching money for Kansas funds to build our technological infrastructure. At jeopardy: High-Definition studio production equipment for Smoky Hills. Every Kansas public TV and radio station has benefitted from this program, and the matching money is a great incentive for Kansas legislators to do their part. We have suggested to our Washington legislators that this is a bad idea on the part of Commerce, and that they should solve their own
problem in other ways.

Lawrence Holden, Smoky Hills Member,
General Manager and C. E. O.