Another PBS station falls to the fundies, in Texas

[KamaAina]

Lately this fundie outfit called Daystar has been buying up and/or starting noncommercial TV stations across the land. Bear in mind that these channels are reserved for noncommercial educational use by the FCC. The only thing I'm ever gonna learn from a Daystar channel is that I'm going straight to hell 'cause I hang out with those eeeeee-villlll lib'ruls 'n' commies 'n' fags 'n' feminists. </sarcasm>

Just recently Daystar was rebuffed by the community college that controls KOCE in Orange County, CA. Now, however, the PBS station in Dallas has sold its second channel -- VHF Channel 2! -- to Daystar, basically the fundie equivalent of Cheap Channel.

http://www.kera.org/tv/kdtn/

North Texas Public Broadcasting has sold KDTN 2 to Community Television Educators of DFW, Inc., effective January 12, 2004. The non-commercial licenses for KDTN and Channel 43, the digital frequency for KDTN, have been transferred to Community Television Educators of DFW, Inc.'s Daystar Television Network, the second largest religious broadcaster in the world. The proceeds of the sale total $19.5 million.

The sale will help ensure the financial future of KERA. It is no secret that NTPB has, in this weak economy, struggled to raise the revenue to deliver fully on its mission to deliver educational, enlightening content to the North Central Texas area. The sale will reduce costs related to running both digital and analog services for two television stations, and the $19.5 million proceeds will provide money for a long-sought endowment for the station.

Ooooh! $19.5 million! Quite a nice little "mess of pottage", don't you think? The only problem is that these rotten fundies now have guaranteed "must-carry" access to every cable household in the entire Metroplex. :puke:

What kind of country do we live in where these "dollar-a-holler" fundies have the kind of dough to pull off this and many other similar purchases, while our own public broadcasters are so tapped out they have to sell their -- our -- assets to the jeezers?

[0007]

1. That means West Texas will be falling also,

They wouldn't even carry the Michael Moore thing the other night on Charlie Rose.

[Mikimouse]

2. Well, Lubbock was pretty much already gone...

and I am truly sorry about that. It is a crying shame that TTU has so little influence on the community.

[KamaAina]

4. Clarification: It was KERA's second station that was sold.

KDTN-2 in Denton. KERA will continue to provide secular, educational programming on Channel 13.

As yet the fundies have not been brazen enough to try to take out any city's primary PBS station. Had they succeeded in Orange County, for instance, OC residents would still have had access to KCET in L.A. The closest they've come (other fundies, not Daystar) was to knock out the NPR translator serving Lake Charles, La. by applying for a full-service fundie station (again, please remember, on an educational frequency). KRVS in Lafayette (whose translator was lost) is in the process of upgrading its main signal to cover Lake Charles.

[centrist]

3. Not entirely due to the economy

Huge transitions to subscription television have hurt all local channels.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Is This A Stealth "Faith-Based Program"?

Where are the Fundies getting all this money?

Are they taking Federal money under Bush*'s "Faith Based" social programs
and spending it buying up TV stations?