Dear Editor,

Recently there have been criticizing stories about Trump and Republicans clipping Big Bird’s wings. The elimination of $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting thus PBS.

Two PBS stations that serve our area: WVIA 44 and WLVT 39. They get money, your money, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. WVIA get 20 % of its budget or $1.2 million.

The FCC needed spectrum (frequencies) for cellphone expansion, so they cut up the TV spectrum. TV used to be Channels 2 to 13 VHF and 14 to 83 UHF. Now it’s 2 to 13 VHF and 14 to 36 UHF. Got to love those cellphones.

To solve the spectrum loss to the TV stations beyond channel 36 they ran what was called the FCC Incentive Auction selling off the spectrum of the TV band. WVIA Channel 44 got almost $52 million dollars and WLVT Channel 39 got $82 million.

If WVIA gets $1.2 million from the CPB yearly divide that into the almost $52 million from the auction, that’s like over 40 years of CPB money.

Did you know you can get these stations free over the air with an antenna, and on your cable bill you pay over $30 a month for what’s called ‘retransmission fees’ to the local over the air ‘free’ channels. Is that double dipping?

WVIA 44 doesn’t even broadcast on 44, it piggybacks on WNEP Channel 16’s frequency and WLVT 39 on WFMZ Channel 69, which broadcasts on VHF channel 9.

CPB/PBS was created to be ‘free from commercial incentives — while also preserving their independence from political forces’. Does that sound like NPR radio or PBS news or all those fund drives and commercial sponsorships.

You could watch it on-line, but if the internet goes down, you can watch with an antenna.

CPB grew into another bloated self-serving government entity. There are great shows on PBS, but their sister creations NPR and news shows and oh yes, some educational programming has gone way far from the middle of the road.

Is it to keep the Big Bird fans happy?

David C. Budda

Beaver Meadows