October 2010 - KCET Ends Its Affiliation with PBS
On October 6, 2010, KCET announced the end of its 40-year affiliation with the Public Broadcasting Service, setting the course of KCET's future as a public media entity.
Starting in 2007, KCET had explored its relationship with the PBS network, with the interest of reforming that relationship in terms of its longtime position as one of the network's main regional affiliates. As the primary PBS station in the Southern California market, KCET was required to pay $5 million annually to carry the network's full programming schedule, while the other three PBS stations in the region were only required to pay $2.1 million in annual network dues combined.
In 2008, PBS significantly raised its network dues, most especially for stations that raised more non-federal funds. About $50 million was raised to produce the 2005 KCET series, "A Place Of Our Own/Los Niños en Su Casa," largely funded by BP and First 5 California. Because of that, the network raised KCET's fees 40 percent from $5 to $7 million, which amounted to over a quarter of the station's discretionary revenue. The Great Recession also caused donations to drop significantly.
Despite efforts to convince the network that the $50 million funding for the program was an anomaly, and despite proposals to either make KCET a secondary PBS affiliate or have the four PBS stations in Southern California operate as a consortium, the network would not budge.
In 2009, the station took out a $4 million loan to pay its $7 million network dues. Since PBS mandates that stations are not allowed to take out more than one loan, KCET would have gone bankrupt to pay the next year's dues.
In May 2010, KCET's board unanimously voted to disassociate the station from PBS if no deal could be brokered on the station's terms, anticipating that the network would later soften its tone. The network refused to change its stance.
At the end of the 2010 fiscal year, KCET's board of directors passed a half-year's budget as a full service PBS station and notified the network that if a resolution cannot be reached by December, KCET would leave.
"We had discussions, but nothing would create an affordable, sustainable basis to remain in PBS for more than one year," said Al Jerome, KCET's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We were negotiating, despite many meetings, but we were not able to resolve it."
On January 1, 2011, after 40 years as PBS' primary affiliate in Southern California, KCET became the largest independent public television station in the United States.