WFSU/Tallahassee Escapes Governor's Budget Axe

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While Governor RICK SCOTT's veto of state funding for FLORIDA public broadcasters sent stations scrambling to cut budgets or find alternative funding, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY's noncommercial WFSU-F and PBS affiliate WFSU-TV/TALLAHASSEE is receiving increased state funding, reports the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES' ERIC DEGGANS. 

WFSU's budget allocation of $2.8 million for next year was left untouched by SCOTT, including $1.8 million for WFSU-produced cable channel THE FLORIDA CHANNEL (which airs state government meetings and other programming), $340,862 for closed captioning of that channel, $497,522 for statewide government and cultural affairs programming on radio and TV, and $162,750 for satellite uplink equipment.  The total is a more than $500,000 increase from the previous year's budget.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS noncommercial WLRN-F and PBS secondary affiliate WLRN-TV/MIAMI GM JOHN LABONIA told DEGGANS his station is dropping its carriage of WFSU's FLORIDA PUBLIC RADIO NETWORK in part to protest the funding cuts.  "The governor zeroed out public broadcasting because he's calling it a special interest," he told DEGGANS. "When you single out one station and give to it but nobody else, that's the definition of a special interest."

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