KBYU may lose its PBS affiliation

A handful of Public Broadcast Service television stations — including Brigham Young University's KBYU-TV — face the possibility of losing their affiliation if PBS votes this summer to punish those whose programming includes religious shows.

In KBYU's case, the continued broadcast of BYU devotionals could result in the loss of signature PBS fare like "Sesame Street," "Barney," "NewsHour" and "This Old House."

Next month, PBS officials will vote on a committee's recommendation to enforce a 1985 fairness-and-balance policy in which affiliates' programming should be noncommercial, nonpartisan and nonsectarian.

Derek Marquis, managing director for BYU broadcasting, said KBYU officials have been working on the issues with PBS for the past several months, noting that KBYU has been a Utah-based public television station for nearly 45 years and a PBS member station essentially from the start in the early 1970s.

"We are in a new era of digital television, and it is appropriate that PBS review its membership criteria from time to time," said Marquis, explaining that the last review was conducted a decade and a half ago. "PBS is currently soliciting feedback from stations on this latest draft of the policy recommendations and how the recommendations might impact stations and their local audiences. We are obviously quite engaged with these conversations."

Although few PBS stations show any religious programming, KBYU is not alone. For example, Howard University's WHUT station in Washington, D.C., broadcasts "Mass for Shut-ins" in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Washington. KBYU, WHUT and other stations with religious shows say they haven't received complaints in the past, and they contend their content provides important community service.

PBS is not a network like ABC, CBS or Fox with specific direction for network stations but rather an affiliation of individual stations.

KBYU's license is granted by the FCC and held by BYU, Marquis said.

"We have a charter from the FCC to provide service to our local audiences, and we take that charge very seriously," he said. "We are confident that when the final policies are drafted and adopted by PBS, KBYU will continue to be the valued and trusted source for educational and uplifting content that Utah families have counted on for the past 45 years."

On a typical day, KBYU will show about two hours of religious programming — four half-hour segments of past BYU devotionals. Other occasional programming may include a tape-delayed broadcast of LDS Church general conference.

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