WYPR CAB Announces Future Meetings

When WYPR’s “new” Community Advisory Board (CAB) met on May 27, 2009, the CAB Chairperson Doreen Bolger said that the CAB would try to meet again in June.  It did not happen.  Considering the “new” CAB had only three members from its previous membership, maybe this signaled the new CAB would act like the old one: very few people in the future would show up.  Well, WYPR.org has announced further CAB meetings.  The schedule for 2009 and 2010 is below:

2009-2010 WYPR CAB Meetings:
Thursday, September 24, 2009, 6pm
Thursday, November 12, 2009, 6pm
Thursday, January 14, 2010, 6pm
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 6pm
Thursday, May 20, 2010, 6pm
Location: TBA

Looking at this schedule, one can see that the CAB is on course to meet quarterly, one time each season.  The CAB already met in Feb. and May 2009 (winter and spring), and the two other 2009 dates fulfill summer’s end and fall’s epiphany.  The 2010 schedule also follows a seasonal timeline.  This construction would meet the “regular” requirement of the Federal Communications Act in its three-prong CAB requirement.  The other two stipulations are regular attendance by CAB membership, and diversity of the listening community reflected in CAB membership.

WYPR is under a requirement to complete documentation of compliance with this and other relevant laws as a result of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Inspector Generals audit of WYPR.  WYPR needs to fulfill these legal requirements in order to continue to receive their annual, taxpayer-supported grant.  For more on that, read CPB IG Report 903, by clicking here.

The grant is over $300,000 per year.  Though WYPR station President Tony Brandon told the WYPR Board in May that the station is doing fine in these recessionary times–and in fact has amassed a $100,000+ war chest to make it through the summer–I heard  the station air a non-scheduled pitch for funds again in late June.  Is the station hurting, or not?  One cannot tell, really. However the station certainly seems intent to ensure this annual CPB grant.

This new CAB schedule reflects, in many ways, WYPR’s desire to meet regulatory compliance.  Does it reflect an independent CAB? Well, their next Sept. meeting will tell.

At the CPB Web site, it says that the CAB must “be distinct from and independent of the governing body” of the radio station in their online “Interpretations” of the Federal Communications Act Section 396 (k)(8).  Click here for the law.  Will the new CAB develop?

The CAB in 2009 has yet to really debate any substantial radio issue, station policy decision, or propose a single idea.  It remains in formation stage.  For more on the CAB’s last, May 27 meeting, click here.