In a large brick building that once housed a hospital for freed slaves, a group of Howard University seniors is rehearsing for a newscast. It’s their first time in the studio, and their first story is about dating in the age of smartphones.
“Basically, it’s about how you go to a restaurant, and you see a couple scrolling on their phones instead of talking to each other,” says Erin Winters, 21, who wrote the script.
Ms. Winters sits at a computer, controlling the teleprompter. Husain Murad, a lecturer and doctoral candidate in communications, stands nearby, guiding the students.
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In a large brick building that once housed a hospital for freed slaves, a group of Howard University seniors is rehearsing for a newscast. It’s their first time in the studio, and their first story is about dating in the age of smartphones.
“Basically, it’s about how you go to a restaurant, and you see a couple scrolling on their phones instead of talking to each other,” says Erin Winters, 21, who wrote the script.
Ms. Winters sits at a computer, controlling the teleprompter. Husain Murad, a lecturer and doctoral candidate in communications, stands nearby, guiding the students.
“Quiet on the set,” he commands. “Stand by … and 3-2-1, you’re on.”
In the room next door, the anchor, 22-year-old Leah Henry, introduces herself and launches into her script. “We’re supposed to date people,” she reads from the teleprompter, “but from the looks of it, more couples are actually dating their phones.”
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When the newscast airs, at the end of the semester, it will be the first time that a full-length, student-produced broadcast has run on Howard’s public-television channel, WHUT, in 20 years. It may also be the last.
Earlier this year, Howard officials said they would consider selling the station’s spectrum — its sliver of the airwaves — in a federally brokered auction that could net millions for the cash-strapped college. The government’s goal is to free up more of the spectrum for data-hungry smartphones and tablets.
Now, with less than two weeks left to withdraw from the auction, Howard and other colleges with public-television stations are weighing their channels’ educational value against the potential for a financial windfall. In the process, the colleges are grappling with their public-service missions, and the extent to which their responsibilities extend beyond students to the broader community.
Universities hold a third of the nation’s public-broadcasting licenses, according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If the colleges sell them, viewers in their communities who depend on free, over-the-air broadcasting may lose access to public television.
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Nowhere has the debate been more steeped in questions of mission than at Howard University, owner of the nation’s first — and only — public-television station licensed to a historically black college. While there are other public stations in the Washington region, WHUT has distinguished itself since its founding, in 1980, through diverse programming and minority voices. Supporters say its legacy should not be taken lightly.
“If you do not own this, your voice may not be heard,” said Chuka Onwumechili, a communications professor and Howard graduate. He argues that the station is more than just its spectrum — it is “a symbol for the community.”
‘Grandpa Shouldn’t Sell the Farm’
But other faculty members and alumni say it would be financially irresponsible for the university to withdraw. Howard, the nation’s most prestigious historically black college, has struggled in recent years, facing rounds of staff cuts and credit downgrades. With the college’s 150th anniversary approaching, in 2017, auction supporters say it’s time for the college to look to the future — and consider what millions of dollars, invested in the endowment, could do for the institution and its low-income students.
“When someone says, I don’t think we should sell our TV station, it’s kind of like saying Grandpa shouldn’t sell the farm,” said Mark M. Spradley, a private-equity executive and Howard alumnus. “I understand the attachment, but you don’t want to tie up a resource for 20 students when you can help 12,000 students” through increased financial aid. (Roughly 20 students intern at the station each year.)
You don’t want to tie up a resource for 20 students when you can help 12,000 students.
Still others are urging Howard to consider a middle road. Rather than sell its spectrum to the federal government outright, the college could agree to share it with another station or to free up bandwidth by moving to a lower-frequency channel. Those alternatives would be less lucrative, but they could still fetch millions.
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It’s a tough call for any college with a public-television station and loyal donors. But the decision is especially fraught for Howard, which gets a special set-aside of more than $200 million in federal support each year. If the university turns down the auction opportunity, members of Congress might demand to know why. If Howard embraces it, lawmakers may conclude that the institution doesn’t need federal support anymore, said Eric Easter, an alumnus and chairman of the National Black Programming Consortium.
Officials at Howard — and the other colleges that have expressed interest in the auction — aren’t saying which route they’re likely to take. That’s because federal anti-collusion rules prohibit station owners from discussing their “bidding strategies” with other participants during a quiet period that began in mid-January, when the initial “expressions of interest” were due. It will end when the results of the auction are made public, later this year.
‘Swiss Cheese’
The auction that could bring millions to Howard and other colleges nationwide is actually a two-step process — a “reverse auction,” in which the Federal Communications Commission will buy up spectrum from colleges and other public and commercial broadcasters, followed by a “forward auction,” in which the FCC will sell that spectrum to wireless carriers.
Between the two phases, the government will “repack” the channels that remain on the air, assigning them to the surviving stations to create clear “blocks” of spectrum for the wireless carriers. Even stations that sit out the auction could switch channels.
Last fall the government announced opening bids for roughly 1,800 television stations, including dozens owned by more than 60 colleges and universities. The figures ranged from $6.6 million, the bid for Central Wyoming College to move to a lower-frequency channel, to a staggering $2.5 billion, for the University of North Carolina system to take its 12 stations off the air. In all, colleges stood to gain more than $15 billion by selling outright.
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But experts caution that most participants will get only a fraction of the money the government is dangling in front of them, if that. The actual payouts will depend on how much spectrum the government decides to “clear” in a given market, and on how many stations step forward. If supply exceeds demand, the opening bids will drop, and some stations will drop out. The prices will continue to fall until there are just enough stations remaining in the auction to meet the government’s needs.
Experts expect the big money will go to stations in large and congested markets, particularly those on the two coasts.
“The totality of the opening bids is a fantasy,” said John Lawson, a consultant who previously served as president and chief executive of the Association of Public Television Stations. He urged colleges to consider the viewers who would be “stranded” if their public stations went off the air. “There’s a threat that the coverage of public television in the U.S. could end up being like Swiss cheese,” with holes in some communities, Mr. Lawson said.
That prospect was one of the chief reasons that the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors decided to hold on to all of its 12 television licenses, said Henry W. Hinton, a member of the board. He said system leaders concluded that it was unlikely that the government would want all of the licenses and worried about gaps in coverage across the state.
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“All of a sudden, you could have programming in Wilmington that you don’t have in Greensboro,” he said. “That’s a difficult spot to be in.”
The University of Houston, which owns the only public-television station in the Houston area, is sitting out the auction for similar reasons, said Lisa Trapani Shumate, associate vice president and general manager of Houston Public Media.
It’s a different thing when you’re the only PBS station in the market.
“It’s a different thing when you’re the only PBS station in the market,” she said. “For us, there was no decision to make.”
The two other universities with “sole service” public-television licenses — San Diego State University and Arizona State University — have also opted out, though officials there wouldn’t say why they’re not participating.
Other colleges are passing on the auction because their odds of a large payout are slim. Officials at Bates Technical College, in Washington State, concluded that the FCC probably wouldn’t need much spectrum in the Seattle market, said Ed Ulman, executive director and general manager at KBTC Public Television.
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But more than half of the colleges with opening bids of at least $200 million have entered the auction, at least for now. They include institutions as varied as the University of Arizona; Central Texas College, a community college that caters to members of the military; and Liberty University, a large Christian college in Virginia.
Two neighboring institutions — Daytona State College and Eastern Florida State College — have said they plan to enter the auction as a team. Whichever college gets the higher bid will sell its spectrum, and the two will split the proceeds and share the remaining spectrum.
Passionate About Public Television
On many campuses, debate over whether to join the auction has been confined to institutional and station leadership. But a few colleges, including Howard, have solicited comments online and held lively public hearings.
At Delta College, in Michigan, several hundred viewers turned out for two public forums. Hundreds more wrote or called to voice concerns. Officials there cited that opposition as one of their main reasons for skipping the auction.
At Michigan State, a short drive to the south, more than 200 people attended a public hearing in January. The day a second hearing was scheduled to be held, President Lou Anna K. Simon announced that Michigan State would not participate, and would instead form a new partnership with Detroit Public Television.
Many of the comments focused on Howard’s legacy, and the need to preserve a space where minority perspectives can be seen and heard. “As a group, we need to retain our ability to communicate our story,” wrote one commenter. Said another: “We have a responsibility to our students to show them what having an independent voice in media means.”
As a group, we need to retain our ability to communicate our story.
But others argued that Howard shouldn’t be too quick to turn down a potential multimillion-dollar payout. Mr. Spradley, the private-equity executive and alumnus, called the decision a “litmus test of fiduciary responsibility.”
Even without a TV station, Howard could get its message out, said Chris Washington, president of the Howard University Alumni Association. Students could still produce stories and newscasts, and viewers could still see that content online.
But Vincent Curran, who spent almost a decade at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, most recently as its chief operating officer, said colleges often underestimate the number of people who depend on free, over-the-air broadcasts. Nationwide, 15 percent of all homes are broadcast-only, according to the market-research firm GfK. More than a third of those homes are headed by members of minority groups, the firm found.
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“Universities are a bit of a bubble, where everyone is walking around with their iPhones,” said Mr. Curran.
Roughly 15 percent of the weekly audience for WHUT — more than 63,000 viewers — watches the broadcast over the air, according to a university spokeswoman, Gracia Hillman. Some of those viewers are probably “cord-cutters,” who could watch Howard programming via broadband; others can’t afford access to the Internet or cable TV.
Universities are a bit of a bubble, where everyone is walking around with their iPhones.
Within Howard, the station is used primarily by three groups: its 20 interns, a slightly smaller group of journalism students whose self-produced stories air between regular programming, and the seniors who are reviving the end-of-semester newscast.
Jennifer C. Thomas, an assistant professor who has led efforts to resurrect the newscast, said the station sets Howard apart from other journalism programs and gives its students a leg up in the job market.
“Our students can actually say, My stories aired in Washington, D.C.,” said Ms. Thomas, who spent nine years at CNN.
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Still, students at last month’s rehearsal didn’t seem all that alarmed by the prospect of an auction. Ashley Young, 23, said that it was “important that we have a TV station geared toward our community,” but that it wasn’t the reason she had chosen Howard over institutions in her home state of Florida.
Jasmine Turner, 26, said she didn’t think the sale was “that big a deal.”
“We’re selling the airwaves, not the station,” she said. Even so, she’d like “more information about where the money is going.”
At that point, Ms. Henry, the anchor, piped up. “Because it affects journalism students the most, we should benefit the most.”
The three women agree that they need more, and newer, equipment. “It would be great,” said Ms. Young, “if it gets us more Macs and more microphones.”
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Kelly Field is a senior reporter covering federal higher-education policy. Contact her at kelly.field@chronicle.com. Or follow her on Twitter @kfieldCHE.
Kelly Field joined The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2004 and covered federal higher-education policy. She continues to write for The Chronicle on a freelance basis.