CPB will review any alternatives that emerge with the public radio system, including discussions at the Fall regional meetings. The committee also studied CPB's implementation of the new Audience Service Standard eligibility criterion last fall. The committee also endorsed the higher levels already set for 1999 and 2000. They asked for additional information before considering any additional increase in these criteria for 2001 CSG station grant eligibility. Toward Achieving Public Radio's Revenue Ambitions 1995's significant challenge to public broadcasting's federal funding was the evident factor prompting the creation of the Public Radio Future Fund and the introduction of an audience service standard.
Public radio is on course to achieve that goal .
While the challenges to federal funding and the creation of the Future Fund are important, other, more compelling and longer lasting factors have emerged. The most important are public radio's increasing maturity and self-confidence in programming and fund raising. Consequently, stronger audience service has created the energy that allows public radio to tap a broader array of fund raising mechanisms that will necessarily and appropriately broaden its financial base. The Future Fund's single most important contribution is the focus placed on the real and multiple opportunities to secure untapped, non-governmental revenues for public radio stations. Through funded projects and local initiatives, stations have engaged in the most intense sequence of performance-driven development activities in public radio history.