2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 1 - General Provisions › Article 5 - University of the State of New York › Part 1 - General Organization › 236 - Public Television and Radio.

§ 236. Public television and radio. 1. Short title. This section shall
be  known  and  may  be cited as the "Public Television and Radio Act of
nineteen hundred seventy-eight".
2. Legislative findings and declaration of intent. In the years  since
New  York  state's  educational  television  act  was passed in nineteen
hundred fifty-four, public television in  New  York  has  made  enormous
strides.  Audiences  which  only  a  decade  ago  were calculated in the
thousands now number in the millions. Approximately  seven  million  New
York residents now view public television every week. Public television,
which initially served only a handful of students, now brings nearly ten
thousand  hours  annually  of  the  best of the state's and the nation's
educational  programming  to  over  one  million  two  hundred  thousand
students  in three thousand schools throughout the state. These programs
are used by approximately fifty thousand teachers for  direct  classroom
instruction. Public television also provides the state's youngsters with
some twelve thousand hours annually of the finest children's programming
available including "Sesame Street", "Electric Company", "Zoom" and "Mr.
Rogers  Neighborhood".  In addition, public television provides a wealth
of specialized programming in the educational and cultural arts designed
for viewing by, among others, minority and  ethnic  populations,  senior
citizens,  the  unemployed,  consumers  and  citizens  interested in the
performing arts.  It  is  the  sense  of  the  legislature  that  public
television's  contributions  to  the  people of New York state have been
exceptional. Despite public broadcasting's great progress  in  New  York
state  in  recent  years,  its  full  potential remains untapped. It is,
therefore, the intent of the legislature both to  maintain  and,  expand
the  role of public broadcasting in supplying educational, instructional
and cultural programs to New Yorkers, as well as to enhance the  state's
role  in  its  partnership with its citizens so that this valuable state
resource can be nurtured to its optimum potential.
3. Public television and radio corporations; creation  and  operation.
a.    The  board  of  regents  may incorporate any group, institution or
association for  the  purpose  of  constructing,  owning,  operating  or
maintaining  a non-profit and noncommercial public television station or
public  television  and/or  radio  station  for  providing   educational
television  and radio programs. Any such corporation shall be subject to
all the provisions applicable to corporations created by  the  board  of
regents  and,  in  addition,  shall be subject to the provisions of this
section.
b. The charter of any such corporation may be  amended  from  time  to
time,  suspended, or revoked, upon the regents' own motion, after notice
and an opportunity to be  heard,  before  the  board  of  regents  or  a
committee  thereof  or  a  hearing  officer  designated  by the board of
regents.
c. Each such corporation and all its operations  and  the  powers  and
duties  of  its  trustees  and  officers shall be subject to the general
supervision and control of the board of regents and to such rules as the
board of regents may adopt and promulgate from time to time with respect
to such corporations.
d.  The  television  programs  developed   and   presented   by   such
corporations  shall  consist  of educational, instructional and cultural
programs.
e. The appointment or election of  any  trustee  of  such  corporation
shall be subject to approval by the regents while under regents' charter
and  through  the  first five years of broadcast operations. The regents
may reinstitute requirements for  trustee  approval  over  a  reasonable
period  on  finding  a  corporation  in violation of an applicable rule,
regulation  or  law.  After  the  expiration   of   rule   requirements,

corporations  shall  include  a  list  of current trustees in its annual
report.
f.  The  regents  may  remove any trustee, officer or employee of such
corporation for misconduct, incapacity, wilful violation or  neglect  of
duty  under  this chapter, or wilfully disobeying, or refusing to comply
with, any order or rule of the regents. The hearing  in  the  proceeding
for  the  removal  of  any  such person shall be had before the board of
regents or a committee thereof or a hearing officer  designated  by  the
board of regents and such trustee, officer or employee shall be given at
least ten days' notice of the time and place of such hearing.
g.  The  use  of  programs  for  partisan  or political purposes or to
influence the enactment of legislation shall, in the discretion  of  the
board of regents, be basis for termination of the corporate charter.
h. Each such corporation shall render a report to the board of regents
not  later  than  October  first  of  each year upon such matters as the
regents  may  require,  and  shall  furnish  such  other   reports   and
information from time to time as the regents may require.
i.  Any  corporation  created under the provisions of this section may
make purchases of commodities and services through the office of general
services subject to such rules as may be established from time  to  time
pursuant  to  section  one hundred sixty-three of the state finance law;
provided that each such purchase shall  have  a  cost  of  five  hundred
dollars   or   more   and   that  said  corporation  shall  accept  sole
responsibility for any payment of such cost due the vendor.
4. Grants-in-aid to  public  television  and  radio  corporations  and
public  radio stations. a. There shall be apportioned, as assistance for
approved operating expenses of public television  corporations  governed
by  the  provisions of this section, an amount not exceeding the product
of the number of residents of the state as determined from the  nineteen
hundred  eighty  decennial  federal census multiplied by: one dollar for
the period beginning July first, nineteen hundred eighty-five and ending
June thirtieth, nineteen hundred eighty-six; one  dollar  multiplied  by
four-twelfths  plus  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  multiplied by
eight-twelfths for the period beginning  July  first,  nineteen  hundred
eighty-six and ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred eighty-seven; and
one dollar and forty cents for the period beginning July first, nineteen
hundred   eighty-seven  and  ending  June  thirtieth,  nineteen  hundred
eighty-eight, and annually thereafter. Such amount shall be allocated to
each such corporation in accordance  with  a  formula  and  schedule  of
payments  developed and approved by the commissioner and the director of
the division of the budget.
b.  The  formula  and  schedule  of  payments  developed  pursuant  to
paragraph  a  hereof shall include provision for an amount not less than
twenty percent of the total state operating assistance for instructional
television services to be provided  to  local  educational  agencies  by
public  television  corporations  through  agreements  with local school
districts, subject to the approval of the commissioner.
c. There shall be  annually  apportioned  funds  for  the  payment  of
approved  capital  expenses  of  educational television corporations and
public radio stations  in  such  amounts  and  in  such  manner  as  the
legislature shall provide.
d.  There  shall  be  apportioned,  as  assistance  for approved radio
programming operating expenses, an amount not exceeding: eighty thousand
dollars  for  the  period  beginning  July   first,   nineteen   hundred
eighty-five  and ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred eighty-six, and
eighty thousand dollars multiplied by  four-twelfths  plus  one  hundred
thousand  dollars  multiplied by eight-twelfths for the period beginning
July first, nineteen  hundred  eighty-six  and  ending  June  thirtieth,

nineteen  hundred eighty-seven, and one hundred ten thousand dollars for
the period beginning  July  first,  nineteen  hundred  eighty-seven  and
ending  June  thirtieth,  nineteen  hundred  eighty-eight,  and annually
thereafter  to each public television and radio corporation, governed by
the provisions of this section, and to each  public  radio  station,  as
defined in paragraph f of this subdivision and paid in accordance with a
formula   and  schedule  of  payments  developed  and  approved  by  the
commissioner and the director of the division of the budget.  Recipients
of  assistance  shall render a fiscal report to the board of regents not
later than December first of each year upon such matters as the  regents
may  require and shall furnish annually such other fiscal reports as the
regents may require.
e. On or before November first in each  year,  the  board  of  regents
shall  submit  to the division of the budget a plan outlining a matching
capital grant program for approved capital expenses of public television
and/or  radio  corporations  and  public  radio  stations  to  meet  the
replacement   costs   of   capital  items  including  towers,  antennas,
transmitters, videotape recorders, cameras, film  chains,  control  room
equipment, buildings and building renovations.
f.  Notwithstanding  any other provisions of law, for purposes of this
subdivision the term "public radio station" shall mean a non-profit  and
noncommercial radio station which meets the following requirements:
(1) The station shall be licensed to:
(i) an institution chartered by the board of regents; or
(ii) an agency of a municipal corporation; or
(iii)  a  corporation  created  in  the state education department and
within the university of the state of New York.
(2) The station other than stations operated by corporations  approved
for  funding  prior  to  April first, nineteen hundred eighty-five shall
have for a period  of  three  consecutive  years  immediately  prior  to
apportionment  of  such money and all recipients shall continue to after
receipt of such money:
(i) broadcast at least eighteen hours per day or the maximum hours  of
operation authorized by the federal communications commission, whichever
is less, three hundred sixty-five days per year; and
(ii)  operate  with a staff of at least five full-time members paid at
least the  federal  minimum  wage,  a  budget  that  includes  at  least
ninety-five thousand dollars of non-federal income of which a reasonable
portion  is  received  from  local  business, foundations, or individual
contributors paid either directly to  the  radio  station  or  broadcast
corporation  or  to a not-for-profit corporation for the benefit of such
radio station and  an  effective  radiated  power  equivalent  to  three
thousand watts at five hundred feet above average terrain or the maximum
tower  height  authorized  by  the  federal  communications  commission,
whichever is less for FM radio stations or two hundred fifty  watts  for
AM radio stations.
g.  At  such  time  that  assistance authorized by paragraph a of this
subdivision exceeds the sum appropriated in state fiscal  year  nineteen
hundred  ninety--nineteen hundred ninety-one, there shall be apportioned
as assistance for approved operating expenses of New York  city-licensed
WNYC-TV,  for  each  three  hundred  sixty-five  hours of public service
programming broadcast by such station annually, an amount equal  to  one
percent  of  that  portion  of public television assistance for approved
operating expenses  which  represents  the  increment  above  the  level
appropriated  in  state  fiscal  year  nineteen hundred ninety--nineteen
hundred ninety-one; provided, however, that the total  apportionment  to
WNYC-TV shall not exceed ten percent of such incremental assistance over
such   nineteen   hundred  ninety--nineteen  hundred  ninety-one  level.

Notwithstanding any provision of this paragraph to  the  contrary,  such
funding  for WNYC-TV shall not diminish the amount of state aid received
by the nine public television corporations pursuant to  paragraph  a  of
this  subdivision in state fiscal year nineteen hundred ninety--nineteen
hundred ninety-one.  For  the  purposes  of  this  subdivision,  "public
service  programming"  shall  be  defined  as  non-commercial  cultural,
instructional or  educational  programming.  In  order  to  qualify  for
assistance  under  this subdivision, the minimum hours of non-commercial
public service programming, shall be eight hours daily and shall include
three hours daily of prime time service, which  is  defined  as  service
between  the  hours  of  8:00  p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Non-commercial public
service programming, other than prime time, shall be broadcast in blocks
of not less than one hundred twenty minutes. All  funds  so  apportioned
shall  be  used  for  non-commercial public service television broadcast
activities. WNYC-TV shall render a report to the commissioner not  later
than  December  first  of each year such funds are appropriated upon the
use of such appropriation, and shall  furnish  such  other  reports  and
information  relating to such funds as the commissioner may from time to
time require. Funds appropriated pursuant to this subdivision shall  not
be used for partisan or political purposes or to influence the enactment
of legislation.
h.  There  shall  be  apportioned, at such time that any appropriation
exceeds the sum appropriated  in  state  fiscal  year  nineteen  hundred
ninety--nineteen  hundred  ninety-one  for  approved capital expenses of
educational  television  corporations  and  public  radio  stations,  as
provided  in  paragraph  c  of  this  subdivision, an amount to New York
city-licensed WNYC-TV. Notwithstanding any provisions of this  paragraph
to  the  contrary,  such  funding shall not diminish the amount of state
aid, for capital purposes, that the nine public television  corporations
and fifteen public radio stations received in state fiscal year nineteen
hundred  ninety--nineteen  hundred  ninety-one.  WNYC-TV  shall render a
report to the commissioner not later than December first  of  each  year
such  funds  are appropriated upon the use of funds apportioned pursuant
to this paragraph, and shall furnish such other reports and  information
relating to such funds as the commissioner may require.
5.  Implementation. For the purposes of carrying out the provisions of
this section, the regents may make rules, or authorize the  commissioner
to  make  regulations, providing for the implementation of this section,
including provision for annual audited reports of the financial  records
of such corporations as the regents or the commissioner may require.