voiceofsandiego.org: Opinion... Out of Focus

It isn’t Doctors without Borders or the First Marine Division, or even, god help us, the Red Cross. It is a week-night public affairs magazine broadcast by KPBS, your local public television station (celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, by the way). And now it’s gone.

The death of "Full Focus" will be mourned by San Diegans who care about thorough, thoughtful coverage and analysis of issues and events. But most of the county’s 1 million TV households won’t notice. The audience for Full Focus averaged (generously) a 1.2 rating over both airings (6:30 and 11 p.m.), or 13 thousand households. With a budget of give-or-take $1 million, that’s around $50 per viewer.

Management considered it a million well-spent -- great public service is supposed to be the KPBS mission -- as long as it actually had the money to spend. And, actually, the station does have it, right this minute. But this year, PBS and NPR dues and other mandated costs will rocket up. Again. By the end of FY ’08, the station could be in the middle of a large deficit hole. KPBS has been down there before and is not about to go in again.

Years ago, we in public television believed that local programming would be the Lancelot that would rescue local stations from the precipice of perpetual poverty. We made our case to Congress for continued appropriation in the name of local programming. I personally sat in Duke Cunningham’s office trying to talk him into defying Newt Gingrich, who wanted to “zero-out” public broadcasting. (I didn’t know then that all I needed for ammunition was a couple of ugly French armoires.) We lobbied satellite companies to carry local stations and cable operators into good channel placement. And when KPBS and public broadcasting survived and even won a few small victories, we gave as good -- or better -- than we got.

"Full Focus" became a five-day-a-week program five years ago, covering substantive, important issues. In those days, we thought that if we scheduled it, the audience would come. In hindsight that seems quaintly naive. Early on, we broadcast one videotaped "package" a week, if we were lucky. The rest of the time it was pretty much in-studio interviews: Monday, newsmakers; Thursday, the arts; Friday top stories of the week. Oddly, we divided up the talking heads by genre, as if that would make them more appealing somehow.

The show and the ratings improved, but not enough, apparently. As of this writing, Full Focus has seven full-time and three part-time employees, bare bones for a nightly show, but very dedicated and talented. We now broadcast at least one videotape news feature a day, and occasionally two or even three. We just purchased $1.5 million in new HD equipment for the program, hired two new videographers, and got a major grant to cross-train journalists in radio, the web and, (ahem), television.

So why did KPBS pull the plug and let its considerable investment sink out of sight? Why not try to raise the money, cut somewhere else or both? I don’t know, frankly. Perhaps there really are only 13,000 households interested in seeing local people talk about the War in Iraq, health care, Sunroad, Carol Lam, the city budget, the Dead Sea Scrolls or even Mike Aguirre. Hearing about this stuff on the radio is one thing, but sitting down and watching it? Maybe not in today’s media environment.

The nut, the kernel, the crux of the matter is that while $1 million was a tremendous amount for KPBS to put into one show, it was not enough to allow us to add what the show needed to attract an audience today.

But who really knows? Perhaps all it would have taken was a mention of Lindsay Lohan now and then. After all, it’s only television.

We found out at 6:30 p.m. today that Full Focus was pulled without notice to KPBS members as another program was in its place. KBPS did not even give the public a chance to be heard on what the public needs and wants. Full Focus should not be killed without a public discussion with KPBS members. Please reconsider your decision. Obviously, the young, professional, investigative reporting staff got too close to someone's money. What a shame.

Posted by La Playa Heritage | reply to this comment
August 1, 2007 10:48 am

Amita Sharma is a standout. I'll miss this program. I especially liked the Friday round table. I also wish they'd put Charlie Rose back on at a decent hour and quit cancelling him during pledge drives. I get to hate the pledge programs. Now I've got one more reason not to give.

Posted by KL | reply to this comment
August 1, 2007 4:36 pm

So, is this an omen for Voice of San Diego? It costs money to churn this out everyday.

Posted by Interesting | reply to this comment
August 1, 2007 5:44 pm

That's Show Business Folks. You Live or Die by your ratings. Full Focus got to redundant. Same people on all the time, same reporters with the same views. Variety is the key. To many important subjects were not covered as well as they should have been and were rushed through the time allotted just to make time for another subject that had little or no importance to community matters. Some station reporters had a tendency to display liberal views. That's a No-No. They are there to inform and entertain, not educate. I will miss Gloria Penner as she is the Old School reporter who digs her heels in and pulls the info out of her guests no matter who they are. She is articulate, has good inflection, pronunciation, and allows her guests to voice their opinions without interruption. A rare quality in broadcasters these days.

Posted by Rocky | reply to this comment
August 1, 2007 10:39 pm

Hey folks. Don't send complaints to poor old Pat. She's just collecting a salary. KPBS is a creature of San Diego State, and the guy in charge is SDSU prez Steve Weber, using your tax dollars, of course. Feel free to give him a call. Better yet, contact your elected state reps. They give SDSU its budget. Come on folks, it's your money.

Posted by Truthteller | reply to this comment
August 1, 2007 10:57 pm

Sorry to see it go, I enjoyed it. I can't beleive there are only 13,000 households watching it.

Posted by michael | reply to this comment
August 1, 2007 11:51 pm

Anytime Gloria Penner is not a part of the KPBS program schedule, we lose a sense of historical perspective. Too many young people, even including some of the editors, haven't lived through or learned from our history during World War II, not to mention the depression. Perhaps the biggest mistake has been chopping up both local radio & television programming into numerous small segments, many of which do not allow for public comment. This is supposed to be "Public Broadcasting", after all. Program management tells us "that our traditional public radio audience (from about 40 to 60 years old) has an increasing appetite for news magazines." (John Decker, email 11 Dec. 2006) However, if you call the Membership Department, they will tell you that 70% of member funding comes from radio & television listeners 69 & older.

Posted by Arlene from Mission Hills | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 12:11 am

It is a new era of media. The failure of print and television to recognize the shift is to their downfall. Examples like Youtube, Current.tv, video podcasts are here to replace the bloated, costly traditional media. "We just purchased $1.5 million in new HD equipment for the program, hired two new videographers, and got a major grant to cross-train journalists in radio, the web and, (ahem), television." Seems like this money could have been better allocated. It the age of IPTV. Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Posted by Walter | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 12:26 am

This won't go over well in this town but it needs to be said...Ms. Penner should not be hosting a tv or radio show. She stumbles over her words, slurs words together and in fact does not speak very clearly. She may be an articulate thinker, but something happens upon delivery that I can't quite describe. If ratings aren't there, perhaps they should change the format and/or hosts to spice it up a bit. Maybe KPBS should puts funds into a more colorful host who will ask the hard questions.

Posted by Not a native | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 12:27 am

The one unique thing about KPBS is it does not sound like 6, 8 10, and 39 and that is a plus. You start losing shows like Focus, no matter how much some may think they are armatures and you will lose a whole lot more then you think. Pat Finn says, "Its Only Television" Well Pat, like it or not, Television has a huge influence on the population. Therefore, good honest programming is what will shape our world and so far some of the majors are failing miserably to perform their obligation to the public.

Posted by Rocky | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 1:02 am

I'll second Native's opinion that a better host and different format might have saved the show. Gloria Penner has been around a long time. So long, that she's become stale and irrelevant to the younger viewers. She's just not a good host for a show today. The format didn't allow for any in-depth analysis, despite what Finn says. It certainly wasn't thorough. Cut the number of topics, replace the host, get some new faces around the table. Or, just show more Lawrence Welk. That works for the Penner audience.

Posted by Ray | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 2:14 am

Walter, were dealing with a whole new generation that has different values then previous generations. This new generation needs all the bells and whistles and the hell with the content of the programming. Sounds bites are all they are interested in. it's called "On The GO Info" Just forget the details as we don't have time to deal with them. The new America has arrived. Notice how many Important stories are broadcasted and that is the last you hear of them. Hardly ever any follow ups to the stories. But what is even more discouraging is that not to many listeners are curious enough to inquire about it. Also, we don't have the talent we once had and I believe that is do to economics. It cheaper to hire 3 lesser talents for the price of one good talent. And then there is the advent of Automation.

Posted by Rocky | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 2:15 am

Sorry to see this show go, it could have been a good source of information for San Diego. Get a new host and started asking questions that were timley and uptodate. We would hear thing like Donia Fry is going to run for Mayor at noon and the unions were going to back her with big bucks. On the show that night that question was never ask her. They could have saved the show by trying to get other people to talk about both sides and knowing what was going on around town. The San Diego Union subscriptions are dropping because of their reporting and thats where you went for experts why?

Posted by Sam | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 5:07 am

I watched the show in its previous incarnations, before they chopped it up into so many short pieces, mainly talking heads. It got both boring and superficial at the same time - not a good combo. What I did like were the solid reports, like those from reporter Rebecca Tolin. I'd vote to bring back more reporting (get out into the community for heavens sake!) and less sitting the same ol' folks at the roundtable and asking the same ol' questions.

Posted by Bethany | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 10:32 am

KPBS and NPR are both, really, corporate tv and radio, not public at all. Both get plenty of money, run ads and beg incessantly. Under Steven Weber, both are heavily censored. The truth about SDSU's racist policies and programs never sees the light of day, nor does the fact that SDSU is little more than a mediocre community college, like the entire CSU system. Weber and Padres owner John Moore are hand in glove. So, PBS and NPR consistently dumb down their programming, though Joan Kroc gave them bundles of money, wiping out pleas of poverty. It is, of course, money that drives the programming, but it is also ideology, lies. Talk of the Nation was eradicated on NPR, replaced by the bubbly Day To Day. Now KPBS wipes out Full Focus, one of the few places where key issues were at least identified, if not properly investigated.

Posted by Shulgin | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 3:40 pm

"Talk of the Nation" may not be on KPBS, but NPR didn't drop it--it is still on the air and thriving nationwide. And may I have documented proof that public broadcasting programming is "dumbed down?" Is that elitist snob for "trying to appeal to younger audiences?" And if you're a Boomer, why are you sounding just like your parents. And oh yes--what is it you hate about our free enterprise system and love about Communism so much? How big was your celebration on Sept. 11?

Posted by Mark Jeffries | reply to this comment
August 2, 2007 10:35 pm

Full Focus was the only thing I've found on TV that discussed important San Diego issues. I'm really sad to see it go, especially the way it was unceremoniously yanked and replaced with High Definition food (clearly there's a shortage of cooking shows on TV). Is there anything else on TV that covers local issues in an intelligent way?

Posted by Simple Guy | reply to this comment
August 3, 2007 2:00 pm

We have all looked to you to bring us the honest news coverage of the truly meaty issues confronting us. It makes me wonder when a poll is taken of viewers. who the survey people contacted. It seems to me that there is a strata of people who just are more concerned with real news than the hum-drum sit coms. Another cooking program. Give me a break ! Bring back Full Focus. Why doesn't someone out there do their own survey of just how many cooking shows there are on television. We need food for our brains, not more and more food to eat. Also, why weren't the viewers given a chance to speak out BEFORE THE FACT ? It just might have made a difference. How many of us will remember this. I will. You will.

Posted by San Marcos says, | reply to this comment
August 4, 2007 2:37 am

I must point out a fallacy that gets perpetuated among those who watch/listen to public broadcasting. I am particularly targeting those who claim after a programming decision is made - "nobody asked me". Even though you are part of the public, the fact that most of your listeners/viewers don't bother to watch/listen to a particular program doesn't need deconstruction and survey. I don't know the KPBS ratings, I don't need to. People who verbally support programs and rarely use them have to know that operations like KPBS cannot operate that way. This isn't the 1960's anymore, classroom-of-the-air public broadcasting is gone. So are the big bands and many other things that could be deemed as important at one time. Our grandparents thought the society was going to hell, their grandparents thought the same thing and now many of you are crying the outrage of the ages. Listen. Watch. Give.

Posted by Islander 84 | reply to this comment
August 4, 2007 11:44 pm

Islander: You have a point. I didn't read the Book Review section of the UT. I never did.*** Yet, I would have had to pay for Copley to include the Book Review section, regardless. Yet, so many people yammered about that section being dropped without notice, big deal!!! It's Copley Jr.'s paper; and he can cut out whatever section he wants. So, to all complainers: get your own TV/Radio program or newspaper. ***I DON'T READ THE UT, PERIOD...

Posted by Greg Duch | reply to this comment
August 5, 2007 5:34 am

Why didn't I watch "Full Focus"? Two words: Gloria Penner. Ms Penner, apparently a former high school teacher, has the uncanny ability to turn the most fascinating story into a high school civics class, with all the riveting drama that implies.

Posted by Steve | reply to this comment
August 6, 2007 7:22 am

Out of Focus

By Pat Finn