Community radio is expected to save big on the Public Radio Satellite System in 2017.
The NPR Board and the D/I Committee recently approved the PRSS 2017 rates for participating interconnected stations. The board decided to change the way the rate is calculated – now basing it on each station’s Total Station Revenue.
This means stations will be paying no more than 19 percent of the actual cost of using the PRSS. The other 81 percent comes from a combination of the value of federal funding, satellite capacity sales, proceeds from investments and an annual reimbursement from the PRSS Trust.
NFCB member stations have a seat at the table through CEO Sally Kane, who advocates for community radio. She lobbied for no increase to small stations and something fairer than a flat rate. Most smaller stations will be experiencing some rate relief this year.
The PRSS offers a variety of benefits to member stations, including 99.99 percent system availability for the past several years; the power for stations to subscribe to more than 8,000 hours of public radio programming available at a glance each month in ContentDepot;customized backup services to ensure uninterrupted broadcasts, if you are rebuilding or relocating your station or studios, or are concerned about outages; and integration with automation, among other benefits.
