The Quello Center congratulates all those involved in discussions at MSU on the university’s response to the FCC spectrum incentive auction. The university’s leadership, including the Board of Trustees, carefully considered its options, and the opportunities and prospects attached to each path forward for WKAR, MSU’s public television and radio station, and the university. Its leadership decided to bypass the incentive auction as it realized the incredible potential tied to linking visions of MSU’s outreach to the community, and its educational and related research initiatives, to the innovative use of public broadcasting facilities in Lansing and Detroit.
Central to its vision, as articulated by President Lou Anna Simon, is the concept of creating more valuable educational programming for children in Detroit, Lansing and across Michigan in collaboration with Detroit public broadcasting.
Press Conference Announcing MSU-Detroit Collaboration
This resolution holds great promise, including:
– reinvigorating the University’s commitment to public broadcasting and the Lansing community;
– enhancing educational programming across Michigan;
– offering an example to public broadcasters and universities across the United States;
– fostering innovation at MSU’s WKAR station, and Detroit’s public television station, WTVS;
– enabling WKAR to develop the next generation of public broadcasting to multiple devices;
– creating opportunities for collaboration between Colleges and departments across MSU; and
– encouraging a more active use of WKAR as a teaching platform at MSU.
Having imagined the loss of public broadcasting, all stakeholders seem even more committed than before to its success in mid-Michigan. Now the work begins.
