Maine Public Broadcasting Network

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network (abbreviated MPBN) is a state network of public television and radio stations located in the state of Maine in the United States. It is operated by the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation, which holds the licenses for all the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) stations licensed in the state. MPBN has studios and offices in Portland, Lewiston and Bangor.

MPBN's television network shows a block of standard PBS programming, as as well as many documentaries including nature programs and other science programs. MPBN's radio network airs news and talk programming from NPR, locally-produced news programming, jazz and classical music.

MPBN's television and radio signals reach virtually all of the populated portions of Maine, and adjoining parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New Brunswick. MPBN Television is also carried on cable in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.

History

What is now MPBN dates from the 1992 merger of WCBB-TV, the PBS member station for most of southern Maine, with the original MPBN radio and television stations operated by the University of Maine.^[1]

On November 13, 1961, WCBB-TV signed on from Lewiston as the first Educational television station in Maine. It was a combined venture of Colby College, Bates College, and Bowdoin College.^[2] Two years later, WMEB-TV signed on from UMaine's campus in Orono, near Bangor.^[3] Over the next decade, UMaine signed on three other stations across the state, as well as several translators. These stations formed the original MPBN network. One of these stations was WMEA-TV in Biddeford, near Portland; however, it was (and still is) practically unviewable over the air in Portland itself and points north. WMEA was the flagship station for the now-defunct Maine Public Television Plus, a secondary PBS service launched in the mid-1990s. UMaine brought public radio to the state in 1970, when WMEH signed on from Bangor. Five other stations signed on over the next decade.

As part of the merger, all of the stations' licenses were transferred to a new community-owned entity, the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation. MPBN's Bangor stations, WMEB-TV and WMEH-FM, became the flagship stations. The television stations adopted the on-air name "Maine Public Television," but dropped this in favor of "Maine PBS" in 1998. The radio stations became known as "Maine Public Radio." In 2006, they reverted to the "MPBN" moniker.

Controversy

In the course of 24 months in 2000 and 2001, longtime classical music hosts Victor Hathaway, Virgil Bissett, Helen York and Dave Bunker left the station. Bissett retired, Bunker moved to southern Maine after his wife gained employment there. Despite Bunker's willingness to continue his popular morning music show from the Portland studios of MPBN, he was let go and Leitha Christie hired in his place. York resigned in protest.

The live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts on Saturday afternoons, which had been a mainstay of classical music broadcasting for more than twenty years, was discontinued. Despite Maine Public Broadcasting's claims that the opera was being dropped due to lack of popularity among listeners, a citizens' protest forced the state network to reinstate the Saturday afternoon opera after a few months.

In May 2005, Maine Public Broadcasting joined a few other PBS stations in showing the controversial "Sugartime!" episode of Postcards from Buster. The program is about a cartoon rabbit named Buster Baxter, who travels the country with his father and interacts with children from different cultures and in different family structures. PBS headquarters had pulled the episode from its national broadcast schedule after receiving a critical letter from newly-installed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who was upset that Buster was visiting a Vermont family headed by two women. WGBH, the Boston-based PBS affiliate and original producer of the program, subsequently made the episode available to stations that still wished to air it on an individual basis.

Maine humorist Robert Skoglund, a.k.a. The Humble Farmer, host of a weekly jazz and humor program of the same name on MPBN since 1978, aired comments in 2003 pointed at the Republican administration under President George W. Bush. Without citing Bush by name, Skogland compared Bush to Adolf Hitler (and, in a later program, Mussolini). As a result, he was verbally admonished for violating the station's political neutrality guidelines which Skoglund signed and pledged to observe in 1992. Later, in violation of those 1992 guidelines, Skoglund submitted a pre-recorded program for broadcast on November 3, 2007, in which he read a letter on-air that advocated a "no" vote on a the controversial Taxpayer Bill of Rights referendum question due before Maine voters four days later. MPBN reacted to the latter by not airing the program, claiming that it also violated the station's political neutrality guidelines. Skoglund protested by going silent - limiting his vocal utterances during the program to one or two identifications of songs or musicians. After two weeks of Skoglund's silence, MPBN VP for Programming, Charles Beck, sent Skoglund a letter telling him that politicizing a program MPBN kept on the air for its jazz and humor content would lead to the show's cancellation if such attempts continued. MPBN then crafted written guidelines for every member of the on-air staff, asking each to indicate with a signature his or her acceptance of MPBN directives with regard to keeping politically charged content out of local entertainment programming and not using the public's airwaves to further their own personal political agendas. Skoglund, who had signed the 1992 guidelines, refused to sign the updated and tightened guidelines. He is quoted on a pro-Skoglund web site as having no recollection of the 1992 guidelines and attributes his removal from the air as being related to "get out the vote" calls he made on behalf of Democrats, which MPBN did not and does not object to.^[4]

Transmitter shutdowns

In December 2008, due to the economic crisis and lack of governmental funding, MPBN announced plans on temporarily closing down WMED-TV and -FM in Calais, and WMEF FM in Fort Kent, for at least six months, beginning January 2009.^[5][6] In addition, MPBN's radio and television stations would leave the air for five hours each night, as an energy saving measure.^[7] However, many viewers and listeners complained to MPBN for their actions. Another concern is for MPBN's role as the state's primary carrier for the Emergency Alert System, which will be hampered during the times it is not on the air, as well as in areas where aerial service has been discontinued.^[7]

In part of the response from viewers and listeners in the affected regions, MPBN delayed their closures until February 28, 2009, at earliest.^[8] On February 12, 2009, MPBN officially rescinded plans to close down the transmitters, after responses from its viewers and listeners, as well as stakeholders, legislators, and Governor Baldacci.^[9]

Television stations

MPBN operates 5 full-power television stations:

Notes:

• 1. WMEA-TV used the callsign WMEG-TV from its 1975 sign-on until 1984.
• 2. All main MPBN stations shut down their analog signals on January 11, 2009, over a month ahead of the original February 17 transition date,^[10] causing many of MPBN's viewers to lose the signal.^[11]

MPBN also operates 4 translator stations:

Digital Television

MPBN's digital channels are multiplexed:

Digital channels

On October 27, 2010 MPBN added PBS World programming to its .3 subchannel, but had been offering it for several years on Time Warner Cable, which is available to a large amount of subscribers throughout Maine. Also available on the digital cable tier are Create and a three hour delayed feed of the main MPBN signal in standard definition.

Radio stations

MPBN operates 7 radio transmitters:

References

External links

• Maine Public Broadcasting's main site
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WCBB
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for W04BH
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMEM
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMEB
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMEA
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for W03AM
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for W04BS
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMED
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WCBB-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMEM-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMEB-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMEA-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMED-TV