PBS Looks To Appeal To The Hispanic Community

PBS Looks To Appeal To The Hispanic Community

For the first time in more than thirty years, the Public Broadcast Station is looking to expand beyond its base audience. PBS now is looking start an all Hispanic station which aims at educating children and providing programming for adults that focuses on cultural diversity. The new station, “WEDU” looks to fill a long standing void in educational TV aimed at the young Latin community. As of now, this new channel will only be found in the Tampa area but may become nationally syndicated, depending on the success it may or may not find there. One of the hopes here is that the education provided by WEDU could be similar to what the English population had enjoyed for years.

PBS may also be looking to going rejoin its grassroots beginnings. As many of those who have watched the channel for years can attest, the supposed Public Broadcast station has been drawing in more corporate dollars in the past two decades than the previous years starting with the founding year of 1969. One of the main supporters has been Mercedes and a subsidiary of Exxon-mobile. Regardless, we were able to hold onto such shows and Bill Moyer’s Journal, formally known as “Now” and several British comedies. With the Hispanic market now being wooed it should be interesting to see if this once "channel of the people "will return to its roots.  This appears unlikely though. The president of the station is Paula A. Kerger who ran "WNET" a corporate news site not known for its diverse views. Their former president Ervin Duggan was head of the FCC presiding over the relaxation of rules which allowed the further monopolization of the media by large corporate entities.  Now 5 - 7 media owners control much more than 90% of the market. How PBS approaches WEDU may reveal what kind of vehicle this station might become.

On the surface of things, providing quality education to the Spanish population is not only a wonderful idea but much-needed considering the collapse of the American education system some thirty years ago. Hopefully this new channel lives up to past PBS programs despite the move away from public support and more towards corporate funding.

We’ll see.  Until next time.

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