Today's RCB/PBA-AETC Meeting

A meeting was held today between the Georgia Tech Radio Communications Board (RCB) and representatives ofthe Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative (AETC), which is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1994 to manage Public Broadcasting Atlanta, WABE 90.1FM, and WPBA TV30.

WREK alum Adam Preble (GM 2000-01) attended the meeting and provided the following summary:

They [AETC] stressed that they're "really here to listen and learn," and that they "don't want any of WREK's airspace for [their] programming." They are basically offering their services in a partnership to assist with underwriting and programming "should we decide one is necessary," and they see their larger role as helping to preserve unique programming like WREK's. When asked what they were interested in getting from WREK, their response seemed fairly altruistic; they see threats on the horizon for public broadcasting and say they want to help.

While they don't seem to have any interest in WREK's air time (they say they're very happy with WABE's 3 HD radio channels), I think it's important to note that their help doesn't come without a cost. For example, if we had them help with fundraising or underwriting, some form of profit sharing would be part of the arrangement.