It's a brave new world

If business in the media industry is war, public broadcasting is Switzerland.

As TV and radio networks fight for revenue by chasing the lowest common denominator, public radio and television stations--thanks in part to generous government subsidies--have maintained a quiet dignity, peacefully going their cultural, civic-minded and often esoteric way, offering such programming as radio's All Things Considered and TV's Nova and, of course, Sesame Street.

But America's current rumblings about tax burdens and public subsidies for the arts and other pseudo-businesses have landed among public broadcasters like a Scud missile in The Hague.

In Northeast Ohio, public broadcasters have responded by declaring war on each other.

John Perry, general manager of public radio station WKSU-FM 89.7 in Kent, is positioning his station for head-to-head competition with Cleveland's public radio station WCPN-FM 90.3.

WKSU is extending its signal and by 1997 will reach across a 5,000-square-mile area--west through Lorain County, south through Stark County and east into Erie, Pa. The expansion will help WKSU net new listeners, members, foundation grants and corporate underwriters in metro areas across the region--but especially on WCPN's turf, Cleveland. It's the latest and boldest move in a business war between these two public-radio affiliates. Already, WKSU has recruited some of WCPN's best talent and defeated WCPN's attempts to block its expansion.

"Just because it says 'not-for-profit' doesn't mean it's run without money," says Jerry Wareham, president and general manager of WVIZ Channel 25 in Cleveland and administrator of the television station's $10 million budget. And where there's money, there's rivalry.

Perry and Wareham are securing their futures through growth. And they're thinking like savvy entrepreneurs rather than the naive stewards of sleepy nonprofits some mistakenly believe them to be. They are working to do just what the proponents of government cutbacks have challenged them to do--earn their keep from the private sector.

During his more than 20 years at its helm, John Perry has grown WKSU from a small, university-licensed station with only 1,200 listeners a week into a nationally acclaimed station with 180,000 listeners a week--a...