When Doug Price attended a recent Denver Center performance of “Dusty and the Big Bad World,” he mulled the dilemma along with the rest of the audience:
What should the government’s role be when it comes to deciding what’s appropriate for the airwaves? What should be the role of public broadcasters? What sort of material is “too edgy” when the broadcaster gets some funding from the government, as is the case with PBS?
Where does propriety end and censorship begin?
Price has more than a passing interest in these hypotheticals. Unlike “viewers like you,” Price is the newly installed general manager of Rocky Mountain PBS, KRMA-Channel 6, following the 18-year tenure of James Morgese.
Price knows the dilemma of “Dusty” echoes the real case of “Postcards From Buster,” a political eruption from five years ago. At that time, PBS caved under pressure from conservative groups threatening to cut funding. It did not broadcast the show nationally, but individual stations made their own decisions. KBDI-Channel 12 held fast to airing the program about an animated bunny and his visits to diverse families. Channel 12 aired the segment about a girl with two mommies, along with a prime-time discussion. Channel 6 danced around a decision for a time, then pulled the show from its weekday morning slot and broadcast it at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday.
After the performance, at a Q&A with Denver Center Theater Company artistic director Kent Thompson, Price told the audience he wants to be “in a world where we can be controversialists.”
Like Channel 12? In this case, he said, he would run the show.
A former banker, retired at 50 and looking for a new challenge, Price said in an interview in his office, “although I possess caution as a bankerly trait, and while I’m alert to the FCC, my default would be to provoke thought and debate.”
Being provocative doesn’t mean offending, he notes.
So far, so good for the man who steps into the thankless task of leading the regional public broadcaster in the midst of a recession.
“I may be dumb as a post for taking it,” he says of the job, “but it’s an extension of civic life.”
Within days of taking the job, Price was spouting ratings like a veteran broadcaster. “We got a 5 share yesterday for ‘America’s Test Kitchen,’ ” he said.
The banker and veteran of the nonprofit world is adapting quickly, rattling off cost-per-thousand and demographic data.
“Our price per rating point is really quite attractive.” Besides, he notes, while the PBS audience does skew older than the 18-34 age group that advertisers covet, “the 50-plus crowd has discretionary income.”
He’s been hanging with KUSA’s Mark Cornetta, KBDI’s Wick Rowland and others who are mentoring the newcomer to television. Price made his mark in the world of banking early: A 1978 graduate of the University of Colorado, he became president of FirstBank of Boulder in 1982, was promoted to president of FirstBank of Denver in 1988, and retired as president of FirstBank of Colorado in 1999.
In 1995, he became founding chairman of Qualistar Early Learning, a Denver nonprofit, which developed a rating system for child-care facilities. Early childhood education and public health are two areas he’s particularly interested in bolstering on-air.
He hopes his new position will allow him to be a player between cultural, charitable and civic worlds.
Among Price’s plans for the future: joining with a local commercial station to produce a show about the local arts scene.
“We need relevant local programming,” Price said. While digital conversion is “a cash hog” taking up too much budget and mental energy at the moment, he plans to ask the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District to support a local arts show.
His role model is St. Louis public TV, which has successfully pushed a major gifts initiative that pulls in contributions at a higher level than membership (say, $1,000 a year). In the past decade, financial support for the St. Louis station has tripled. It is bringing in more funding — and with fewer pledge days.
He’s talking the talk. Let’s watch him walk the walk.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
