MY PBS PROGRAMMING ODYSSEY

    

This is a minor inconvenience but I must protest anyway.  On August 21, 2018 PBS will be premiering a new Pioneers Of Television special entitled "Betty White: First Lady Of Comedy."  I'm certainly not disputing the title as she has been a part of television since 1949 and was first nominated for an Emmy as early as 1951 and most recently as 2011.  Betty White = Perfect.
     However, when I checked my local Montana PBS schedule, it was nowhere to be found.  I thought there must be some kind of mistake.   I kept looking all over the interwebs for something besides glowing reviews of the programs but finally gave up and called Montana PBS in Missoula.
     I spoke to a very nice gentleman who informed me that most PBS stations have five pledge drives per year.  This special happens to be exclusively for pledge drives this month.  Montana PBS only has two pledge drives per year and the next one is in November.  He explained that the special will most likely air at that time.  Furthermore, at some point the special will become 'non-exclusive' which means Montana PBS will be able to air it whenever they see fit to do so.  However, National PBS will decide when this occurs.  
     Confused?  You won't be after this week's episode of Soap.  Wait. Wrong show and subject.  Sorry about that.  I'm still sure you (and I) may be confused about how PBS operates and I suspect that the confusion is entirely intentional.  The P in PBS stands for public.  This means that viewers like you donate money to keep the programs on the air.  Thank you.  Of course, our government subsidizes a large portion of the national budget to assist as well.  And one must not forget the extremely wealthy donors like the Koch brothers.  Since they donate an ass-ton amount of money, they also have a hand in helping PBS decide what you watch and what you don't watch.  When Ken Burns made his recent Vietnam documentary, he had to let the brothers privately screen it first.  Since wealthy donors come from different political points of view, the programs usually balance out any type of bias.  Usually.
     I could go further into this type of process of what PBS airs and the fact that local affiliates have some say in programming for their own local market demographic but I will not as I suspect you're snoring right now.  WAKE UP!!!  The Betty White special should air on Montana PBS sometime in November.  For now, I will patiently as we all did before instant gratification was invented.  Until then I shall dream about how to 'be more.'