MPBC president honored?

Maine Public Broadcasting has enriched the lives of many Mainers throughout its 40-year history. It has also engaged the minds of many during that time. For 10 years now, ever since MPBN and WCBB merged in 1992, Rob Gardiner, outgoing president of MPBC, has especially engaged the minds of the people of Maine. He engaged one or two several weeks ago when he announced the debut of digital television with a live broadcast at 2:55 on a Tuesday afternoon in a drab conference room without so much as a diagram or wide-screen TV set to excite the imaginations of enriched pledgers everywhere. It was enough to bore an avid cable-access fan.

This must be a particularly high rated prime time slot for Maine PBS to take such valuable air time to announce such a wonderful beginning to a new television era in our state. A new technology destined to enrich the lives of pledge makers near and far. A new technology that almost no one in the state can currently receive due to the high expense of the required reception equipment. And this broadcast announcement was judiciously wedged into a station break right after a GED prep course, which was preceded by a work place essential skills program, geared to people freshly entering the labor market. Not the sort of audience who can likely afford to go digital just yet. And we trust these savvy broadcast officials with our tax dollars!

Now, at the pinnacle of MPBC’s successful entrance to a long awaited, FCC mandated, world of digital broadcasting, a new captain is about to grab the wheel and steer this public treasure onward to, hopefully, dizzying new heights of engagement. Mary Anne Alhadeff, MPBC’s newly chosen president, has her work cut out for her.

In an MPBC press release Alhadeff, currently the president and chief executive officer of Prairie Public Broadcasting in Fargo, N.D., said she is thrilled to have been chosen to build upon Gardiner’s record of achievement. She said, “I am honored to have been selected to succeed Rob Gardiner who has provided excellent stewardship to Maine Public Broadcasting. I look forward to leading MPBC into the digital age as we provide even greater programs and services to engage the minds and enrich the lives of the people of Maine.” Yah y’betch yah. Okiedokie. Oh, jeez, I see she’s using MPBC’s slogan already. Nice touch.

Ms. Alhadeff’s experience of Maine came, evidently, during a stint as broadcasting director of New Hampshire Public Television during the ’90s. She lived in Kittery for that time and is now reported by MPBC to be excited to be returning to a state she and here family love. At the very least she’s used to cold climates. Cold weather keeps out the riff raff.

You will notice, of course, that Kittery is hardly fully representational of Maine. It’s in the “other” Maine. Way in the other Maine. Almost out of Maine. She will be shocked, I’m sure, to discover Washington and Aroostook counties and the vast treks of potential viewers in between. She will no doubt be inspired to bring these fair lands and pledge dollars into the new digital age along with their more well to do brothers and sisters south of Lewiston. But, I’m sure she must be asking herself along with many puzzled Mainers, why, when all that Rob Gardiner has worked for, all that he has achieved and made happen over the past decade, just when his efforts are coming to fruition, just when his most prized passion is blossoming and the party is at its height, why, is he leaving and handing over the reins to someone from “away?”

I can’t help but wonder where Maine PBS is bound? Could it be that Rob sees something ahead that makes NOW appear to be a good time to get while the getting is good? The salary’s good, that’s for certain. It’s $100,000 plus benefits. That’s more than the governor gets. Could it be that he knows something he’s not telling? Might it have something to do with the uncertain and risky future of over-the-air public broadcasting in Maine? Or wildly expensive DTV television sets and set top boxes that a frugal public, tightening its belt, won’t readily run out and purchase? Or can’t purchase due to the prohibitive costs and low incomes? Could MPBC find itself broadcasting with its $20 million of shiny new digital equipment to virtually no one? All these things coupled with bold new budget requirements for daily operations will beg for lean, mean, hair pulling, nightmarish executive decisions. They are, perhaps, maybe, best left to someone else to deal with.

Yes, Ms. Alhadeff is tackling a mystery. A mystery to the public at least. As for her being honored to have been selected to succeed Rob Gardiner, “who has provided excellent stewardship to Maine Public Broadcasting,” I wonder if she is aware of MPBC’s history since 1992. Gardiner’s had his hand slapped on more than one occasion as an astute public already knows and jumping overboard during this critical time in MPBC’s history is another fine example of his incongruent walk and talk. Just do a search for articles on MPBC at this newspaper’s web site to get a taste of Gardiner’s “excellent” stewardship.

If MPBC should fail in its mission or be severely damaged or mismanaged or merely become insignificant in the difficult years ahead, it won’t be Rob Gardiner’s doing. He’s making sure of that. A new lass with a daunting task will be the blame for all that!

Bill Moores of Old Town is a 30-year local broadcast veteran in public and commercial, technical and production.