Ed Grant, general manager of CMU Public Broadcasting, has had enough on his plate with WCMU-TV complying with the federally mandated conversion from an analog to a digital signal.

And that was before the CMU Board of Trustees agreed to purchase WFUM-TV of Flint for $1 million from the University of Michigan.

“There’s been some good, bad and ugly,” Grant said of the conversion. “It’s been an extremely expensive conversion for everybody, commercial stations as well as non-commercial stations. It cost us about $14 million.”

The acquisition of WFUM, which will extend from Bay City to metro Detroit, will nearly quadruple CMU Public Broadcasting’s audience, Grant said.

Grant said a commercial station with the reach of WFUM is usually valued at around $7 million to $10 million, and the University of Michigan’s desire to keep the station non-commercial is why CMU is getting the station at a discount.

Grant said he feels the station will be a recruiting tool as much of as anything.

“It gives Central Michigan University access and coverage in southeast Michigan that they’ve not had at this point,” Grant said.

Linda Dielman, programming and outreach manager for CMU Public Broadcasting, said broadcasting will still include local issues for the Flint market.

“There are cultural issues that have to be addressed,” Dielman said. “But doing live programming from Flint is our intent.”

CMU Public Broadcasting is the largest university-licensed public broadcasting station in the country, Dielman said. WCMU-TV was launched March 29, 1967, and is the flagship station for CMU Public Television, serving the Mount Pleasant area.

Expansion

During the administration of former university president Harold Abel, CMU Public Broadcasting saw a lot of expansion.

On Nov. 21, 1975, WCML in Alpena was added to the CMU Public Broadcasting family and, on Sept. 7, 1984, WCMV of Cadillac and WCMW of Mainstee began carrying the CMU Public Broadcasting feed.

The WCMU-TV feed also is carried in Leland and Traverse City in northwest Michigan.

With the conversion to digital television nearly complete, Grant said the next step for WCMU-TV is outfitting its mobile production with high-definition cameras and equipment. Grant said Public Broadcasting already has the $1.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture from the Rural Utility Service Grant program.

“That truck’s going to be equipped by next summer,” Grant said. “I’ve told everybody that’s a requirement.”

Grant said WCMU-TV only does live broadcasts from itsstudios in Mount Pleasant, which affects programs such as “Quiz Central,” a high school quiz bowl show, and “Meet the Candidates,” broadcast during election years.

With the mobile production truck, Grant said it will now be possible to broadcast these programs live outside of Mount Pleasant.

With the struggling economy, Grant said Public Broadcasting is doing the best it can to spend each dollar wisely.

The university provides a little more than $5 million to CMU Public Broadcasting’s budget, which is about 25 percent.

The rest, Grant said, comes from grant programs and public contributions.

“We’re always looking for ways to be more efficient, money’s tough, money tight. We’re always looking for ways to stretch the dollar,” Grant said. “It allows us to do many more things than we were doing 10 years ago with actually fewer staff than we had 10 years ago.”