Happy Birthday Public Broadcasting (I Quit!)

Forty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson ceremoniously signed the congressional act that created the modern public broadcasting system in America.

Seems like a good day to quit KPBS.

It's sheer coincidence, of course, but let me ponder the non-connection.

I was only 11 years old when LBJ did the deed that Republican presidents have been trying to undo ever since. At the time, his signature promised a bold vision to future generations that television and radio would offer more than a "vast wasteland." It would bring culture and art, science and history, news and public affairs, and non-commercial educational programming to young and old.

All I knew then was that there was something different, something authentic on my family PBS channel. Only over the years would I discover the magnetic attraction this bold vision would have upon me.

Born the son of a broadcast newsman, I grew up with an enduring interest in the role of journalism. But it wasn't until I delivered my nervous first on-air utterance -- in 1978 -- giving the 3:00 a.m. ID for my college radio station (WUOG-FM in Athens, Georgia) that I would actually become a part of public radio.

Being among the first to introduce the world to REM and the B-52's was a perfectly auspicious prelude to what would later become a career in delivering first word of more serious fare: John Lennon's assassination, Mt. St. Helen's exploding, the San Francisco earthquake, war in the gulf, and so on -- up to and including last month's horrendous firestorm in San Diego County.

Somewhere over my 29 years in public radio and television (a pairing that will soon converge into "public media"), I made a conscious choice to keep my roots in local community service. Perhaps it was the toll the networks took on my dad (he worked exceedingly long hours), or perhaps it was my own need to remain authentic, close to the audience. Whatever it was, I was determined to stay local and make local news great.

I leave KPBS after 12 years and on good terms. Together, with enlightened management and a strong team, we built something unique and durable here for the people of San Diego. Or they built us, I guess.

The technology may be shifting below us, but the journalistic and the cultural and the educational content will continue -- like a green oasis in an even vaster wasteland.

And I take comfort in having served that bold vision of the '60s. With some luck, I'll stay true to that promise, whatever the next 40 years may bring.

Thanks.

-- Michael Marcotte was KPBS News Director from 1995 to 2007, and directed the Jacobs Project for Reporting Excellence at KPBS. He's moving to Santa Barbara to become a public media consultant. You can contact him directly at mmarcotte@mmarcotte.org.