An idea that has dictated many laws, regulations, and court cases since the airwaves started being used is that they belong to the public.
This has been shown through the requirement of public, free-access stations both for television and radio. While radio remained free, somehow television had grown in a different direction.
Television has become a more exclusive club. There needs to be a basic package to even get any information to your home, and between phone service, internet, and cable, most pay more for cable than the other two combined.
The exception, for a long time, has been PBS. Sure, few to none watch it on a regular basis, but it brought television entertainment to anyone who seeked it out. It was there for everyone, regardless of class or means.
That is the definition of public access, being accessible to the general public unconditionally. One would think that belonging to the public would mean public taxes would go to help support the art. One would be wrong.
Well, currently they would be right, but not for long. Because of PBS's low ratings, promotion, and interest, many are trying to cut it's federal funding to as little as possible, or even none at all.
Then, what would happen to those airwaves? They'd probably be sold to become another conglomerate.
If PBS was given enough funding or fund raising, it would have the potential to be a great alternative to mainstream news and programming. But I guess we will never know.
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