§ 18-4.1-2 - Findings.
SECTION 18-4.1-2
§ 18-4.1-2 Findings. – The general assembly finds and declares that:
(1) Public radio stations in Rhode Island contribute uniquelyand substantially to the cultural, educational and journalistic quality of lifein Rhode Island;
(2) Rhode Island's existing public radio stations have beenbuilt and maintained through the charitable contributions of thousands of RhodeIsland individuals, foundations and businesses who expected that theircontributions would be used to maintain and improve public radio stations inRhode Island;
(3) Consolidation in commercial radio and other media hasreduced the number of Rhode Island owned and operated cultural, educational andnews organizations;
(4) Rhode Island public radio stations are under particularchallenge because the lawful but dominant signal strength and broadcastingpriority of television's broadcast channel six limits the signal strength ofvirtually all noncommercial radio licenses in Rhode Island, thereby limitingthe technical ability of Rhode Island public radio stations to serve the entirestate through a single noncommercial radio license;
(5) Public radio stations that do not operate on frequenciesreserved for noncommercial broadcasting may easily be sold to for-profitentities that do maintain public radio programs;
(6) Donations to Rhode Island charities are given with theintent that each charity will use the donations to support the charity'smission as long as the charity and mission are viable; and
(7) In order to protect public welfare and public andcharitable assets, and ensure that Rhode Islanders' gifts to Rhode Islandpublic radio stations are used for their intended purposes, it is necessary toestablish standards and procedures that result in recoupment of publicinvestment through the assessment of a conversion fee to create the financialinfrastructure to replicate public radio programming that may be lost in thesale of a public station to a commercial operator.