FACT SHEET

FY 2001 Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) Grants

TOTAL AWARDS:

· The 105 grant recipients are noncommercial telecommunications organizations located in 43 states, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia.

· Sixty-three public television grants (52 for digital conversion, 11 for basic equipment replacement) were awarded.

· Thirty-six public radio grants were awarded.

· Five distance learning grants were awarded.

· One grant was awarded to the University of Hawaii for PEACESAT.


TELEVISION AWARDS:

· Funds were awarded to support the digital television conversion of statewide systems in a total of 20 states to include:

Alabama                         North Dakota
Connecticut                     Nebraska
Georgia                           New Jersey
Hawaii                            Oklahoma
Idaho                              Oregon
Kentucky                        South Carolina
Louisiana                         South Dakota
Maine                             Vermont
Mississippi                      West Virginia
Montana                         Wisconsin
· The largest television award is $1.8 million to the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television for digital conversion of its statewide network.

· Digital television conversion projects also support individual stations in 16 states:

Alaska                      Michigan
Arizona                     Minnesota
California                  Missouri
Colorado                  New York
Delaware                  Ohio
Florida                      Tennessee
Illinois                       Texas
Kansas                     Washington
· An award also was made to the Public Broadcasting Service to begin the upgrade of satellite receiver facilities at public television stations nationwide and to broadcast digital programming distributed by PBS and other national program sources.
 

RADIO AWARDS:

· Twenty-eight awards to help stations replace basic equipment.

· Eight awards to extend public radio signals to more than 300,000 unserved residents of Lakeport, Calif.; Lake Okoboji, Iowa; Fergus Falls, Minn.; Altus, Okla.; Clinton, Okla.; Pelham, N.C.; rural areas east of Charlotte, N.C.; and 12 interior Alaska villages.

· Lakeport, Calif. grant is first PTFP grant for establishment of a low-power FM (LPFM) station, which will bring first public radio signal to 40,000 residents.

· Largest radio grant is $428,449 to Minnesota Public Radio to construct a new tower for public radio stations KCRB-FM and KNBJ-FM in Bemidji, Minn.
 

DISTANCE LEARNING AWARDS:

· The largest distance learning federal award of $549,745 is being awarded to the Washington County Consortium for School Improvement in Machias, Maine to connect 40 educational institutions in rural eastern Maine.