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· The largest television award is $1.8 million to the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television for digital conversion of its statewide network.
Connecticut Nebraska
Georgia New Jersey
Hawaii Oklahoma
Idaho Oregon
Kentucky South Carolina
Louisiana South Dakota
Maine Vermont
Mississippi West Virginia
Montana Wisconsin
· Digital television conversion projects also support individual stations in 16 states:
Alaska Michigan· 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.
Arizona Minnesota
California Missouri
Colorado New York
Delaware Ohio
Florida Tennessee
Illinois Texas
Kansas Washington
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.