During FY 2004, PTFP awarded $20.8 million to 143 projects:

Thirty-one (31) digital television conversion grants awarding $9.8 million.

Seven-four (74) radio grants awarding $4.4 million.

            Seventeen (17) nonbroadcast distance learning grants awarding $2.2 million.

            Twenty-one (21) television equipment replacement grants awarding $4.4 million.

Included in the above radio and television awards are six grants awarded on an emergency basis for $1.8 million.

RADIO AWARDS - (74 awards; $4,405,567)

            ∙          Sixteen radio projects will extend new public broadcasting service to approximately 250,000 people and provide additional service to almost 900,000 people. Seventeen communities will receive first public radio service:

            ∙          Fifty-six (56) projects will replace urgently needed equipment at public radio stations.

            ∙          Two (2) emergency grants were issued. A grant to KBUT(FM), Crested Butte, CO, helped the station resume 24 hour service in an area where it provides the sole broadcast service. The other emergency grant, to WMFE(FM), Orlando, FL, provided the station with an emergency generator during an unusually active hurricane season.

            ∙          The largest radio grant is $258,026 awarded to Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, operating KBNA(FM) in Anchorage, AK. The project will purchase a digital STL and will improve the stations’s production facilities for local programs and Native American-oriented programming distributed nationally through the AIROS (the American Indian Radio on Satellite) system.

TELEVISION AWARDS (52 awards; $14,205,626)

            ∙          Thirty-one (31) digital television conversion grants were awarded for $9,774,555 to recipients in 19 states. Four of the projects are continuation of multi-year awards. Some of the areas receiving digital television projects include:

                        ►          Major population centers such as Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, Norfolk, Philadelphia and Tampa.

                        ►          State networks of Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

                        ►          Small markets or rural areas such as Fresno, CA; Chatham, IL; Elkhart, IN; Wichita, KS; Kalamazoo and Mt. Pleasant, MI; Reno, NV; Athens, OH; and Riverton, WY.

            ∙          Twenty-one (21) television awards, for a total of $4,431,070, were made to replace urgently needed equipment. Four of the awards were made on an emergency basis. An award to Prairie Public Broadcasting, Fargo, ND, will restore service in the Grand Forks area after a station antenna and transmitter were destroyed by an ice storm. Idaho Public Television, Boise, ID, received funding to replace the state network’s production switcher that failed. A grant to Washington State University, Pullman, WA, replaced a failing transmitter at KTNW, Richland. A grant to Howard University, Washington, DC, replaced a failing transmitter at WHUT-TV.

            ∙          The year’s largest television grant is $1,853,701 to the University of New Mexico to continue the digital conversion of the three public television stations in the state.

NONBROADCAST (17 awards; $2,191,494)

            ∙          Distance learning: 16 projects received $1,698,364.

            ∙          The largest distance learning award is $332,135 to Hawkeye Community College to activate an interactive videoconferencing system among Hawkeye Community College and eleven Long Term Care provider sites in northeast Iowa.

            ∙          The University of Hawaii/PEACESAT received an award of $493,130 to continue distance education, videoconferencing and medical services to 22 Pacific Island nations/entities.

EMERGENCY GRANTS TO RESPOND TO SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 ATTACKS

In addition to the above 143 projects, NTIA awarded three grants for a total of $2.3 million in Federal funds to three stations in New York City–WNET-TV, WKCR-FM, and WNYC-FM. These grants are the final awards from a $8.25 million special FY 2002 supplemental appropriation to help re-establish the stations’ transmission facilities that were destroyed by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.