Channel 10 announces cutbacks

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, July 14, 1999 | 11:41 a.m.

Las Vegas' public television station will cut shows and lay off workers after some state funding dried up during the 1999 legislative session.

The cuts at KLVX-TV Channel 10 are outlined in a report being sent to the Clark County School Board. Tom Axtell, the station's general manager, held a staff meeting today to explain the cuts.

"We had people crying," Axtell said. "It's always tough when you have to deliver that kind of news to people who are good."

Axtell said 17 full-time employees and 34 part-time employees are being laid off. The station employs 93 full- and part-time employees. The full-time positions being cut include two public information specialists, five clerks and three producer-directors.

Thirteen shows produced by Channel 10 are being cut, including Varsity Quiz, Clark County Spelling Bee and African-American History Challenge. The shows "Ventana," aimed at Hispanic viewers, and "Community Matters," aimed at black viewers, also are being cancelled, Axtell said.

KLVX broadcasts a wide variety of public affairs and educational programming, including national shows produced by the Public Broadcasting System. No PBS shows will be cancelled. KLVX reaches 284,000 Nevada viewers a day.

The Clark County School District has run the station since its inception in 1966.

Axtell explained that the station this year will lose about $550,000 in state money from the station's $5.7 million budget. The station is losing two sources of money:

* In 1995, the Legislature allocated money to the University and Community College System of Nevada for distance learning programs. The system then contracted with KLVX for various programs, dumping $150,000 into the station's coffers each year since then.

* The Legislature in 1997 allocated about $400,000 to the state's Commission on Educational Technology, which in turn gave it to KLVX for teacher technology training.

But the 1999 Legislature did not renew either of the "one-shot" monies.

"We love channel 10," Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, said. "But they knew that the day they got that one-shot money, they needed to start looking around for other funding sources."

Axtell said his attempts thus far to find other grant money have failed. Axtell does not blame the governor or lawmakers, who labored under the threats of projected state budget shortfalls.

"They had a mess," Axtell had. "They did the best they could with the information they had at the time."

Axtell said the station also faces $300,000 in new expenses this year. The federal government has mandated that all TV stations switch to digital broadcasting, which will cost KLVX at least $200,000 in feasibility studies, Axtell said. PBS fees also increased this year, Axtell said.