And in June of this year, cuts of $190 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s 2006 budget were recommended by a House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee.

But a massive outpouring of public support for public broadcasting swayed legislators. When the recommendation came to the floor vote before the full House of Representatives on June 23, an amendment to restore $90 million of the cut passed with a vote of 284-140, including 87 Republicans and 197 Democrats. The Senate will finalize its recommendations in the coming weeks.

Thus far, WILL’s funding has remained relatively flat, despite cuts in state, federal and University funding since 2000, said Debby Day, director of development for WILL-TV. Fifty percent of the station’s funding comes from private sources, either individual or corporate donations, Day said. Direct state grants account for 10 percent, and the University’s support accounts for 12 percent. Federal funds provide 28 percent of the station’s operating revenue.

WILL-TV, the public broadcasting service of the University of Illinois, will celebrate its 50th year of continued operation with an open house, 2 – 5 p.m. on Sunday, August 7 in Campbell Hall for Public Communication, 300 N. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, including a visit by the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street and Mr. Mc Feeley from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. A week of television programming will feature locally produced shows from throughout WILL-TV’s history.

WILL-TV became the 14th educational station in the nation in 1955 when it began broadcasting from its first studio under the stands of Memorial Stadium. Primarily featuring educational programming, its first telecourses were offered by U of I’s speech and French departments. Broadcasting was limited to five hours a day within a 25-mile range. In 1966, a new 1047-foot tower near Monticello expanded its range to 70 miles. Three years later, programming filled a 24-hour schedule.

Before Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood became available nationally in the late 1960s, WILL TV pioneered children’s programming with locally produced shows such as Tell Me Why, an imaginative science program, and Mister Cane, starring a candy store owner and his buddy, a mouse puppet named Molasses. Bill Korbus played Mister Cane in the completely unscripted, 15-minute show.

Dave Schaul, current news director for WDWS-AM, started working at WILL-TV in 1960 as a student when the studio was located in a converted bakery on Main Street in Urbana.

“We did not have the availability of national programming then,” Shaul said. “It wasn’t sophisticated, but it was fun.”

Henry Lippold was a legendary news supervisor at WILL-TV from 1959-1972 when he anchored the 6 p.m. news. The news wire service reports came into his office in the journalism building. “He prepared his newscasts at Greg Hall,” Schaul said, “then ran to the studio at Main and Goodwin, and slapped on some makeup.” The journalism graduate students who worked with Lippold went on to do great things, Schaul said.

Although the television market has become fragmented since the introduction of cable, public broadcasting still offers a unique product. “The things that we do, we do better,” said David Thiel, WILL-TV program director, “like long-form documentary and Frontline. Examples of programming not found elsewhere are Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, which “embraces a full spectrum of faiths,” Thiel said, and the Lawrence Welk Show, which has a devoted following.

Public broadcasting offers arts coverage that isn’t available elsewhere, said Thiel, and local talk shows that are nonexistent on commercial television.

Much of WILL-TV’s audience is very young or very old, while commercial broadcasters pursue teens and 18-39-year-olds, Thiel said. The main mission of public broadcasting continues to be serving those who are underserved by commercial broadcasting.

August 8 – 12 at 9 p.m.

Monday

50th Anniversary Special, hosted by Alison Davis Wood:

=Nightly news with Henry Lippold (1959-1976)

=”Mister Cane,” a children’s program with Bill Korbus and his puppet, Molasses (1960s)

=”Two Sense Worth,” a magazine program (1975-1976)

=”Prairie Fire,” a documentary about the history, ecology and culture of Illinois (1992)

Tuesday

=Performance by the U of I Jazz Band at the Jazz Club (1983)

Wednesday

=Pork & The Havana Ducks perform and Sunny Norman and The Drifting Playboys perform on the “Country Music Hall” (1980)

Thursday

=”Saving Nature,” a documentary about Illinois’ nature preserves and unspoiled areas (1989)

Friday

=”Against the Wind,” names best television documentary by American Women in Radio and Television in 1997, about Boston Marathon wheelchair athlete Jean Driscoll.