Northern Michigan University will continue to provide base-budget support of $200,000 to WNMU-TV, enabling the station to remain on the air. The university’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the measure.
It had previously voted to provide $50,000 in continued base-budget funding to Public Radio 90, but withheld a decision on Public TV13 for several months to obtain more information on the station’s contribution to academics, as well as costs and benefits associated with the advent of digital transmission.
“What really sold me is the academic tie-in to student programs that we heard about at our last meeting, and the desire to explore new initiatives along that same line,” said Chair Karl Weber.
Eric Smith, director of broadcasting and AV services at NMU, said the end of uncertainty about the station’s future signals a new beginning.
“The board has investigated this in depth and come to the conclusion that public broadcasting at NMU has a value that warrants keeping it,” Smith added. “Now we need to move ahead and work with the public and students to develop models that will take advantage of the transition to digital.”
Television stations will be required to complete the digital conversion within about three years. Smith said technology upgrades needed to facilitate the shift at WNMU-TV will total about $2.2 million. He told the board that matching federal funds would likely cover 60 percent, and Northern would have to come up with the remaining 40 percent. More details on the process, along with potential funding options, will be discussed at the December board meeting.   
Public TV13 and Public Radio 90 at one time received a combined $1.1 million in university funding. Both were slated for elimination by July 2005 as part of NMU cost-saving recommendations developed in response to decreased state funding for higher education. The board reconsidered their status, in part because both stations demonstrated that they could significantly increase fundraising on a sustained level and reduce operating costs.

William Phillips, co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics, will give a presentation at NMU titled “Time, Einstein and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe.” It is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, in Jamrich Hall room 103.
The multimedia presentation will be suitable for a general audience of children and adults, with live demonstrations and down-to-earth explanations. The public is invited to attend free of charge.           
Phillips is employed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md. He and others received the Nobel Prize for their contributions to laser cooling and the trapping of atoms.
His presentation at NMU is part of the World Year of Physics 2005 celebration, commemorating the 100th anniversary of several of Albert Einstein’s famous discoveries. It will partially focus on the concept of time and how atomic clocks can be made more accurate by cooling the atoms that they utilize. This event is sponsored by the NMU Physics Department.