The demographics of public television. As commercial television is increasingly perceived for its most vacuous qualities, our viewing publics need alternatives that educate-inspire-entertain. That is our public television model and as much as possible, it is the SmallBusinessSchool model as well. But one might ask, "Where are the small business owners?" The fact is most small business owners (SBO) do not have time for television. If television were about our work and our customers, it could be different. Though SBOs are among the most ethical (there are no secrets in a small business), community-oriented (that is our marketplace), religious (just face that payroll every week), and socially-involved (sales, relief, release), television viewers we are not. This will change as television (broadcasting), education (learning), publishing, distribution, and information systems all converge as one dynamic technology. Then, television will be a necessary part of our business. Programming that reaches beyond the community and even beyond the country helps us to extend our reach. Here, we believe that if you "...air it, they will come." If not, we believe we can get them to come.

But most importantly, it is good that we all better understand the essential fabric of this country -- taking an idea and making it a reality... believing so profoundly you work all day and virtually all night to see take that idea from mind to market. It is the passion of creativty. And, often it is driven by a profound love of humanity. These select small business owners are special role models for each other and our children. They see a future with bright horizons with a special joy for life.

What gets rewarded gets done. We all grew up with Pavlov and Skinner, psychologists who say, "What gets rewarded gets done." Look at the behaviors that commercial television lifts up and Pavlov and Skinner could easily predict our culture's "unusual" behaviors. We have very little tolerance for what we see on commercial television and within our cinema. ¹

There are alternatives. Shows such as Made in Maine, Alabama@Work, Minding Your Own Business, and our SmallBusinessSchool, are about good-and-decent business people. At SmallBusinessSchool, we go to great lengths to be sure of it with our selection criteria. However, these four shows are an anomaly. We need to change that; business people are better than the media makes us out to be. But, to change anything requires many people working in the same direction. Together as a group, anything can happen. We believe it is possible and imperative. We will be inviting all of public television to use these rambling thoughts as a modest beginning of a business model to do it. Also, we have been testing various parts of this model with other public television stations to help them with local underwriting, and within this document we are sharing these efforts.