Duggan endorses 1% solution for PBS. (Ervin Duggan, Public Broadcasting Service funding)(Brief Article)

Instead of setting up the Public Broadcasting Service to go commercial, the government should establish a multibillion-dollar trust fund for PBS and federal cultural agencies, PBS President Ervin Duggan says.

The fund would constitute 1% of the federal budget, set aside in a onetime appropriation of several billion dollars, Duggan told the International Radio and Television Society at Time Warner's headquarters in New York last Tuesday.

A bill to this effect has been introduced in the Senate, Duggan said.

Or, he suggested, PBS should be allowed to adopt a "noncommercial privatization" status like that of the British Broadcasting Corp. The fund could be …