The FCC this week said it would hand out $8.4 million to 12 grassroots organizations and local groups to help prepare people for the digital transition, now little more than a month away. The effort is focused on reaching out to seniors, the disabled and the Spanish-speaking population in 82 target markets.
Recipients include:
American Association of Retired Persons, allotted $2.7 million
Communication Service for the Deaf, $1.1 million
Hispanic Information and Telecommunication Network, $750,000
PinTech Corp., a Wilmington, N.C. engineering firm, $2.8 million
Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Technology, $166,000
WXXI-TV, a PBS member station in Rochester, N.Y., $202,000
VN Teamwork, a Houston nonprofit, $46,000
Iowa Public Broadcasting, $224,000
Idaho Public Television, $35,000
Wisconsin Public Television, $95,000
Ohio State University, $197,000
Knox County nonprofit, CAC, $36,000
The money for the funding came from a $20 million appropriation that Congress supplied to the FCC last September to fire up DTV transition education. The commission issued a request for proposals that month that resulted in the awards listed here. The groups now have five weeks to make something of it.
