Kudos to PBS. PBS should consider an outreach campaign that would assist viewers in hooking up set-top boxes -- perhaps via a free help phone line -- and, in the case of older viewers, free house calls by bonded service techs to actually do the hookups. PBS stations could seek corporate underwriting to cover the costs of such a service... or they could enlist the contribution of businesses such as "Geek Squad" or "Geeks on Call" to do the hookups.

Or PBS stations could offer set-top boxes and assistance in exchange for viewer membership (the NTIA should let PBS stations accept the subsidized coupons in exchange for membership that includes a set-top box

Also -- and this is big -- PBS should create a 24-hour DTV news channel precisely to service that sizable population of viewers who do not subscribe to cable. I can think of no other programming venture that would do more to justify PBS's existence and make up for those PBS stations that consider re-runs of Lawrence Welk a credible programming offering.

A PBS all-newser also would challenge existing cable news networks to pressure cable operators to offer their channels on a "lifeline" tier at a very low subscription fee (something that the FCC should have mandated long ago to help bridge the digital divide).

NPR's radio programming could spawn the channel with the addition of hourly newscasts and in-studio switched video of its radio shows.