Far from those sunny days of "Sesame Street," Ted Blaszak and Dan Bravin are toughing out the cold, clutching clipboards and frozen ballpoint pens, at the corner of College Avenue and Allen Street. They do not mind the cold if it means they will succeed in putting the freeze on Republican efforts to cut or eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Pumped up by last November's election, Republicans -- "Contract With America" in hand -- have opted in their first few days in office to play a cast of Oscar the Grouches with CPB and National Public Radio.

While CPB maintains that it offers programs such as the "Reading Rainbow" and "Barney and Friends" without trying to sell something, the Republicans are looking to curb federal funding and may clip Big Bird's wings in the process.

Although removed from the beaten political path, Centre County could face a public broadcasting blackout if the Republicans wrangle hold of the public television remote control. The proposed cuts would mostly affect rural areas, said Greg Petersen, head of promotions at WPSX-TV.

"We know we are a lifeline service," Petersen said. "I've talked to people who say we're the only channel they can pick up. We serve one of the largest rural populations in the U.S., just that fact proves we are a very valuable commodity."

And so Blaszak and Bravin stand by their table with its poster of Big Bird listed as an endangered species and half dozen clipboards holding wads of letters addressed to U.S. Rep. Bill Clinger, newly elected U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. They held their week-long TV vigil from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. By Thursday, they had more than 700 signatures and hoped to reach 1,000 by Friday.

For Blaszak, if the government cuts lose CPB, they would be killing a major part of the community.

"I think loosing NPR and PBS anywhere affects that community greatly," Blaszak asserted. "I think especially in the community we're at is a high risk because we're not a major city. Without this type of media outlet we'll all suffer a loss of cultural and educational opportunities."

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At the crux of the debate is how CPB spends its money and whether it really needs government funds. While some complain that Barney could support the whole network, CPB's President and Chief Executive Officer Richard W. Carlson insisted the government provides the necessary seed money to sustain it's existence.

In a statement before the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Carlson said the government's funds comprise only 14 percent of the system's overall budget. From that federal appropriation, 90 percent is dished out to about 1,000 local public stations, including both radio and television. Essentially, for every $1 the government gives, the public stations raise $5 of their own, Petersen said.

For the more rural stations, the CPB money can mean its existence. The average cut local stations receive makes up 16 percent of their budget, but 48 stations depend on CPB for 20 percent or more of their budget, said Mary Morgan, NPR's executive director for promotion and public affairs.

WPSX and its sister station, WPSU-FM, receive federal funds covering 15 percent of their budget.

Despite the stations' below average funding, Petersen insisted any cuts would have a dramatic effect.

"Everything would be on the table from local productions to productions we get through PBS to the hours we are on the air," Petersen said.

While Specter remains mum on downsizing CPB, Mike Mihalke, a spokesman for Santorum, said Santorum supports cuts.

"He is certainly going to support some cuts in funding, given the deficit and the public's desire for cuts in government spending" Mihalke said. He does not believe Santorum has discussed the issue with anyone from WPSX. "When you have to choose between funding CPB or Head Start - he feels he's got to get Head Start funded."

Republicans such as Santorum argue that CPB can handle itself on its own, or at least with less government help. "People are talking about some of the tough questions -- everything comes under scrutiny," Mihalke explained. "A reduction in (CPB's) budget is certain and is not crippling."

It is this sentiment that has Petersen wondering, why CPB? Petersen estimated the $285 million given to CPB is .003 percent of the budget.

"It's disingenious to say cutting $50 million will do anything significant to reduce the federal budget," Petersen said, before bringing up the billions of dollar spent on military hardware such a the B-2 Bomber.

Cutting funding altogether in an effort to privatize CPB would force it to put its educational programming up against the major networks and would kill it outright Petersen said. CPB offers programming that the networks would never air; both "Sesame Street' and the "Civil War" series were first offered to the major networks and were quickly rejected, he said.

"People are not consumers, they're citizens," Petersen insisted. "We can tell a story that cable and the networks can't or won't."

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Nearing the end of their petition drive for the day, bundled-up students and local residents are constantly pecking at the petitions, asking about how they can help, how many signatures have been talled so far and if there are any other drives going. To many, the issue is personal.

"Hey, Rick Santorum used to sing at my church," exclaims Beth Fabian (senior-environmental resource management), eyeing the letter addressed to the newly elected senator, before signing it and catching the irony. "It's odd to me because he seems like the big family man."

Fabian sees NPR as her means of getting the news. They tend to give more world politics, world news," she explained. "The TV news is basically limited to Centre County."

So far, pending Congress' decision, Blaszak's grassroots effort has been spreading throughout State College and beyond.

"What we found out is that people are doing this one by one," Blaszak explains. "This lady put up a letter in her store, then a record store got letters . . . People care about this. My dream is there's a table in every congressional district in the nation."