Jersey, NJN also competed with Connecticut Public Television. NJN spent most of its existence trying to carve out a niche of its own. One of its solutions had been to air some of the more popular PBS shows on a delayed basis, after the nearby stations had carried the national PBS feed. Programs that might be seen on WNET and WHYY-TV would air on NJN a week or two later. Another solution was to focus on its news operation. The latter worked very well, as NJN and its reporters won many awards for their journalistic efforts. In the 1980s, NJN was the first media outlet to break the "Taggart affair" political patronage scandal. NJN's news and public affairs programming was initially co-produced by WNET until 1981, and continued simulcasting on WNET for several years afterward. This was part of a longstanding agreement between the FCC, New Jersey officials, and WNET that allowed WNET to fulfill its local programming obligations (since it was still licensed to Newark). NJN's radio network began operation on May 20, 1991, when WNJT-FM in Trenton started operations. Eight other stations were established over the following seventeen years. They served mainly to bring NPR programming to the few areas of New Jersey without a clear signal from New York's WNYC AM-FM and Philadelphia's WHYY-FM. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks of 2001, the station temporarily broadcast WABC-TV. Transition In 2008, in the face of a proposed 35 percent cut in funding, NJN officials asked the state legislature for permission to become an independent nonprofit entity. Under this proposal, the state network would have likely been transferred to its nonprofit fundraising arm, the NJN Foundation. Two consultants looking into fundraising options speculated that breaking off from the state would have triggered an avalanche of private funding. After assuming the office of New Jersey Governor in 2010, Chris Christie voiced his support for transforming NJN into a not-for-profit organization in his March 2010 budget speech. Christie believed the state taxpayers should not have to support a TV and radio network which many never watched or listened to, a stand in keeping with the growing Republican interest at the time in populism. On October 15, 2010, a bipartisan legislative task force called for a "dramatic reconfiguration" of the state network, but not full privatization. Christie nonetheless moved forward with plans to remove state funding. On November 17,