From Coast To Coast, Public Media Scrambles To Stay Afloat As Federal Support Vanishes.

Coast to coast, public broadcasters are bracing for the loss of federal funding. And that is leading several to tighten their belts and ramp up appeals to listeners for donations.

“It could be a one-man show at some point where I’m doing everything by myself,” says Gerald Rodriguez, General Manager of KRZA Alamosa, CO (88.7). He told Politico that funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounted for half of the annual operating budget for the station, whose coverage area straddles the Colorado and New Mexico border.

Critics of rescinding federal funding to CPB warned that pulling that money away from local stations would reduce local programming — and some may even go dark. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) released a report prior to the vote that the operations of 79 public radio and 33 television stations across 34 states and territories are at imminent danger of going off the air.

No public radio or TV station has powered down yet, but many are making cuts. WFAE Charlotte (90.7) announced just hours after Congress rescinded funding that it would reduce its workforce by a half-dozen employees. The station’s own news report says other positions are being eliminated, reduced, or will be combined with remaining staff duties.

“One challenge of an immediate rescission is that it strips away two years of pre-approved funding without giving stations like WFAE sufficient time to replace those dollars,” says WFAE President/CEO Ju-Don Marshall.

The station gets about 10% of its annual budget from CPB. Last year, that totaled $432,000 for WFAE to cover its operating expenses in addition to other financial support it provides for things like music licensing, satellite services and EAS support. CPB also funds the NC Newsroom collective that provides news reports for all North Carolina public media stations.

Marshall says the impact of the federal cuts is worsened because they come at a time when there has been a decline in philanthropy. “Like many stations across the country, we are reducing our expenses, which has led to staff reductions and the elimination of certain services,” he says. “We are working hard to ensure that no further reductions will be necessary, but it’s too early to say.”

South Dakota Public Broadcasting is also looking at layoffs and other cuts after it lost $2.2 million in federal funding, or 23% of the overall budget for its radio and TV operation. Executive Director Julie Overgaard says if they cannot make up the gap by the time the new fiscal year begins in October, they will be forced to cut up to a quarter of their 60 employees.

“We will have to look at all of our local content. We will have to look at staff across the board,” Overgaard says in an interview on the station. “This is going to negatively impact rural South Dakota, and rural America is going to get hit hardest, ironically enough, by all of this.” She says that while the cuts are “terrible” for SDPB, there are smaller, community-licensed radio and TV stations in even more rural parts of America than cannot exist without federal money.

Turning To Fundraising

It is not just small stations that face tough spending decisions. WDET Detroit (101.9) is losing about $262,000 in CPB funds. And an analysis by Axios shows that public radio and TV stations across Michigan are losing a combined $10 million in federal dollars, with the 12 public radio outlets averaging $201,598 in funding support.

WDET hasn’t said how it will address the shortfall, but General Manager Mary Zatina told WJBK-TV that the loss creates a “giant hole” in the station’s budget. “The only good option for WDET Public Radio staying strong in the Metro Detroit community is for more people who care about us to step forward and make a personal contributions,” she says.

But Mollie Kabler, Executive Director of CoastAlaska which operates seven public radio stations, tells Politico that she doubts stations like hers will be able to fundraise their way out of the funding crisis. “We have to consider, ‘what services are we going to give up? What people are we going to let go of?’” she says.

Delmarva Public Media (DPM), which operates radio stations on the Eastern Shore of Delaware and Maryland, will lose 15% of its budget. But in an interview on the station, General Manager Judy Diaz offers hope. She says they have seen an influx of new donors and people who have increased their contributions. “On the spending side, we’ve already made some trims and a couple of staff changes to make sure we’ve got the right people in the right places,” she adds.

Like Delmarva, KACU Abilene, TX (89.5) General Manager/News Director Heather Claborn tells the Texas Standard that they have been preparing for the possibility of losing CPB money for months. But with a staff of just five, she says they don’t have the resources to immediately launch a fundraising campaign.

In Alabama, WLRH Huntsville (89.3) says its CPB funding was responsible for 13% of the budget, or $155,000, and General Manager Erick Bruckner tells the Birmingham News that they are “evaluating our options” but haven’t made any decisions about how to address the loss. “With the continued support of our listeners, we will navigate these challenges together,” he says.