re: Corporation For Public Broadcasting To Shut Down Operations After Loss Of Federal Funding

that alone makes this term a success.

The NPR radio station in Austin, owned by UT, is ranked #1 in market share above all commercial stations. Why should that entity receive one dime of tax support when they are competing for market share against stations that receive no such funding and actually have to pay taxes to support a competitor that is beating them?!?!

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So sad. Those rural people will no longer be able to get weather reports or emergency disaster declarations, lol.

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When was the last time LPB had a live weathercast, I do realize LPB does feed state press conferences for hurricanes and even did some during COVID using their satellite backhaul transponder for other stations in the state, but that is a function of state government and should be funded with state dollars and not CPB.

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UT, is ranked #1 in market share above all commercial stations.

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not trying to pick a fight, i just find that hard to believe i would assume it be whatever the most listened to latino station.

it's had to believe they can't beat out NPR's stellar daytime lineup of "fresh air" and "all things considered"

my question was not how would they fund the purchase of the programming, but more how that process will work going forward

for example, PBS distributes programs via satellite and terrestrial (fiber) delivery systems that were Federally funded through CPB - how these will be managed and maintained in the future is unclear

i agree that the larger market stations will be ok, probably layoff some less-than-necessary staff (i.e., many stations still employ Master Control operators despite being fully automated), but i wonder what effects the death of CPB will have on the acquisition of national content

at any rate, i would think ramping up local corporate support and underwriting would get most stations over the hump, and increasing local production could help raise their profile in the community

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Harry Boutte

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if you don’t mind my asking, are you in the public media biz?

its ok, they'll get their own show on their sister network, MSNBC anyway.

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Why should that entity receive one dime of tax support

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Maybe because they are owned by the government. Didn't you say it was owned by UT?

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they are competing for market share against stations that receive no such funding

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Isn't the university itself competing for marketshare against private universities that receive no tax support?

Using a university owned station is a bad example.

But I'm not arguing for federal funding of public broadcasting, I'm just saying that as CPB funding dries up, some stations will shut down, probably primarily rural stations, and the ones that are left will be the ones that can get enough member support, probably in large, blue, urban centers.

There is a horrible misunderstanding of how public broadcasting is funded. People thought NPR would go away if CPB funding was shut down. I don't think that's going to happen. I'm afraid public broadcasting will get even more liberal.

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“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations..."

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So why don't these "millions of Americans" who want CPB to continue operations provide the necessary funding for it like a non-profit org? Could it be that either these "millions of Americans" want someone else to pay for it, or could it possibly be that there simply ain't no "millions of Americans" who are so heavily vested in CPB that they felt it necessary to petition congress on behalf of the CPB?

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It's not public broadcasting anymore and can no longer claim the legitimacy of being funded by taxpayers.

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Of course it is, and they can. One of their largest funding sources has always been member contributions. AKA: The tax-paying public.

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Among the 467 surveyed, stations relied on federal funding (again, from any federal source, not just CPB) for an average of 16% of their total revenue in FY23. Public television stations had the highest average reliance at 18%, while public radio stations had an average reliance of 14%. NPR and PBS stations relied on federal funding for an average of 13% and 18%, respectively.

The five stations most dependent on federal funding as a percentage of their FY23 revenue — Oregon’s KCUW, New Mexico’s KSHI, and KUHB, KDSP and KNSA in Alaska — were all radio stations. Worryingly, these were the only stations in the study with a reliance of 80% or higher, and four had a reliance of over 90%. The most dependent public television stations — Tennessee’s West TN PBS, Texas’ Basin PBS, Illinois’ WQPT PBS, Kansas’ Smoky Hills PBS and California’s KEET — relied on federal funds for 40% or more of their total revenue.

Zooming out, the state with the highest average dependence on federal funding among its public broadcasters was West Virginia, followed closely by Alaska, New Mexico and Montana. All but one of these states fall into the West region as identified by the U.S. Census Bureau. It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, that stations in the West had the highest average reliance on federal funding of any other region in the U.S.

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LINK