There’s unease in the newsrooms of independent radio stations nationally and locally as the Trump administration has proposed rescinding funding from public radio and television — it could represent a significant portion of the budgets for at least two stations in the Vineyard listening area.
Earlier this month, national media outlets reported that the administration wants to claw back more than $1 billion for public radio stations over the next two years — grant funding that is administered through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The New York Times reports the idea is part of a larger spending-cut package, and that Congress would have about a month and a half to approve the request.
While the cuts would include nearly all federal funding for NPR and PBS — which makes up only a portion of their budgets — it isn’t just the national public radio and television stations that would be impacted. Local stations like MVY on the Vineyard would lose about 10 percent of its budget, according to officials; GBH in Boston, the parent company of the Cape and Islands NPR station in Woods Hole, would be hit with a loss of about 8 percent of its funding.
While it’s not the first time public radio has been threatened by federal officials, the news from last week has sparked some anxiety in newsrooms.
“I realize this is a tense time; there’s a lot of noise, few answers, much uncertainty,” reads an internal email from GBH president and CEO Susan Goldberg to staff last week.
On top of an 8 percent budget hit, the loss of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to PBS would have a compounding impact for GBH — PBS is aired on the Boston station.
“Although we have a broad base of support, all of our trusted and awardwinning offerings for local, national, and international audiences could be impacted by the loss of federal funding,” Goldberg said in a statement to The Times. “While the conversation continues in Washington, we’re preparing for what we can, and staying focused on doing the work that makes us a vital community resource on the Cape and Islands and beyond.”
At MVY, an independent station inWest Tisbury, executive director P.J. Finn said they would be able to shoulder the hit to their budget, but it’s certainly a concern nonetheless. “Losing CPB funding would be a setback,” Finn said. “It won’t be the end of the radio station. We’re in good financial health, and can navigate choppy seas.”
Finn said the corporation funding helps them put local voices on the air, for instance through their programs “Vineyard Current” and “Cape Cod Current”: “If it comes to pass, it will be disappointing. There’s real value in small-market radio that is worth supporting,” he said.
Finn said that it seems every few years, there are threats to funding for the CPB. So far, congressional representatives have come to learn that hundreds of independent, small-market radio stations receive funding from CPB, and have relented. “We’ve been here before,” Finn said.
Asked if this time around might be different, Finn said that it was hard to say: “We remain hopeful.”
Why should the taxpayer fund any portion of what you describe as “independent radio stations”?
NPR and other public news stations provides clean unbiased news. What better use of tax payer funds? These news stations are not in competition to bring us unbiased news, they can’t compete with other biased news stations. Would you prefer the tax savings go to lessen the tax burdens on billionaires?
NPR is extremely biased against Israel as is much of liberal mainstream media, like the NYTimes, WaPo, 60 Minutes/CBS. AP is being sued for reporting that came from collaborating with Hamas and Sinwar. I supposed if you agree with the bias it feels unbiased.
I can only assume your comment was tongue in cheek! Well done !
If a business can’t “make it”, it closes. If this business wants to overcome a possible loss of taxpayer funds (taxpayers who have NO say on how their IRS funds are being used!), then get out and raise your own money from your own devotees. They want you: so they should be willing to make an annual donation. Right now every one of us tax-paying citizens are having part of their returns (their hard-earned money) pay for you or things they may not like. I’m excluding things any nation MUST be funded by citizens to protect their land and people and offer their citizens: peace, health, livelihoods, shelter, personal safety and food to name some of the basics. But “free choice” is just that: raise money from those people who want to support their own private “extras” (their own political party choices, or arts vs sports, etc, etc, etc).
Taxpayers have all the say in how their taxes are spent.
We are a democracy.
So far.
I would include, as an absolute basic MUST, to protect our democracy, the educations of all citizens and easy access to the ever-changing facts about the current state of our peace, health, livelihoods, shelter personal safety, food and the environment, that only financially healthy, investigative journalistic institutions can provide. It must not be dependent on anyone’s ability to pay. “Free choice” has to be informed choice. Government is not a business. It exists to meet the needs of citizens that are not being met by business.
I wish the government would pay 100% of cost of PBS and CPB. Than I wouldn’t have to ever hear their desperate pleas in the too frequent find drives.
It’s good, and unsurprising, to hear MVY, a great radio station, is not concerned about the cuts. It is amazing to see localism and independence on the rise in the Trump era. MV has always had an “MV First” attitude. America is starting to figure it out!
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