Federal budget cuts threaten local public broadcasters

Public media stations in Southwest Ohio and across the United States face steep financial shortfalls after Congress voted to eliminate all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – a move that could threaten locally produced content, emergency alert systems, early childhood education services and national news programming,

The cuts are part of a broader federal spending package passed last week that slashed more than $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting, including over $1 billion in support for CPB, which distributes funding to NPR and PBS stations nationwide.

Locally, the impact is immediate: Public Media Connect – the nonprofit partnership behind CET in Cincinnati and ThinkTV in Dayton – will lose $2.6 million annually, or about 15% of its budget.

“(T)his vote to defund CPB will drastically impact our locally owned public media stations the most,” said Kitty Lensman, president and CEO of Public Media Connect. “We have rural communities that rely on their local PBS station for early education, school preparedness and emergency alerts. In Ohio, these rural stations may go dark.”

Lensman called the decision “unprecedented and devastating,” warning that families, teachers and children would be among the hardest hit. CET and ThinkTV together operate 12 broadcast channels and a growing number of digital and streaming services across the region, reaching nearly 3 million people.

Cincinnati Public Radio scrambles to fill $485K gap

Cincinnati Public Radio, which operates 91.7 WVXU (NPR news), 90.9 WGUC (classical music) and 88.5 WMUB (news and music for Oxford, Ohio), is also reeling. The cut amounts to roughly $485,000 or about 6% of CPR’s annual budget.

“This cut will have a critical impact on WVXU, WMUB and WGUC, and we need to act now,” CPR President and CEO Richard Eiswerth wrote in a message to supporters. According to Eiswerth, the lost federal funds could have paid for:

• Nearly a year of “Cincinnati Edition”
• Eight months of music rights and local concert recordings on WGUC
• Ten months of operational costs for “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.”

Beyond programming, CPR also risks losing access to NPR’s satellite distribution system and licensed music libraries, vital infrastructure for its national and classical broadcasts.

“This is something we’d hoped wouldn’t happen,” Eiswerth said. “We are in uncharted territory, but we remain confident in our ability to sustain these local stations.”

Stations prepare for worst, appeal to community

Some members of Congress have informally discussed alternative funding for local public media, but no one has introduced a new plan. Lawsuits involving both NPR and PBS are also pending.

Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, issued a stark warning following news of the cuts: “Without federal funding, many local public radio and television stations will be forced to shut down.”

“For nearly six decades, public media has served families in every corner of America, especially rural and tribal communities, providing vital content and services free of charge,” she said in a statement. “Millions of Americans will have less trustworthy information … and could lose access to national and local emergency alerts that serve as a lifeline in times of severe need.”

For now, leaders of the Greater Cincinnati stations say they’ll do everything they can to protect public access. Both Public Media Connect and Cincinnati Public Radio are launching emergency efforts to stabilize finances. 

At CET and ThinkTV, Lensman said her team is executing a contingency plan focused on protecting local content, identifying new revenue streams and reducing costs through collaboration – strategies developed after their 2009 merger.

For CPR, they’re reworking its newly approved budget, stepping up rental use of its Evanston studios and recently launched an emergency fundraising campaign. 

But both Lensman and Eiswerth are urging listeners and public broadcasting supporters to help cover the funding gap. CPR recently sent out a request to listeners and supporters to increase their monthly support or make one-time donations.

“There’s never been a time when your gift mattered more,” Eiswerth said. “And we’ll continue to fight together to secure the future of public radio.”

“There’s never been a time when your gift mattered more.”