Cuts To State Funding Threaten Local Programming At Public Broadcasting Stations, Report Says
Public broadcasting lost more than $202 million in state funding since 2008, including $85 million in 2010 alone, a Free Press study said. The loss could restrict stations’ ability to produce local content and force some rural stations to close, Free Press said. In 24 states, funding was reduced each year over the past four years, it said. “Each year the cuts are compounded because they're against a brand new baseline and that baseline keeps dropping,” said Josh Stearns, associate program director. The key message conveyed through the report is “as anyone considers federal funding cuts, they have to be clear with what’s happening with state funding because so many broadcasters are doing more with less."
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Funding was zeroed out in New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. States like Virginia and Kansas were hit with reductions in funding this year. Among the 24 states, the average reduction is 42 percent, the report said. “If current trends continue, stations across the country, which are already struggling after years of cuts, will face further reductions or even the complete loss of state funding."
"There is absolutely no doubt that funding for public media is under attack at both the state and federal levels,” said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., member of the House Public Broadcasting Caucus: “It is time for taxpayers who value public media for accurate news, information, and civic engagement to get active or risk losing this important source of democratic dialogue."
"What the state funding cuts do is go at the heart of public broadcasting at the local level,” Stearns said. In Florida, the loss included about $434,000 per TV station, and $91,000 per radio station, said John LaBonia, general manager for WLRN Public Radio and Television in Miami. Local programming at the network is doing well, he said. However, “if we had more funding we would be able to do more,” he added.
Programs led by national organizations are aimed at beefing up local programming at public radio and TV stations. NPR’s State Impact project focuses on in-depth coverage of various state governments and Localore, a project from the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR), intends to encourage independent producers and stations to provide new ways of delivering content to more people in their communities. Investments in to these projects sound promising, Stearns said. “But in the short term, we're going to have a gap."
Local programming makes up about 30 percent of the programming aired on public radio stations, NPR said. Partnerships like Local Journalism Centers funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR’s Project ARGO “are critical to preserving and expanding these already robust offerings, and state funding, like federal funding, is essential to this effort."
The loss of state funding adds to the financial difficulty that public media is experiencing, said Sue Schardt, AIR executive director. But there are still opportunities for public media “to invest new ways to bring their service to all the members of their communities,” she said. If stations engage more citizens in their communities, they'll have in place “means of extracting support from listeners.” Schardt said public media is served by the recent Clear Channel divestment: “It opens an enormous door for public radio stations to utterly exploit local businesses."
Major state funding reductions can be avoided if public media advocates educate state lawmakers, Stearns said. The 170 Million Americans campaign, which is aimed at protecting federal funding, is a good example, he said. “We don’t need stations telling people to go lobby, just more engagement with state leaders on the in-depth work by stations that is done at the local level to engage their communities.”