A Statement from our President and General Manager
As you may have heard by now, the President’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018 calls for the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
CPB provides critical federal funding support for KSPS and hundreds of other Public Television and Radio stations around the country.
The impact of eliminating federal funding for CPB would be devastating for public television stations nationwide, including KSPS, where this funding makes up nearly 20 percent of our annual budget. It would severely impact national and locally-produced programming, and the educational, public safety and other services KSPS and other public television stations provide to their communities. The impact would be especially hard on smaller and rural stations and their communities who rely more heavily on the funds from CPB to continue providing free, over-the-air quality television and educational programming.
For some examples, the loss of federal funding for CPB (which amounts to about $1.35 per person in the US,) could result in fewer programs, including research-based educational children’s programming from Daniel Tiger to Dinosaur Train, Masterpiece (from Sherlock to Victoria to Poldark,) and other programs we’ve all come to know and love – Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Nature, NOVA, NewsHour, as well as local productions - Northwest Profiles and our documentaries. The prospect of fewer programs, fewer resources, and fewer stations places the entire system at risk.
This is the biggest threat we’ve seen to our funding in recent memory, and it’s up to all of us to make our voices heard to our Members of Congress, who will ultimately decide whether to protect funding.
Protect My Public Media is set up to show your support for KSPS, PBS and all of the other public media impacted by this budget plan. Please go there to find out more about how you can help, and please let us know at ksps@ksps.org if you’ve received a response.
The federal budget process (committee hearings, votes, etc.) could take months, but now is a key time to be heard. I’ll do my best to keep you posted as that process continues.
Thank you for your support of KSPS…and please contact me if you have any questions.
-Gary Stokes, President and General Manager of KSPS Public Television