As you may have heard by now, both the President’s proposed budget and a bill in Congress call 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 nationally and locally produced programming, and the educational, public safety and other services KSPS and other Public Television stations provide to their communities.
- Think about the people, places and great stories on Northwest Profiles
- Think about our documentaries that chronicle the history of our region – from how it was formed (Sculpted by Floods) to how it developed (Uncharted Territory) to the events and people who made it what it is today(Reflections by the River – Expo ’74, Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life).
- Think about the events that bring us together as a community (FitKids Day, MediaFest)
- And finally, think about the KSPS initiatives to help make us a better community, including Kids Forward and our Emmy-Nominated documentary — Born to Learn — about the importance of Early Childhood Education.
All of these, and more, are made possible with support from you and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
If that goes away, 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, quality, over-the-air 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 our local productions. 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 or not to protect funding.
Protect My Public Media (protectmypublicmedia.org) 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.
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.
Sincerely,
Gary Stokes
KSPS President and General Manager