This is not something new. Every few years public radio and TV stations have to fight for their government funding as politicians who do not believe these media outlets are reporting the news evenly and fairly, attempt to take away their funds. President Donald Trump plans to propose a budget that eliminates all federal funding for public broadcasting. The government provides about $450 million to the CPB each year and the CPB distributes grants to local TV and radio stations.
In response to the President’s plan, Corporation for Public Broadcasting CEO Patricia Harrison said there is no viable substitute for federal funding that ensures Americans have universal access to public media’s educational and informational programming and services. “The elimination of federal funding to CPB would initially devastate and ultimately destroy public media’s role in early childhood education, public safety, connecting citizens to our history, and promoting civil discussions – for Americans in both rural and urban communities. Viewers and listeners appreciate that public media is non-commercial and available for free to all Americans. We will work with the new Administration and Congress in raising awareness that elimination of federal funding to CPB begins the collapse of the public media system itself and the end of this essential national service.”
And the battle begins.
In addition, referring to the story also in Radio Ink, “NPR Touts Highest Ratings Ever”, claiming 37.4 million listeners, I repeat my point:
Good!! Then they should be in great shape to monetize their product!! No excuses!
Let them sink or swim like the rest of us!
In our market .. our small Public Radio Stations get away with breaking the “noncommercial” regs all the time …Government Funded broadcasting is way over the line now .. These stations receive government funding and also “steal” from private enterprise by selling advertising; their rule breaking creates a very unfair playing field .. and YES .. they do not provide “news” .. they provide opinions only that support their “government funding” … If their formatting is so hot .. great.. let them compete in the open market like everyone else .. seriously!
Let it end and also let the non-comm rules end or massively overhaul them to allow non-comms to do more to raise funds. NCE is an outdated concept and I have no doubt that if these rules were ever challenged in court they would not hold up, because they are not black and white or well defined. They are made up as we go along. My stations are not backed by NPR or CPR. We are an independent local community run non-profit group. The economy has been horrible for years and it is almost impossible to get listeners to support what you do. They simply do not have the means or is it on their list! They have more to worry about than sending a check to a radio station. If it was not for business sponsorships and underwriting, we would have failed a long time ago. It is time for an overhaul of the rules. AM station failing? Independent NCE’s are in far worse shape. Time for Congress to remove the handcuffs they put on NCE radio. Massive overhauling the Non-Com rules? Now is the time!