A simple website helps donors save the most vulnerable NPR and PBS stations

The Adopt-A-Station tool helps donors find and help
the most vulnerable stations. (NPR photo)

A simple website with a focused theme has started helping NPR and PBS stations after Congress rescinded $1.1 billion in Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding, leaving both entities with unforeseen budget shortfalls, reports Bob Sillick for E&P magazine.

Alex Curley, a former public media expert, created the single-page Adopt-a-Station website that "indicates which public media stations are most vulnerable to closing," Sillick explains. Most predictions estimate that nearly 1,000 stations would be affected by the loss of CPB support, with those serving indigenous, black and rural areas facing the most severe setbacks.

Approximately 40,000 people visited the Adopt-a-Station site during its first 30 days. Curley's most recent "review of analytics showed approximately 20% of visitors were clicking on a link to a station identified as losing 50% or more of its revenue," Sillick reports. "Curley is now working to increase visitor numbers to the site."

"I estimate 15% of all public media stations are at risk of closing," Curley told Sillick. "They either relied on federal funding so much that it was tough to stay open, or some other financial indicator paired with the loss of federal funding meant they couldn't balance their finances."

Philanthropies pledge $37 million to help 'at-risk' PBS and NPR stations stay afloat after Congress cancels funding

The funding aims to help rural and underserved areas
keep their stations afloat. (PBS graphic)

When federal lawmakers voted last month to cancel nearly $1.1 billion in Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding, the futures of PBS and NPR stations looked bleak. But help from a group of philanthropists who have banded together to provide financial lifelines is already underway.

The Knight, MacArthur and Ford foundations, along with other major philanthropies, have pledged "nearly $37 million in emergency funding to keep public media stations afloat," reports Scott Nover of The Washington Post. A consultancy, Public Media Company, will manage millions of pledged dollars through a "bridge fund" aimed at helping "most at-risk public radio and TV stations across the country." Other donations will go directly to "stations and programs in the public media ecosystem."

Tim Isgitt, Public Media Company’s CEO, said his "fundraising goal is $100 million over two years to stave off the full effects of federal defunding, which he said immediately threatens 115 stations serving 43 million people," Nover writes. 

Isgitt told Nover, "They’re all in rural and underserved areas of the country with very little access to philanthropy and other news sources. The idea is to move resources to stabilize these at-risk stations, but also to help put them on some sort of pathway to sustainability.”

The Knight Foundation said its primary objective is to "help the organizations that derive 30% of their annual budgets or more from federal funding doled out by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which recently announced it is shutting down in the face of defunding," Nover reports. 

Final House vote rescinds $9 billion in funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid; cuts include rural media

After months of debate, the U.S. House and Senate voted to rescind $9 billion in public broadcasting and foreign aid funding that Congress had already approved. The 216-213 final vote passed the House early Friday morning. "It now goes to Trump for his signature," report Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press. "The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs."

The vote "marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress," AP reports. "Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda."

"The cuts are expected to weigh most heavily on smaller public media outlets away from big cities, and it’s likely some won’t survive," report Mark Thiessen and David Bauder of The Associated Press. "Katherine Maher, NPR’s president and CEO, estimated as many as 80 NPR stations may face closure in the next year."

Smaller media outlets often serve more remote areas in states such as Alaska, Mississippi and Maine, which have numerous rural communities that frequently lack access to reliable news and educational programming.

Mississippi Public Broadcasting has already begun making cuts. AP reports, "It decided to eliminate a streaming channel that airs children’s programming like 'Caillou' and 'Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood' to the state’s youngsters 24 hours a day, said Taiwo Gaynor, the system’s chief content officer."

The rescinded funds erase roughly $2.5 million from Maine's public media funding, but Maine Public hasn't announced any immediate cuts. "The system is preparing to reinvent itself to make certain it continues serving the state’s residents," Thiessen and Bauder write. "Maine’s rural residents rely heavily on public media for weather updates and disaster alerts."

 Earlier this week, KMXT in Kodiak Island, Alaska, kept its community up-to-date on tsunami 
warnings after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit some of Alaska's coastal islands. (NPR photo)

In Alaska, KMXT public radio station’s general manager, Jared Griffin, "called the Senate vote a 'devastating gut punch,'" Thiessen and Bauder add. "Griffin said the station’s board has already agreed on a plan to furlough staff members one day a month, and he’s taking a 50% pay cut."

Securing state support to fill funding holes isn't an option for many stations. AP reports, "At least five states have reduced their own outlays for public media this year, either for budget or political reasons."

Rural residents may become 'unintended victims' of end to PBS, NPR funding

Many smaller stations don't have enough private
funders to survive without federal support. (Adobe photo)

Update: In a narrow vote largely split along party lines, the House voted 214 to 212 to rescind $1.1 billion "allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes nearly all of the funds to local television and radio stations, for the next two fiscal years," report Deirdre Walsh and David Folkenflikof NPR. "Two key Republican lawmakers switched their votes from 'no' to 'yes' to push it over the finish line."

Federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding remains on the chopping block as U.S. lawmakers continue wrangling the pros and cons of yanking back the $535 million already approved by Congress for 2026 and 2027. In late May, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for an end to any future support for NPR and PBS because he believes "taxpayer funding of NPR’s and PBS’s biased content is a waste."

As the political battle continues, smaller stations are worried they will become the "unintended victims of national culture wars," reports Andrew Mercein for Columbia Journalism Review. The cuts would likely end radio stations in places such as Wrangell, Alaska, where many of the borough's 2,127 residents rely on its local radio station, KSTK, “for emergency information, rescue coordination, updates from local officials, and advice on accessing essential services."

KSTK’s general manager, Cindy Sweat, told Mercein, "If CPB funding disappears, I don’t know how we’d survive."

Should lawmakers approve the cuts, they are "unlikely to do the most damage to the networks they are aimed at," Mercein explains. "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is legally required to distribute nearly 70% of government funds directly to local stations, and each station retains full editorial control. …Local stations rely on the federal government for as much as 50% of their annual budgets."

Some lawmakers are pushing against the cuts. Earlier this week, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who co-chair the Public Broadcasting Caucus, issued "a joint statement saying, 'Rescinding this funding would also isolate rural communities, jeopardizing their access to vital resources they depend on. [While public broadcasting] represents less than 0.01% of the federal budget, its impact reaches every congressional district,'" reports Aris Folley of The Hill.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) also voiced his support for CPB. He told Folley, "You go to rural America, public television is how you get emergency broadcasting and all that kind of stuff. I look at Idaho Public Television, they’re a great organization, and we don’t see the politics that some states do in them." Folley reports, "Simpson added that he still intended to support the package if it comes to the floor."

Amodei and Goldman pointed out that rural broadcasting stations face more private fundraising challenges than stations in more populated areas. Folley reports, "Amodei and Goldman said in the new statement that “of the 544 radio and television stations that receive federal funding, 245 serve rural communities and collectively support more than 5,950 local jobs.'”

Some public media advocates and stations believe the House will vote on the "claw back bill" that includes cutting PBS and NPR funding as early as tomorrow.