“Community radio will survive”: What federal cuts to funding public media could mean and why to stay hopeful

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Public media is under attack. The Trump administration wants to eliminate federal funding that goes to over 1,500 media stations across the United States, including KGNU. Congress has until midnight tonight to resolve a number of budgetary issues or it will face an impending government shutdown. 

KGNU’s Jackie Sedley was joined by Josh Shepperd, an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Colorado, and Rima Dael, the CEO of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, to discuss what could happen to community radio stations like KGNU if the federal government decides to cut funding for public media.

The three also discuss how to support and ensure the future of public media and why to stay hopeful. 

Listen:

Transcript:

Jackie Sedley:  It’s 8:04 on listener-supported KGNU. Hey there, I’m Jackie Sedley. Coming up on today’s program, you’ll hear an in depth conversation about what could happen to community radio stations like KGNU if the federal government decides to cut funding for public media.

This conversation is incredibly relevant for so many reasons, one of which is that right now we are on the last weekday of our spring fun drive. This is the last morning magazine of our drive and I thought that the best conversation we could uplift is a conversation about the future of public media.

The importance of supporting your community media in the face of so many federal threats, federal threats to community media and also to so many groups that we prioritize uplifting right here on KGNU.  At any point during this program and for the rest of the weekend, you can call in to 303-449-4885 or head online to kgnu.org. 

 Public media is under attack. The Trump administration wants to eliminate federal funding that goes to over 1,500 media stations across the United States, including KGNU. Congress has until midnight tonight to resolve a number of budgetary issues, or it will face an impending government shutdown. 

Funding that goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a piece of that conversation.  KGNU has been a long time recipient of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB funding.  All is not lost for your community media outlets, even if funding disappears. But these losses would endanger the future of local media outlets, including KGNU. 

We’re going to have to get creative and band together if we want to sustain public media. And one way that you can show your support for public media right now in this moment is to call 303-449-4885 or head online to kgnu.org and show your support for this public media institution. To gain more context for myself and for our listeners on the current status and stability of public media in this country, and to learn more about efforts to engage and mobilize communities, I spoke with Josh Shepperd and Rima Dael. 

Shepperd is an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Colorado. And Dael is the CEO of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, which hosts a membership of community oriented non-commercial stations and media orgs committed to community radio in the U.S. 

Shepperd kickstarted the conversation with a brief explanation of the history of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

Josh Shepperd: So the CPB was ratified by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. And what it did was it created a degree of separation from government by which money could go to what they called a corporation.

It’s a little bit different than a commercial corporation. And then that corporation doesn’t instrumentalize content decisions. It maintains infrastructure, so it issues block grants to affiliates and then to the national organizations based upon its mandate. And there’s three titles in the Public Broadcasting Act that are basically very straightforward, which is like research, building innovation around content. 

But then most importantly, and this is where almost all the money is determined it’s really focused on maintenance of facilities. So the idea that media is an access point and that there are mandates similar to compulsory education, that there has to be an access point, is actually what maintains the entire system.

So the transmitters and the wires and the antenna and all those kind of things are actually the crucial foundation of public media more than content according to the policy. 

Rima Dael: And  that also includes the satellite system. So you know, the things in space that now beam down our content. I would add, to what’s just been explained is that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, while it does receive funding from the federal government and it’s forward-funded currently every two years through Congress. It’s actually an independent nonprofit organization.

So with the federal freeze that, happened earlier this year. CPB did not have to freeze distribution of funds because it is an independent nonprofit with its own board of directors and very similar to a lot of public radio and community radio stations that has its own independent board, that receives funding from different sources, that’s how to think about CPB. A lot of people unfortunately think that CPB is like the National Endowment for the Arts. It is not, you know, the National Endowment for the Arts is a federal agency and receives direct funding from the government to distribute.

But CPB, again, is its own private nonprofit entity.

Sedley:  Fantastic. Thank you for giving that context. Is there anything else about the history of CPB, before we continue on?

Shepperd:  So, I mean, I would point out that you know, all public media at one point was educational media, right?

And so the purpose of public media in general is twofold. One is equal access to information or education, and that’s based in the educational laws that proceed the Public Broadcasting Act, so why is that important now? What that means is that no audience is too small. The mission statement requires appeals and access to diversity so that every experience in the U.S. is accounted for within the production and broadcasts and the infrastructure. 

And then the second thing I’d point out about the CPB  and its history is that there was a real concerted effort during The Great Society to make sure it’s not what we would call state media, which is to say just propaganda being distributed through a specific public system from a political party alone. So I think that that’s gonna be under attack repeatedly for the next few years, and it might survive and it might not.

Dael:   So what I love to say about the Broadcasting Act of 1967 and the formation of CPB is, I am of the generation that was the target audience. I was born in 1973. I was a Sesame Street kid.

I was the first young generation that got exposed to public radio. And the clip that anyone can look to was the testimony that Mr. Rogers gave to congress, around why public education can help kids learn.

And it’s a great explanation of why public media is important. In today’s context, most media is behind a paywall. Public media through broadcast television and broadcast radio reaches 99% of the country for free. So that means whether you’re on a reservation in Arizona, whether you’re in Guam or Hawaii or in a small town, and across the U.S.

You can access public television without having to pay anything because it’s the last remaining free airwaves that we as a country have access to. And I think that’s really the most important  aspect of the work that the 1967 Broadcast Act does with CPB is the free access. 

But most importantly, especially in times of crisis and the issues that we’re seeing now with weather and climate change, right? We’ve seen this in Maui with the wildfires. We’ve seen this in California with the wildfires. We saw this with the flooding.

And especially in rural communities that may not have direct access to mainstream media. Public media is a lifeline for many small communities and especially in farmland communities. And this is exactly what Josh has documented in his work and continues to look at with the role of public media versus what commercial media does. 

Sedley:   There’s so many attacks from the federal government happening in sectors across the country and around the world, but focusing specifically on public media, what are we looking at right now?  You know, at the end of today, Congress has a lot of funding decisions to make.

If they don’t, there could be a government-wide shutdown. And so both in terms of funding and also attacks on freedom of speech, what is the landscape right now that we’re looking at?

Shepperd:  So I wanna point out for my fellow Leftist listeners that the right is excellent at occupying policy as it’s written and then exploiting it. And if we don’t know what the policies are  and we aren’t working in a coalitional framework, then you’re going to lose every single battle from now on.  And the left has a kind of decentralized function right now, whereas the right digs right into the regulations to figure out how to maneuver. 

The FCC, which is a separate entity than public media, is being currently mobilized so that it can attack public media on the grounds of its mandate from the Public Broadcasting Act. So there are stipulations that there can’t be calls to action, you know, that it, it receives funding for informational purposes and the new podcasting structures, the subscription structures, are all violating, according to the right-wing FCC, if this is true or not. It’s up for debate, I think, but they’re, they’re saying that it’s violating FCC policy about what a non-commercial frequency is required to do upon awarding the non-competitive renewal.

So what they’re saying is that public media is essentially violating its own policy by acting like a commercial network. It’s doing advertising. They’re saying, they’re saying to do certain things. Now, you know, this of course, is a result of years of funding cuts. Democrats have never supported public media as well as they should.

We shouldn’t give them a pass on this. They could have multiple times increased the funding and strengthened it.

I would say what’s so clever, and I won’t say positive things, but it’s clever about the current political moment from the rights perspective, is that they’re using the laws that maintain the institutions against the institutions.

So I’m pretty concerned, but I also think this is a moment for us to think about media as a strategic tool.  By which we must know how the tool works or we’re going to continuously be a step behind. Because I think we’re about to see a tsunami overtake a number of federal institutions in the next year.

And it doesn’t mean they won’t come back in a year or two, or three years or something. But it means that we’re gonna look at setbacks that we could have prevented. 

Dael:  And, piggybacking on what Josh just laid out is that this is not the first time tha we’ve had both political and culture war attacks on public media.

You know, I graduated college in 1995 and that was a huge year in the Republican party wanting to dismantle Sesame Street and PBS and defund the arts and everything else. But the important thing of what Josh has just said is that what’s different about the attacks this time is the right and the Republican party have learned from past culture wars to really attack the current policy structure.

So using the current laws, quote unquote, against us in public media. You know, calling both PBS, NPR and CPB to testify against Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress this spring is going to have a huge impact on what happens next with Brendan Carr and the FCC. 

The small, like, not really glimmer of hope but reprieve we have in the continuing resolution that is currently being talked about at the Senate. It’s just level funding for public media, but that means it doesn’t resolve or solve anything. It just basically gives us time to get our  Image may be NSFW.
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As public media advocates and lobbyists of making the case because the biggest concern at this juncture is the funding structure that has funded CPB as I mentioned earlier, is that it’s forward funded two years and the royal they that are anti CPB want to destroy that structure. 

Now, representing 200 members of small community radio stations across the United States, most of my members do not receive direct funding from the federal government through CPB for any of their programs. But what most public media, both radio and TV, are absolutely reliant on, especially those who do not get direct funding from CPB, is the infrastructure that Josh talked about earlier. So for public radio specifically,  this is the emergency alert system that goes across the United States. 

Now, today all three of us, we have cell phones. We probably get emergency alerts or amber alerts on our cell phones, because that’s what we have on us. But to get those alerts even on our cell phones, there’s an infrastructure that’s reliant on public radio and public television to push out those alerts from FEMA.

So FEMA works with both PBS and NPR and CPB to get those alerts out. Then there’s also the distribution of content on public radio and public television that goes through a satellite system that is also funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Now, the most important piece of what CPB does for community radio and public radio stations in the music realm, just like this station, is the sound exchange agreement.

And so there is a non-profit model in place to pay for royalties for music distribution and to artists. To play music on the air. And that is all driven by the work that CPB does with NPR and with the entity of SoundExchange to allow music to be our companion for free on community radio. 

Sedley: Based on everything that you just described, in as concise a way as possible, what would the implications of CPB funding being frozen or dissolved be on the public media landscape, what would people listening, not necessarily people that work in this realm, but what would people listening see happen?

Dael:  Let me frame it this way. In the mainstream media and in mainstream conversations right now, when folks say defund CPB, they don’t even mention CPB. They say Defund PBS and NPR and that’s kind of misinformation right there because PBS and NPR are primarily content distributors, and yes, content creators for NPR, but they are large enough, and both NPR and PBS actually have foundations attached to them that are specifically there to raise funding. 

The defunding of CPB and what that means for the average public radio but more so the community radio listener is that stations could literally go off the air. Because CPB funds the infrastructure on which community radio is built, on which community radio receives programs and, it funds and is the infrastructure for the SoundExchange agreement through which we all get to listen to community radio.

Most of the community radio stations, 90% of our membership at NFCB identify as music and community affairs programs. And that includes a lot of the local artists and musicians that are featured on community radio.

And to put this into context also for a station like this one. So community radio, very different than public radio is driven on philanthropy and volunteer labor. So the community radio business model is having either zero paid staff or up to four or five paid staff. Clearly at different rates, but reliant on 100,150 volunteers that do everything from, you know, janitorial duties and front desk receptionist to volunteer DJs as well as being on the board, et cetera.

So 57% of the membership of NFCB has budgets of a hundred thousand dollars or less. Most of them actually have budgets of $50,000. Now that’s a credit card bill for certain departments at public radio stations even right? And 63% of our members are located in rural regions. And so this is an issue that NFCB is really daily looking at, and we’re talking to national partners and regional partners, both in commercial media and in nonprofit media to scenario plan, to say, okay, what would it look like if SoundExchange were scrapped. Who would we talk to? Is there a role for other distributors other than NPR and PRS to help distribute content that are big enough?

But the difficulty in all of those kinds of conversations is what Josh just mentioned, is having to rebuild from scratch an infrastructure that would mimic an infrastructure that has been built and honed over decades now that serve not just listeners of public radio or commercial radio actually, but anyone in the United States. At any point, right? Because this is again, a public safety, civic infrastructure piece that is important to all Americans. 

Sedley:  So a lot of the points being made are obviously the very real fear around what could happen and the threats toward public media.  Are there any aspects of hope that either of you are feeling? I know Rima you said that you’ve been communicating with folks trying to think of fail-safe, or backup plans or alternative ways of thinking. With community stations like KGNU, were over 70% funded by our listening audience. I wonder what other  collaborations or connections you’ve been brainstorming or hearing about, if this does and poorly or not, how we would favor it to.

Dael:  The recent coalition and the recent advocacy day that we had with Protect My Public Media this past March 6th has really been the first time in a long time like long meaning since the eighties, long time that public media and community radio have been at the table together.

Too often tribal radio, HBCU, radio and community radio have not been at the grownup’s table. We’ve been relegated to the kids’ table in advocacy. Especially now in this political environment where what we’ve also been seeing and hearing over at least the past few weeks, that folks that voted for Trump, especially in rural communities are seeing the harm of Trump’s policies to them, right? And so the hope is that people who support public media will also rally to support folks. And so this bookended effort that if we get the everyday citizen on Main Street to rally support for public radio and community media at the same time of getting community media folks, public radio, and commercial radio to band together across the country to really make sure that we keep the infrastructure that we have in place, that’s hopeful. 

Even though Josh and I have talked about kind of worst-case scenario I come from a quasi-optimist slash realist place that scenario planning for the worst-case scenario doesn’t mean bad news. It really just means being informed, understanding the situation, to prepare for one possible scenario. I am not a doomsday planner by any means. Community radio daily does a lot of policy, great things about informing communities and informing our individual residents in our communities about hyperlocal news and information.

Community Radio keeps my blood pressure down, right? Everything from classical, jazz, hip hop, reggaeton, Americana some really great jazz music but then also the stories, the stories you get on community radio is what keeps me hopeful because those stories are the stories that mainstream media, both commercial and public radio media don’t tell. That’s what keeps me hopeful. 

Shepperd:  So I just wanna punctuate what Rima said. So I think that what’s great about public media and what can’t be stopped is localism. And so that’s like a regulatory term but that basically means that local media covers local identity, local culture, local politics, local events, and community media is absolutely crucial to that.

And KGNU is absolutely crucial to that for Colorado and especially Boulder. So, you know, whatever happens at a national scale, whatever concessions are given by national bureaucrats, the community spirit and the community practice of local journalism, local features will continue in one way or another. It’s also much cheaper to produce. So they can’t stop that by cutting funding either. We just have to keep the transmitters going. 

Then I think from there, the other thing to think about in terms of a thing to keep an eye on is the way that National Commercial Media has deaccessioned local journalism investment. You’ll have a local journalism outlet and it’s just playing AP or Reuters news at this point. However, community and public media in some places are actually the last local news for some rural communities in the country. And that comes out of the CPB block grants as well. So there’s actually hope there that even conservative communities, who might vote, against NPR in affect or something, might still actually want the local news. You know, they might still want to fund their local station that serves them directly that they listened to. So yeah, I think it’ll continue.

I think the localism was the beginning of the history and it is continuing to be the most crucial part of all non-commercial media.  

Dael:  As Josh said, we need to keep the lights on and the transmitters going, and our translators you know, moving forward. But, the one place that I’m starting to talk to folks about is the FCC only controls and provides mandates to broadcast.

That doesn’t mean the FCC controls what goes on for streaming, or on your mobile app or if you are an internet-based radio station. So is there a dystopian world that broadcast radio will be censored? Possibly, but that doesn’t mean this radio station won’t continue in an alternative form online because the FCC does not have a place to legislate or mandate anything to online broadcast. 

 And the other place where, I really draw upon hope is we’re not the only country to have ever experienced this. Right, both historically and in modern history. There was a time and a place where different countries under authoritarian and communist regime have definitely paved a way for different broadcast mediums to exist. And I have lived in countries that have gone through different revolutions. And so that’s where my faith in humanity also comes from. That we will all figure out a way to weather this well. And we have history to draw on. This is the time of working with other folks to figure out what are the good ideas to rise to the top.

 But I do want to go back to what Josh said at the beginning, which is we can learn from what the right has done. Which is, they are much better at banding together to dismantle policy than we who are moderates or we who are right or far right have, have ever done, they’re even better at philanthropy than we are. 

And Vu Le, who is gonna be one of our keynote speakers at our 50th-anniversary conference this summer in Salt Lake City has looked at it and he’s just come out, you know, in the past week saying that progressive funders tend to fund in one, two, or three-year grants. Conservative funders fund 10, 15, and 20-year grants. There’s a lot that can be accomplished for an organization when you’re given such a long runway to test, retest a program and to then also gain support. You know, this is also a moment of opportunity for those of us who care deeply about community and public radio, how to fund it, how to strengthen its infrastructure to to learn from others. And that would include learning from those across the aisle.  

Sedley:  Wrapping up here, how can people support public media and ensure the future of public media? 

Dael:   Support your local community radio station that you listen to. Please give now during this fund drive and spread the word. Tell your college roommate, your ex-boyfriend, your mother-in-law. People who live in other communities and other states to support their local and community radio station. And, go to kgnu.org now. Yes, that means now. Don’t wait. Go now, make your donation.

Use the other philanthropic ties that you have close to you. Do you have a family friend that has a family foundation that can give a grant? Talk to your community, your local community foundation that might have directed funds that can support community media. Start also talking about the role of community radio in supporting the arts economic engine that lives in this community. Community radio stations play local bands. Many times local DJs, support local bands, local artists come out and volunteer to your local community radio station. Do your part be, be a good community radio listener and just a community radio resident even if you don’t listen. This is now a great time to support the infrastructure of public media around the country. 

 The other thing is to have folks also go to protectmypublicmypublicmedia.org and sign on to that coalition. Write their local elected officials as well as the state and federal elected officials. It’s just mobilizing and getting the word out. But I do think the best part about community radio and why it works is it really is about localism. And, Josh said that no matter what happens to the FCC, whatever happens to NPR and PBS community radio will survive. Just in what form? We do this for our friends and neighbors, so, that’s why community radio will still be here. 

Shepperd:  Yeah. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna call 303-449-4885 right now or go to kgnu.org and I’m gonna donate as much money as I can. To keep democratic media going.