DENVER — On Friday, the United States House of Representatives gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to cancel $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
While national operations like PBS and NPR will continue to operate, two-thirds of that funding goes to more than 1,500 locally-operated public television and radio stations, including more than 50 in Colorado.
Alamosa's KRZA operates on a small budget of around $300,000 annually, with more than half coming from the federal government. General Manager Gerald Rodriguez told Denver7 he’s concerned about losing a voice that’s been in the San Luis Valley community for 40 years.
“People can call in and talk to a live person. They can call and make requests for music. They can stop in and do an interview about their upcoming events or organizations that they have going on, educational or business programs,” Rodriguez said.
KRZA was founded by a group of Hispanic women that wanted to talk about issues affecting their community. Without public funding, Rodriguez said programming cuts will likely be made, along with cuts to things like phone and internet service. He also worries about cuts to the emergency alert system that KRZA provides to two other radio stations as well.
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Denver7 dug into the data to find out how federal funding is distributed in Colorado from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. You can view a breakdown of those funds in the graphs below:
But critics of publicly funded media argue that it encourages biased programming.
Ross Kaminsky, host of the Ross Kaminsky Show an KOA Radio, expressed these views on his program this week.
“Inevitably, when government funds anything, then it starts exerting some kind of control,” Kaminsky told Denver7’s Nicole Brady.
Kaminsky said if the content is good, broadcasters should be able to rely on their advertising revenue or, in the case of public broadcasting, donations.
“PBS can continue to do what they're doing with these massive telethons. Federal money is less than 10% of NPR's budget and less than 15% of PBS budget, so I think they're making a little much of it,” Kaminsky said.
Denver is one of around 20 markets in the country with two PBS affiliates — Rocky Mountain PBS and PBS12.
Amanda Mountain, president and CEO of Rocky Mountain PBS, said about 10% of their budget, or $3 million annually, came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The majority of funding comes from donations. Because of that, Mountain said public broadcasting truly is independent from any corporate or political influence.
“Public media has no commercial incentive to speak to one political party or the other, and our data actually shows us a third of our audience is registered Republicans and registered Democrats, and then the majority are registered Independents,” she said.
"If this matters to you, get involved"
Bobby Springer, president and general manager of PBS 12, echoed that sentiment, adding that community focused storytelling will suffer because of the funding cuts. About 15% of PBS12’s budget came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“What's in the balance right now are all the small stories, like the people in this neighborhood, the artists who are trying to do something, the business person who's trying to innovate in a new way,” Springer said.
Springer said he likely will not have to lay off any staff, but some projects and programs could see cuts. He appealed to the community to voice their opinions and support the kind of broadcasting they want to see.
“If this is something that matters to you, then just get involved,” Springer said. “This is not an impossible task. And again, it's us now. There is no third party.”
