The Buzz: How public media is dealing with funding threats

A note of transparency: AZPM, like all public media stations, does receive CPB funding. For the fiscal year 2023-2024, AZPM received nearly $2.5 million in grant funding–about 15% of our budget.

If you turn on your radio to listen to AZPM or another public station, flip to your TV to your local PBS station, or stream a podcast from your favorite public media outlet, chances are the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) had something to do with it. Now, those information sources are coming under attack.

As Congress debates the future of federal funding for public broadcasting, rural and tribal communities could be the most affected if proposed cuts to CPB move forward.

CPB, a nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, provides critical funding to NPR, PBS, and local public media stations. With a mission to make content that would be used for “instructional, educational, and cultural purposes,” CPB has been a way for most NPR and PBS member stations to provide critical news in areas where there would be little to no access.

“I’ve often called us programming of consequence because I think we make a difference in people’s lives,” Ruby Calvert, CPB Board of Directors chair, said.

While urban stations have diverse revenue streams, many rural and tribal broadcasters rely on CPB for a significant portion of their budgets—sometimes as much as 85%. That funding is made possible through taxpayer dollars that are appropriated two years in advance of its operation.

“We are an established 501(c)(3) corporation,” Calvert said. “We are not an agency under the executive branch and so that has been a protection in a lot of ways…89% (of the Support Services Fund) goes to public television and public radio stations. It’s all statutorily mandated.”

However, CPB funding has faced repeated threats, often from Republican lawmakers who argue that taxpayer dollars should not support public media. Threats to public media span as far back as the time it was created. In 1969, as a push to cut CPB funding grew, Fred Rogers–known for his show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood–testified before the U.S. Senate, arguing for the value of public broadcasting.

“I give an expression of care every day to each child, to help him realize that he is unique,” he said during his testimony. “If we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health.”

President Donald Trump attempted to eliminate CPB funding during his first term and is again advocating for cuts. Several bills currently before Congress propose either reducing or completely defunding public broadcasting, like the Defund Government Sponsored Propaganda Act.

Introduced by Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and Senator Mike Lee, that bill would prohibit federal funding for NPR and PBS.

“As a former newspaper owner and publisher, I understand the vital role of balanced, non-partisan media. Unfortunately, these taxpayer-funded outlets have chosen advocacy over accuracy, using public dollars to promote a political agenda rather than report the facts,” Tenney said when the bill was introduced. “Taxpayer dollars should not fund political propaganda disguised as journalism.”

John Stark, former general manager of NPR member stations KNAU in Flagstaff and KLCC in Eugene, Oregon, warned that such cuts could devastate local newsrooms, like in tribal and small market communities.

“They are very isolated communities, and so oftentimes, for the most part, the public radio station is the only broadcast outlet in the entire community,” Stark said. “That is very important in terms of emergency, as well as simply a cultural glue.”

Arizona is home to several Native American public radio stations that depend on CPB support, including KUYI at Hopi, KOHN on the Tohono O’odham Nation, KNNB in White Mountain Apache, and KGHR on the Navajo Nation. These stations not only provide news but also help preserve indigenous languages and culture.

Beyond broadcast funding, CPB has also supported local journalism initiatives, including grants that have placed reporters in rural areas to cover local issues. Stark pointed to CPB’s “Commitment to Localism” grants, which enabled Flagstaff’s KNAU to hire reporters for remote areas like Prescott, Show Low, and Page.

With multiple defunding bills in Congress, public media advocates, like Calvert, are calling on supporters to reach out to legislators.

“If you believe in public radio and public television, please make an effort to call your local congressional representative,” she urged. “It's really important for our congressional folks to hear from the homeland, the population out here, that we matter, that it makes a difference in their lives.”