Community college radio and television stations are among the network of broadcasters nationwide hit by the $1.1 billion cut to the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, forcing the 58-year-old non-profit to shut down later this month.
“Federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting made up nearly a quarter of our annual budget, so its sudden loss has had a direct and painful impact on our station and our community,” said Tom Brennan, general manager at the Brookdale Community College (BCC) public radio station in Middletown, New Jersey.
“We are more than just a radio station; we are a platform for independent artists, a resource for local nonprofits and a classroom for students,” said Brennan, who advises an active BCC radio club whose members and other students take courses based at the studio supporting several degree offerings. “These cuts jeopardize not only the music and programs our audience loves, but also the educational and community services that are part of our mission.”
That’s the theme of comments from officials at community college stations who are among some 1,500 supported by CPB. More than half of them are at colleges and universities.
In August, at President Donald Trump’s request, Congress cut CPB funding as part of a $9 billion rescissions package.
A rural connection
Officials note the stations at colleges often broadcast into rural regions where news outlets are sparse. They provide music and local news, public service announcements and features, educational programs for children and adults, support for college courses and, in some cases, emergency broadcasting information.
Skagit Valley College’s (SVC) FM station KSVR in Mt. Vernon, Washington, will lose 80% to 90% of its funding with the CPB closure. Joseph McGuire, operations coordinator for the station, told a local paper that funding from CPB allowed the small station to do ambitious stories and provide entertaining and important public service broadcasting, half of it in Spanish for the region’s large Hispanic population. SVC students often volunteer at the station to get broadcast experience. Its “Radio University” includes training on FCC regulations and the basics of hosting and producing a radio show.
SVC’s station mirrors those at other community colleges, which serve their communities and provide such hands-on training opportunities for students. They also serve as vehicles for colleges to promote enrollment, activities on campus or services the college offers to the community. They are one of the many ways these community colleges create a bond with the local community, several station officials noted.
“We remain hopeful that CPB funding will remain in place, and we will continue to evaluate our options and make future funding decisions as we gain more clarity,” said Mike Coogan, vice president for administrative services and CFO for SVC.
Smaller part, but key
For some stations, the cuts are a smaller portion of their revenue but still significant. Public Radio East (PRE), a broadcast service based at Craven Community College in New Bern, North Carolina, has about 60,000 listeners in 17 counties. It is popular for National Public Radio shows it broadcasts, such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered. The station’s news department has also received several awards, including from the Associated Press as the “Outstanding News Operation in North Carolina” and separate awards for the best news, health, consumer and in-depth reporting.
Ben Donnelly, the station’s general manager, says it received about $140,000 from CPB, only about 10% of its budget, but a difficult blow the station will feel next month when the funding typically arrives.
“Revenue from members and listeners is up enough that we will not need to cut any services if the trend continues,” he said. “We have a fund drive coming up, and we will know better after we see those results.”
He noted other rural areas with a smaller audience that may be less able to donate will struggle more.
“The listeners who are most affected by the CPB disappearing are in more remote areas than we are – stations in Alaska, Montana or any area where they don’t have the population density necessary to support public broadcasting,” Donnelly said. “They are cutting staff or shutting down altogether unless they can find some new benefactors.”
Craven students now also take courses with PRE for electrical engineering degrees and communications equipment repair certification. Jared Brumbaugh, news coordinator at the station, is a former Craven student who was interested in broadcasting and began working at the station and received training from the station staff.
“I hope students who aspire to be a news reporter or who are interested in pursuing a career in broadcasting will utilize Craven CC and PRE as a resource to learn more about radio journalism and broadcasting,” he said in a Craven web site article about the station.
Another larger station, LAist, KPCC 89.3 FM, which is licensed to Pasadena Area Community College District and Pasadena City College, like other stations has boosted its fundraising efforts but already has cut eight staff members.
Its senior vice president for news and editor in chief, Megan Garvey, said the multiplatform news and information organization, which she notes has undertaken major investigative stories in the region, receives $1.7 million annually – or about 4% – of its $40 million budget from CPB.
Meanwhile, WTVI, PBS Charlotte, is losing $1.2 million. A station spokesperson told the Charlotte Observer it will “continue to operate in the near term as it assesses the long-term impacts.” The funds comprise 25% of the budget for the station, which reaches more than 1.1 million households in a 13-county service area in North and South Carolina. It was acquired by Central Piedmont Community College in 2012.
What the cuts mean
Rima Dael, chief executive officer for the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), said the funding cuts have “sent shockwaves across the public media landscape – especially among grassroots, community radio stations that depend on modest budgets and local support.”
“Without CPB funding, these stations are facing difficult decisions,” said Serah Mead, director of member engagement for NFCB. “For some, it means losing staff, cutting national and international news programming or kneecapping any ability to grow. Stations are digging into rainy-day funds and setting up contingency plans.”
She said stations may benefit from an affiliation with colleges, but higher education institutions are not in the position now to provide additional funding as enrollment remains a concern and other federal money dries up.
Emergency messaging and more
Dael noted that CPB’s closure also likely means the demise of the Public Radio Satellite System, which delivers real-time emergency alerts, “making them indispensable last-mile connectors during natural disasters, wildfires and other crises.”
Delta College media stands to lose $1 million over two years due to the CPB funding cuts, hampering its support for five stations in Michigan that serve 1.4 million viewers and listeners with a wide variety of programming. It will hamstring operations and threatens funds it receives through the Next Generation Warning System grant program, where it was one of 44 stations that used the money distributed through CPB to provide emergency information to vulnerable regions where communications might be limited.
At the same time, some stations face legal and financial uncertainty for music streaming rights once managed by CPB through SoundExchange, where it negotiated and paid for rights to the platform’s services, according to Dael.
Since 2011, CPB also has funded American Graduate, an initiative to help young people stay on a path to a high school diploma, which has since “evolved into explaining career pathways for students exploring all types of postsecondary education and employment,” according to a CPB spokesperson. PBS Charlotte was among the stations offering the programming.
