Federal cuts would hurt local public broadcasting

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YELLOW SPRINGS — Proposed cuts in federal funding for public radio and television would mean the loss of more than $2 million annually to Miami Valley stations, along with the loss of programming and jobs.

A bill passed the House Thursday barring funding for National Public Radio with the vote split down party lines. Conservatives have complained about a liberal bias on NPR and House Republicans said NPR should be able to stand on its own without taxpayer funding. Democrats said stopping funding would not save any taxpayer money.

WYSO-FM, an NPR affiliate in Yellow Springs, has more than 60,000 listeners each week in southwest Ohio. Federal funding accounts for 12 percent of the public station’s annual $1.3 million budget, said Neenah Ellis, general manager. The rest comes from underwriting, grants and contributions from its 3,349 members, she said.

“We would be hard-pressed to replace it in the short term,” Ellis said. “We would probably lose some programs and maybe some staff.”

WYSO finished its spring fund drive with a record $227,000 in pledges and 450 new members.

“I think that people’s awareness has focused to the fact that we could lose this service,” Ellis said.

Area public television stations could lose $1.9 million in federal support after the House voted to cut $50 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The loss represents 16 percent of its annual $11.5 million budget. The nonprofit media company was formed from Think TV and Cincinnati’s CET, the licensees of public television stations WPTD 16, WPTO 14 and WCET 48.

Public Media Connect’s stations have about 2 million viewers each month and 25,000 members. “These are critical dollars for us,” said David Fogarty, president and general manager of Public Media Connect. “We use it both as a basic support for operations, as well as for specific services that we provide,” he said.

The new legislation follows last week’s resignations of NPR President and Chief Executive Vivian Schiller and another NPR executive, after the latter was videotaped deriding tea party supporters.

Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, who chaired the Republican Study Committee that in January proposed cutting the CPB’s federal subsidy, did not respond to a request for comment from the Dayton Daily News.

A national study this month by the bipartisan polling firms of Hart Research and American Viewpoint found that 69 percent of voters oppose Congress cutting government funding for public broadcasting.

More than 170 million people use public broadcasting each month, according to the CPB.