NPR CEO Katherine Maher recently spoke on All Things Considered to explain the impact of potential funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, that the Trump administration is proposing.
The CPB delivers federal dollars to NPR, PBS and public media member stations across the country. President Trump is expected to deliver a memo to Congress soon proposing rescinding more than one billion dollars from the CPB. The memo will trigger a 45-day period for lawmakers to decide if the money will be pulled or kept as is.
To explore what these proposed cuts could mean for WKAR, Sophia Saliby spoke with the station's General Manager Shawn Turner.
Interview Highlights
On how much federal funding makes up WKAR's budget
First of all, let's take a step back and think about the total amount of funding that comes from the government across the country. $1.60 per person per year comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for public media. Here at WKAR, that makes up about 16% of our total budget, which is significant, but it's really important to put that into context and to think about some of the things that people across the country get for that $1.60 per person per year.
On the argument that federally-funded public media shouldn't exist
When we think about sort of the idea that we don't need federal funding, what I would say to that is that as we look across the country, in communities like ours, news sources, commercial news sources, are drying up. They're shuttering and in many of the places across this country, including right here in our own community, WKAR, public media stations are either the only source of news and information, or they're one of just a few sources of news and information.
On his message to WKAR's audience
We know that people really value what we do. We've been fortunate to hear from people. People are having their voices heard. They're talking to their members of Congress, and we think that in the near term, even if we do lose funding, we feel confident that our community values us, and they're going to come out. They're going to support us, so we can continue to do the work that we've always done.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Earlier this month, you may have heard NPR CEO Katherine Maher on "All Things Considered," explaining potential funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, that the Trump administration is proposing.
The CPB delivers federal dollars to NPR, PBS and public media member stations across the country.
To explore what these proposed cuts could mean for WKAR, I’m joined by General Manager Shawn Turner, and I should note that our newsroom remains editorially independent from our station's upper management, and he has had no input on the questions in this interview. Thank you for being here, Shawn.
Shawn Turner: Thanks, Sophia. It's good to talk to you.
At WKAR, that makes up about 16% of our total budget, which is significant, but it's really important to put that into context and to think about some of the things that people across the country get for that $1.60 per person per year.
Saliby: So, WKAR gets money through a variety of funding sources: Michigan State University, underwriters, listener and viewer support. What percentage of the budget comes from the federal government?
Turner: Yeah, and so it's a great question, and I think this is something that a lot of people don't really understand. First of all, let's take a step back and think about the total amount of funding that comes from the government. Across the country, $1.60 per person per year comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for public media.
Here at WKAR, that makes up about 16% of our total budget, which is significant, but it's really important to put that into context and to think about some of the things that people across the country get for that $1.60 per person per year.
Saliby: Thinking about what our audience gets, if WKAR loses that federal funding, that 16%, how would that impact what people hear and see on this station?
At the local level, WKAR is so much more than just NPR and PBS.
Turner: Yeah, you know, I think that a lot of people are focused on NPR and PBS, because that's, you know, we are member stations, and that's sort of what we do. But I think it's really important to put this in context at the local level, WKAR is so much more than just NPR and PBS.
Here at the local level, we hand out 11,000 reading kits every year, which is a really significant impact on our community. At every event we go to, we hand out free books to support educational efforts here in Michigan. We have a program here where we have volunteers come in and read the news every day to people who are visually impaired. Events in this community where we bring people in this community together.
So, when we think about what this means with regard to the loss of federal funding, yes, it means that some of the great programming that we hear on NPR, some of the local programming that we run on our PBS stations, we will lose some of those things, but we lose so much more in terms of the impact that we have on this community.
Saliby: Mary Louise Kelly asked NPR CEO Katherine Maher if NPR would survive without a lack of federal funding. So, I want to ask the same question here.
Turner: Yeah.
Saliby: Would WKAR survive?
Turner: WKAR will survive without federal funding. We've been here on campus at Michigan State University for well over 100 years. But I think the more important question is, what do we look like? And what is our ability to serve our community without federal funding?
Let's just take NPR, for example. One of the great things about your show and the other shows that we produce here at WKAR is that we have the ability to bring local content into the shows that are produced at the national level. But if you think about the loss of funding that we'd have, those shows will still exist, but our ability to localize those shows is significantly diminished at that point.
So, all of the news and information that matters to people in this community, that will go away. People will still get news out of Washington, D.C., which is important, but what's more important is our ability to bring people local news about what's happening in their community.
Saliby: You mentioned WKAR's longevity, but I also want to note that NPR, PBS, the CPB have only been around for about half that time, 50 years, give or take, depending on what we're talking about. How were we funded in those early days? And is there a way for us to go back to that model?
We will do things a little differently, but we will survive. And my objective as general manager here at WKAR is to figure out how we can minimize the impact on our staff while maximizing our ability to continue to do the things that are important to serving this community.
Turner: Yeah, well, you know, it's always been about this community. From the early days of WKAR, people in this community looked at what this station provided, and they opened up their wallets, their purses, and they said, "We want to support you," and that's still the case today.
This is a community station. People love WKAR. This university has been extremely supportive of this station. So, we will be different. We will do less. We will do things a little differently, but we will survive. And my objective as general manager here at WKAR is to figure out how we can minimize the impact on our staff while maximizing our ability to continue to do the things that are important to serving this community.
Saliby: A lot of the arguments I hear for cuts to public media is that, you know, we're a public media station. We're a news station, a station for journalism, like any other media station, like CNN, like your papers, like commercial radio stations, and that the funding just kind of gives us a leg up.
And if we want it to be equal, then we shouldn't get federal funding. Do you have a counter argument to that?
Turner: Yeah, I think it's important for people to first understand that public media reaches 99% of the American population. It doesn't matter what your ZIP code is, what your income is, doesn't matter what community you're in. You can turn on the television, turn on the radio, and get free over-the-air broadcast of news and information that's about your community. So, I think that's extremely important.
We're quickly moving to a period in which people will not have access to news and information that allows them to make informed decisions, and that's why public media is so important.
When we think about the idea that we don't need federal funding, what I would say to that is that as we look across the country, in communities like ours, news sources, commercial news sources, are drying up. They're shuttering and in many of the places across this country, including right here in our own community, WKAR, public media stations are either the only source of news and information, or they're one of just a few sources of news and information.
When we think about that trend, we're quickly moving to a period in which people will not have access to news and information that allows them to make informed decisions, and that's why public media is so important.
Saliby: You're on the NPR Board of Directors, can you kind of give us a high-level view of the conversations that are happening about what NPR, PBS, public media might look like if this CPB funding goes away?
Turner: You know, there are a number of different scenarios that leadership at both NPR and PBS are working through, but I think that the high-level view is this: the objective is to continue to be able to provide the news and information, the educational programming that these organizations have provided to communities all across this country for decades. Their ability to do that, as I said before, will be different.
And so we're working in collaboration with member stations. The two organizations are working together very closely, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is involved as well to determine whether or not there are models that will allow us to continue to have the impact that we know that we have across this country, at a time when we know that federal funding may not be there. I will tell you that one of the things that we're focused on here, and I know other public media stations are focused on as well, is that community outreach.
We know that people really value what we do. We've been fortunate to hear from people. People are having their voices heard. They're talking to their members of Congress, and we think that in the near term, even if we do lose funding, we feel confident that our community values us, and they're going to come out. They're going to support us, so we can continue to do the work that we've always done.
Saliby: I wanted to end this conversation by asking if you had a message to share with our audience.
I would ask the community to bear with us as we evolve, as we transition, but to know that with their support, we can continue to be the WKAR that we've always been.
Turner: Thank you for that question. I think it's really important that I have the opportunity to talk to our audience because we are a community station. We've been here for 103 years, and every person here at WKAR is here because they believe in the mission of public media, and they believe in serving this community.
And my message to this community is to understand that we are not going anywhere. We're going to continue to fight. We're going to continue to provide all the services that we've always provided, and we're going to ask for their help in doing that, I would ask the community to bear with us as we evolve, as we transition, but to know that with their support, we can continue to be the WKAR that we've always been.
Saliby: Shawn Turner is WKAR's general manager. Thank you for being here.
Turner: Thank you, Sophia.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and conciseness.
Disclosure: This story was edited and produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. Under WKAR protocol for reporting on itself, no WKAR upper manager reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
