Federal funding cuts to public broadcasting this summer left radio and television stations across the country with major budget gaps. Some stations lost as much as 70% of their annual operating budgets.
Diane Kaplan is a former CEO of the Alaska Public Radio Network and now a board member for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, the national nonprofit previously responsible for receiving and allocating federal public broadcasting money. CPB is a private corporation, and Kaplan says post-rescission, they are still operating to distribute any remaining federal dollars as well as other private funds.
Kaplan visited Dillingham earlier this month to talk to the community about the status of public media and what lies ahead.
While in town, Kaplan spoke with KDLG about how public broadcasting is navigating this transition and the alternative funding sources that have emerged to help support the system since the cuts. As she tells KDLG, working with lawmakers to reinstate state funding is crucial to the future of public broadcasting.
**Disclosure: KDLG received funding from CPB and was one of the stations impacted by the cuts. Under KDLG’s and NPR’s protocol on reporting on itself, no corporate officials or executives outside of the newsroom reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.**
Kaplan: In July of this year, all of the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was rescinded. It had already been appropriated by Congress. It was taken back basically, and with less than two months' notice, stations, some of whom, many of whom in Alaska, got 50 to 70% of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, were zeroed out of their funding, so it created a great crisis.
Many individuals, private foundations and companies have donated money to try and fill the gap. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been using its remaining resources to try to give time to the system, the stations, and the producers to adapt to the loss of federal funding. The hope, of course, is to have it restored in the future, but it may be a few years until that happens. So that is the very sad story in a 60-year very wonderful record of stewarding what amounts to a tiny amount of money, pennies, really, for each American every year, for a service that most Americans really value, and say they really value. It is a shame, and especially in rural areas of the country, it's hit particularly hard.
Sutherland: So this money was rescinded, taken back. You mentioned that there's kind of a patchwork of funds coming in to make up this gap. Can you talk a little bit about what those funding sources are, where those are being allocated to, and whether or not this is enough money to cover that gap in funding?
Kaplan: Stations across the country that are either native, so they're owned, operated by a tribe or a native organization, or that serve primarily Native people, are receiving one year of funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and KDLG is one of those stations. In addition to that, private money was raised mainly from foundations, but also individuals, and donated to a fund called The Voices Across Alaska Fund, and they have distributed a little less than $3 million to 20-some odd stations across the state, amounting to a quarter of what they would have received from their federal grant.
Coming forward will be additional funds from a national bridge fund, and that's designed to keep any of the stations in the country from going off the air. So they're looking at all the different funding pieces and figuring out where the gaps are. And there may be some additional money coming as well.
So I think KDLG will definitely have enough money to operate this year, maybe into the following year, but beyond that, since Governor Dunleavy has vetoed the money for public broadcasting for the last seven years, and there's no reason to believe he won't veto the money in 2026. I hope he doesn't, especially now that the federal money is gone, but there's not a lot of hope that he will sustain those funds. So the hope is to get state funding back under a new administration in the state.
Sutherland: And this state money, it would not be as much as the federal CPB money that was coming. Is that correct?
Kaplan: Well, at one time, the state money was much larger than the federal money. So, it could be. It really just depends.
The State started funding public broadcasting in the 60s, and it's always been bipartisan funding. It's not been a political issue. And you know, legislators just understand that we have an emergency broadcast system that is crucial in times of earthquakes and tornadoes and floods, and public broadcasting is an integral part of that system. And in addition to that, if you believe in a democracy, you can't have an active democracy without people being informed. And for many people, Public Radio and TV are a major source of information that they get to be a good voter and a good citizen, so they understand the importance, and there's every reason to believe there'll be a lot of interest in trying to restore funding. The state financial situation is not great, so that's going to be a challenge. It won't be a sure thing, but I do believe there are a lot of legislators who would like to see things going that way.
Sutherland: How is the Alaska Public Media Network at large faring right now? Is everybody still afloat?
Kaplan: I think many of them are at risk, but they are all afloat. And I think the lifeline with the current money that was raised, you know, we'll keep them going for a time, but now the focus has to be on, how do you sustain this? And when they were built, it was with the knowledge they would be receiving state and federal operating grants. The market cannot support very rural stations in markets of 2000 people. It's never happened before, and it's not going to happen now. There are just not enough people. There are not enough companies to buy underwriting announcements. The stations are not allowed to accept political advertising. They're not allowed to expect to accept commercial advertising. They're very limited in the ways that they can raise money. It's really from individuals, corporate support and foundations. Most small communities don't have private foundations to get money from. Less than 1% of all the foundation money goes to communities like this. So really, government money is going to have to be returned if these are going to be sustained. Otherwise, their future is really in question.
