As Trump looks to cut public media funding, local stations grow wary

President Donald Trump announced plans this week to cut back on federal funds for publicly funded media, prompting fear at broadcast stations like NPR and PBS. The implications could be detrimental for member and affiliate stations in New Mexico, especially for small and rural outlets scattered around the state.

The effort is similar to other media drawbacks under the Trump administration, like last month’s dialing down of operations at the U.S. Agency for Global Media to slash what Trump deems as unnecessary elements of federal bureaucracy.

“The threat has always been hanging over our heads, every four years,” said Santa Fe Public Radio General Manager Tazbah McCullah. “But with the demonstration of other agencies or other federal funding being cut the way that we have seen the past two months, it’s more alarming.”

Earlier this week, NPR reported the Trump administration drafted a memo to Congress seeking to rescind $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, a publicly funded nonprofit tasked with promoting and supporting public broadcasting. Congress reconvenes from its recess on April 28, when a 45-day window will ensue allowing the House and Senate to either approve or deny the funding drawbacks. CPB funds both NPR and PBS, whose local affiliates typically work off a combination of federal, state and donor funds.

The president has derided public media outlets as being unfavorable to him and a drain on taxpayer money.

“We’re well covered and we don’t need it and it’s a waste of money,” Trump said during a March news conference.

The $1.1 billion cut would amount to about two years of public broadcast funding, said Franz Joachim, general manager and CEO of New Mexico PBS.

Joachim has been with NMPBS for 25 years. He said there have been consistent efforts since the Nixon administration to defund public media, but not to the same extent the U.S. is seeing now, noting that the Federal Communications Commission’s involvement is particularly unusual, launching an investigation in January into NPR and PBS.

“Why wouldn’t it be the government’s role to support a system that provides information that saves lives and changes lives?” he said. “... And the government is not doing all of it. They’re only doing some of it. It’s a public-private partnership. That’s the whole point.”

New Mexico has 15 public media outlets eligible for CPB community service grants, which includes radio and television stations, according to CPB. Most stations serve the central part of New Mexico, though a slew of rural and tribal stations broadcast as well.

That includes the Santa Fe public radio station KSFR. Nearly half of the station’s budget comes from the federal government and it would have to significantly dial down on its local news services and programming if it lost that money, McCullah said.

“We probably would cut back way too much on news,” she said.

KSFR’s broadcast reaches listeners up to Red River and down to Los Lunas, covering all the communities in between, McCullah said. Based in Santa Fe, it’s a competitive market to get grants or donations from nonprofits already to cover the rest of its funding needs, she said.

“Small rural stations, I would assume, like us, really look forward to having that (federal) funding,” McCullah said.

Joachim said there are 12 communities in New Mexico, totaling about 10,000 people, where New Mexico PBS is the only over-the-air free broadcast service available.

About a sixth of the operating budget for NMPBS comes from federal funding, Joachim said. The rest of its dollars come from viewers who donate, state appropriations and entrepreneurial pursuits, like leasing out studio space or distributing programming.

Joachim said there’s no other money to replace the 15-18% NMPBS gets from the federal government.

“It is what keeps the system together,” he said. “Individual stations will be impacted in lots of different ways, some more than others, but the system gets impacted pretty quickly when you start to take parts away from it.”

Public broadcast stations get federal funding two years forward, Joachim said, but he anticipates local stations would start seeing consequences play out earlier than that.

Richard Towne, general manager of KUNM, said it’s hard to narrow in on specific outcome possibilities without a concrete policy proposal. About 11% — roughly $268,933 — of the budget for the NPR-affiliated station comes from federal funding. Towne said the rest comes from local fundraising and foundation grants.

It’s not likely that local donations could make up for that.

“New Mexico’s got one of the lowest median household incomes, so there is less capacity in New Mexico to support public broadcasting than in a wealthy state like Connecticut or Vermont or California,” Towne said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Megan Gleason is an assistant business editor for the Journal. She covers energy, utilities and government. You can reach her at mgleason@abqjournal.com.