With Republican senators approving President Donald Trump’s plan to rescind $9.4 billion in federal aid and public broadcasting funds, public radio and television stations in Illinois are closer to a worst-case funding scenario that local media leaders are calling a “critical gut punch.”
The package, which allows the Senate to strip previously approved spending with a simple majority, must still return to the House. And there’s a time crunch: Congress has to get it to Trump’s desk by Friday or the administration will be forced to release the funds. In total, the package rescinds $1.1 billion in funding for PBS, NPR and their member stations through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It was intended to help fund the stations for the next two years.
At WTVP in central Illinois, more than 390,000 households in 17 counties tune into local programming like “A Shot of AG,” a talk show hosted by Rob Sharkey, a farmer from Bradford. Jenn Gordon, president and CEO of WTVP, calls it “a Johnny Carson talk show” that humanizes the agricultural community in central Illinois.
If the Republican-controlled Congress cuts the CPB funding, Gordon said the station would likely take a financial hit in October, when it typically receives federal grant dollars. About 30% of the station’s budget is reliant on those funds.
“We are fortunate as a station, a locally supported station, we do have a little bit of an endowment. So we’re working very hard to ensure we don’t have to immediately cut anything,” Gordon said. “Obviously this is a critical gut punch to the whole system, the whole infrastructure, system of public broadcasting.”
Gordon said the station is implementing a “worst-case scenario” plan, both a six-month and one-year strategy.
“Beyond that, largely, will center on asking our community to meet us and to sustain us where we’re going to be,” Gordon said. “We don’t want to have to do that, but we’re thinking optimistically in the worst case scenario that this happens, because we have to keep doing what we do for our community, because it’s that important.”
Other public stations in the state are also bracing for big changes. In Moline, WQPT’s general manager Dawn Schmitt said the TV station expects to have to cut staffing — and the amount of community service the station provides.
“Thinking of WQPT as a television station explains only a part of what we do in service to our communities. However, the fixed costs associated with broadcasting, things like utilities, maintenance and tower rental, can’t be reduced. That means expenses will have to be cut in other areas like reducing our staff of eight people, evaluating the type of over-the-air programming we can afford to purchase broadcasting rights for, and the amount of in-person educational outreach support we can provide in local classrooms,” Schmitt said in an email to the Sun-Times. “Expense cuts this deep can’t be fixed by stopping just one thing. Frankly, they will force reductions in virtually all areas of our community service.”
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., name-dropped both WTVP and WQPT on the Senate floor last week, calling them examples of essential rural public stations that are reflecting the needs of their communities. He also called them unbiased.
Public broadcasting stations have generally enjoyed bipartisan support, but Republicans are increasingly accusing them of bias.
“Rural public broadcasting stations are often the only source of emergency alerts in the region. These local stations also are truly independent,” Durbin said. “They reflect the needs of their community and the people they serve. They go out of their way to be non-partisan. I know because I’ve dealt with them for decades.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Thursday morning slammed the passage of the package, calling the effort “an attack on the free press.”
“Not only does this rescission package make DOGE and other cuts permanent, it puts everything — from our national security to global health and public radio and television stations — on the chopping block,” Duckworth said in a statement. “Public broadcasting is critically important for Illinoisans across our state, especially in our rural communities. It’s a lifeline of information and engagement. Cutting funding isn’t a cost-saving measure, it’s an attack on the free press and our communities.”
A poll conducted last week by the Harris Poll on behalf of NPR found 58% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats supported federal funding of public radio. And 77% of Republicans and 78% of Democrats said they relied on public radio emergency alerts and news for their public safety.
Chicago Public Media, the nonprofit company that owns both the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, displayed a banner on its sites in early June, declaring “Public media is under threat,” and soliciting contributions.
Federal funding makes up 6% of CPM’s budget, which equates to about $3 million a year.
This story was reported, written and edited by members of the Chicago Public Media editorial staff. Under CPM’s protocol, no CPM corporate official or executive leader external to the newsroom reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
Melissa Bell, CEO of Chicago Public Media — the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, a National Public Radio member station — talks about the ongoing threat of federal funding cuts to local public media.
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