Forum highlights cost defunding public media has on emergency alerts, educational programming

The Lansing region’s NPR and PBS member station is sounding the alarm about the impact losing federal funding would have on its services.

WKAR General Manager Shawn Turner said during a public forum the station hosted this week that about 16% of the station’s budget comes from federal funds.

“I will tell you that it absolutely will have an impact on local programming,” Turner said. “It doesn’t mean that it will all go away; I’ve been very fiscally conservative in trying to make sure that we have reserves here to continue to do work. But it does mean that some of the capacity – to me, 16% of my budget will just be gone overnight, so some of the capacity to do that work will go away.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS.”

“Neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens,” the order says. “The CPB Board shall cancel the existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”

Turner said the legality of the executive order remains an open question, noting that the CPB has indicated they do not believe it is valid.

But Trump also plans to introduce a rescission package asking Congress to strip federal funds for public broadcasting out of the budget, which were most recently allocated in March.

Turner said he believes supporters of public broadcasting contacting their members of Congress about the reportedly forthcoming rescissions package were “making some real progress.”

He speculated that waning support among members of Congress for a potential rescissions package may have prompted the abrupt pivot to an executive order, though he said the rescissions package is also likely still on the horizon.

“Either way, we recognize that the threats are real,” Turner said. “Whether it’s through the executive order or whether it’s through the rescissions package or whether it’s through one of the dozens of bills that members of Congress have put forward to zero out funding for NPR and PBS, the threat is real and it’s significant.”

If federal funding for public broadcasting is cut, Turner said WKAR would focus on doing their top priorities well – meaning some programming would be cut – rather than trying to maintain all of their existing programming in a potentially watered down format.

One key area is emergency alerts. WKAR is designated as the primary Emergency Alert System station for the state of Michigan, Senior Director of Station Operations Brant Wells said.

Additionally, they are part of the Warning, Alert & Response Network, sending out alerts for FEMA.

While the emergency alerts also go to cell phones, Wells noted that cellular networks can get overloaded, making public broadcasting a helpful backup for times of emergency.

Turner pointed to his own experience being in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001, as an example. While he said he had a cell phone, he said it was nothing more than a brick for four days.

“We really won’t know how well that system works until something like that happens,” Turner said. “Right now, the Public Radio Satellite System can reach 99.7% of Americans. There’s absolutely nothing that exists in the commercial world that can do that.”

Last year, more than 11,000 alerts were sent out through WARN.

“If you think about that, just one alert, if that saves one life, isn’t it worth it?” Wells said.

NPR and PBS aren’t the only ones whose funding the Trump administration has targeted.

Trump has promised to begin “fundamentally changing, terminating, or overhauling FEMA,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And the National Weather Service has been significantly downsized.

Turner said the most likely scenario, if Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal government are successful, is that “you will see our emergency alerting system basically be taken over by the commercial sector.”

“I’m very concerned about that, and I think we should all be concerned about that, because the commercial sector does not exist to do nonprofit sort of work for the community. It exists to make a profit,” Turner said.

Federal funding cuts are also already being felt in WKAR’s educational programs, said Director of Education Robin Pizzo.

She said PBS member stations were told earlier this week that they could no longer spend any money connected to the Ready to Learn program, which targets preschool and early elementary school children.

“Many of the programs that were already in the queue to be developed – high quality, educational programming that supports 60% of children who are ages three and four who cannot access preschool education – many of these programs will not move forward with production,” Pizzo said.

She said WKAR also partners with Head Start, whose regional office serving Michigan was abruptly closed last month.

“We see a ripple effect throughout our educational system,” Pizzo said.

She said WKAR has provided more than 11,500 reading kits to more than 130 organizations in 30 counties throughout mid-Michigan, as well as partnering with various local organizations, making them a bridge between educators and families.

“In being that bridge, we really are like a gap filler for many of our children and many of our families,” Pizzo said. “They just don’t have the resources to be able to give the high quality school readiness supports to their children that they might need for a variety of reasons.”

With federal funding more uncertain than ever, Turner said one of the best things people can do to support public media is to donate to their local member stations.

While federal funds make up about 16% of WKAR’s budget, he said they account for just 1% of NPR’s budget.

“The reason that donation to the local station matters is because what we try to do at the local level is to bring you NPR and PBS programming, and to take those national level stories, and our reporters, our team, they look at how those stories impact us on a local level,” Turner said.

“When you’re listening to All Things Considered or Morning Edition and you hear that local twist on what’s happening at the national level, that is because your donations have allowed us to purchase in to be NPR member stations and to purchase that programming.”

But while one audience member wanted NPR and PBS to take a more forceful stand against Trump’s actions, Turner defended public broadcasters’ approach.

“I can bang on the window and say, you know, ‘what you’re doing is wrong and you should do something different,’ and it’s very clear what my message is if I do that,” Turner said. “But I can also do the work that sends a clear message, that is that we have a set of values and beliefs that are fundamental to who we are as Americans, who we are as a nation.”

Note: Andrew Roth is a freelance reporter for WKAR.