Corporation for Public Broadcasting

A confluence of factors, Mike.

One of them is rescission of the funding for CPB, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a year ago.

Combined between Ideastream and PBS Western Reserve, that means an annual loss of federal funding of $4 million.

There are other financial headwinds out there.

I just That's my go-to phrase when things get real wild.

1967, just a year later, the federal government forms the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the CPB, as a, quote, distribution center for independent producers to create educational programming.

Again, we're still on the educational programming slant, which I think is really important.

And then by the end of the decade in 1969, the Ford Foundation and the CPB shut down the NET, merge it with NYC affiliate WNDT in 1970, and eventually change its name to the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS.

Arkansas's public television network is hoping to bring back donors lost after a year of changes for the broadcaster.

Arkansas TV, formerly known as Arkansas PBS, was one of hundreds of public media organizations impacted by the loss of federal funding previously granted by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last summer.

Pamela Owens is the interim chair of the Arkansas TV Foundation.

She told the Arkansas TV Commission last week the foundation saw a decrease of 9% in individual donors in the 2026 fiscal year and a 51% drop in new donors compared to the year before.

But, um, we, we tell them we are not the person that can change that for them, that they need to talk to the network if they have any opinions they'd like to share, and they do.

Owens told the commission the foundation hopes to regain donors lost over the last year, add enough new donors to offset low numbers, and support significant increases to operational support of the network.

In a note, KUAF also previously received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A longtime Arkansas lawmaker is stepping down.

So it becomes more dependable from the standpoint of when you're trying to plan events and programming and so forth.

And that was always the benefit of federal funding, quite honestly, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

It allowed public media stations to plan because, for example, the funding that was, uh, rescinded in July, um, basically had been approved two years ago.

Uh, it was always two years advanced funding for that very purpose, so there could be planning and programming and activities, 'cause programming doesn't just happen.

We want this to exist." And for all those folks who had all those things to say, they're correct.

If, if, if it, if it needs to exist, there needs to be money to, to, to get it, to get us to where we need to go.

And if that money is not coming from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I am confident that we will find our people who will stand in the gap and say, "However it needs to get done, we want it done because it's that important to, to our community, to, to our quality of life, to making Memphis vibrant, to make, to, to telling the stories that no one else is talking about, um, you know, to, to playing the records that no one else is playing." Whether it be a, a, a, a, a hit like 1979's Ring My Bell that everyone knows all over the world, it, you know, that record may never die.

But the person, the story behind that record, Anita Ward, comes from our community.

The CCNA is a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and the Colorado Sun, with support from news outlets throughout the state.

Startup funding for the alliance was provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

I'm Kaitlin Kim.

And I'm Benta Berkland.