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Cuts & public radio playing music

L

Larry

I hadn’t seen this elsewhere, other impacts of funding recision on public radio stations (in this case 2 university owned and operated stations).

“ WRTI pays NPR to manage and maintain its website, so what happens now that federal funds are being cut off? Then there are the royalties that need to be paid to the artists whose music is airing on WRTI, which is also managed by NPR.

WRTI doesn’t even know how much the music royalties cost, because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting negotiates that directly with music companies on the behalf of public media stations, which includes a nondisclosure agreement with record labels.“

www.inquirer.com

The future of Philly music stations WRTI and WXPN is unclear as Republicans defund NPR and PBS

“Music stations are collateral damage in all this,”WXPN general manager Roger Lamay said after Republicans voted to defund NPR and PBS.
www.inquirer.com www.inquirer.com
 
Larry said:
“ WRTI pays NPR to manage and maintain its website, so what happens now that federal funds are being cut off? Then there are the royalties that need to be paid to the artists whose music is airing on WRTI, which is also managed by NPR.
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The funding was cut to CPB, not NPR. NPR remains unaffected.

The funding continues until October. Between then and now, CPB will be in touch with the stations it funds.

But he's right about music stations being collateral damage. His listeners should be outraged.

The rest of the article is behind a paywall.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Jazz songs have royalties, too. Who's going to pay for that now that the agency who had done it on behalf of the stations will effectively cease to exist?
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PTBoardOp93 said:
The stations, obviously. :rolleyes:
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Nice double whammy there.

"Dear public radio stations: We are cutting your federal funding so you better lower your budgets. By the way, you are now on the hook for the music royalty licenses, so be sure to increase your budget accordingly."

 
Nathan Obral said:
Okay, so how are they going to find the money to cover something they previously did not have to worry about? It's a very obvious slippery slope.
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By dropping whatever shows they air now, many of which receive CPB funds.

I don't know what "slippery slope" you're talking about. The CPB won't exist in six months, so all of its functions are going away. At which point the slope is finished.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
By dropping whatever shows they air now, many of which receive CPB funds.
Click to expand...
Like an all-jazz station losing all hosts, dropping the WFMT Jazz Network and all remaining PRX/APM/NPR shows and just being a jukebox of 500 songs? That'll go over well.
PTBoardOp93 said:
I don't know what "slippery slope" you're talking about. The CPB won't exist in six months, so all of its functions are going away. At which point the slope is finished.
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I'm talking about how these stations are all going to die off altogether. No money equals no means to function.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Like an all-jazz station losing all hosts, dropping the WFMT Jazz Network and all remaining PRX/APM/NPR shows and just being a jukebox of 500 songs? That'll go over well.
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A well-programmed unhosted syndicated jazz service would be an excellent outcome from the CPB cuts. The WFMT network is probably the best out there now, but it only operates 10 hours a day. I'd love it if WUCF/Orlando syndicated their evening/overnight service, which is unhosted.
 
Nathan Obral said:
I'm talking about how these stations are all going to die off altogether. No money equals no means to function.
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With your kind permission, Nathan, I'd like to explain it in terms that better fit the "can't see the forest for the trees" mindset.

  1. CPB forced to stop funding public broadcasting in a little over two months.
  2. Stations receiving funding have to adjust their budgets accordingly.
  3. Part of that adjustment is not buying as much NPR programming as they had been.
  4. Those NPR shows that now do not bring in as much revenue from the stations as previously have no fallback funding since CPB money is no longer there, and eventually are cancelled.
  5. This creates an increasing number of holes in the stations' schedules, and they can't just put on a local music show because "oops" they no longer have a music royalty license.
  6. Filling the gap with spoken word programming is still dependent on NPR (which may or may not be able to keep providing national programs in that genre either) because most public radio stations outside of larger metropolitan areas simply lack the resources and the air talent to make a local talk show work.
  7. Same thing applies to news. Without NPR, unless you have a lot of local news -- and a news department that hasn't been reduced in budget cuts to report on local stories -- you've got nothing but "rip and read" newscasts.
  8. Eventually that downward spiral gets to the bottom and the transmitter is shut off permanently.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
A well-programmed unhosted syndicated jazz service would be an excellent outcome from the CPB cuts. The WFMT network is probably the best out there now, but it only operates 10 hours a day. I'd love it if WUCF/Orlando syndicated their evening/overnight service, which is unhosted.
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Who ...
... is ...
... going ...
to pay for that?
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
You know the answer to that. Now that the government has taken taxpayers off the hook the answer is simpler than ever before.
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I was waiting for you to say it. Deflecting the question doesn't tell me how you think it should be answered.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
The primary funding source for public broadcasting is donations from the public. I would assume that would be the funding source for a revival in music programming on public radio.
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For the stations playing classical music, definitely. Vermont Public Classical seems to do quite well on their fundraising drives, and has several Vermont businesses as underwriters. I hope it can retain all four of its local program hosts (three with regular weekday shifts, one with a weekend choral show) after the CPB money goes away, but that may be wishful thinking.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
The primary funding source for public broadcasting is donations from the public. I would assume that would be the funding source for a revival in music programming on public radio.
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Ignoring that you used "assume" when you meant "presume" (unless you are personally accepting the financial responsibility, in which case thank you for saving public radio all by yourself), everyone here knows the reality of listener donations. There is never enough as it is, and now stations will be asking for even more.

The country is teetering on the verge of a recession, and the moves in DC are pushing us faster in that direction. Not only do I believe the existing donors will not be motivated to give more of their discretionary income, I believe there's a good chance that many of them will say "sorry ... no more".

And the chance of getting enough new donors to offset both those losses and the additional demands this funding cut is creating are about the same as you or I trying to put toothpaste back in the tube or push a rope uphill.

So I think your presumption is flawed.
 
CTListener said:
How long has this teetering been going on? Seems I've been hearing that prediction for multiple years, going back to the first Trump administration and including Biden's four years.
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Been teetering so long that the last administration even redefined what an official recession was. Lots of teetering going on but just like Humpty Dumpty we are staying upright. 😎
 


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