KERA, KKXT and WRR doing a lot of pledge drives after congress cut funding

[tested]

I was a little surprised at how much funding KERA lost. I do wonder if they can make up for it with extra pledge drives and underwriting from corporate donors.

KERA loses $2.7 million overnight as public funding cuts hit North Texas broadcasters

Along with other public broadcasting institutions in Texas, the Dallas radio station found itself in crisis mode.

www.dallasnews.com

 

[TheBigA]

It's funny that the story you link is behind a paywall. I expect more of the digital footprint of public broadcasting will begin to go that way. The taxpayer funding came with a responsibility to make all content available to everyone for free. That responsibility doesn't exist anymore. I'm not saying that's what they'll all do, but it's now more important to build and monetize the listener base in order to survive. FCC rules don't apply to the digital footprint. They can run advertising on the website and in podcasts. The federal funding runs out in October. Then it's a whole new world.

 

[txchipk]

No doubt the cuts will hurt, but the large market public outlets like KERA got off much better than smaller and more rural places in the defunding CPB. The large market outlets generally lost federal funding that was a single digit percentage of their funding. A lot of smaller stations rely on federal funding for 20% or more of their budgets.

KETR Commerce, KTXK Texarkana, Marfa Public Radio (KRTS and relays), KEDT-FM Corpus Christi/KVRT Victoria, KACU Abilene are public radio stations in Texas that will lose 20% or more of their budget.

Public Radio Stations Most Exposed To Federal Funding Cuts

With the Congress passing a bill that cuts $1.1B the next two years from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, the expected fall out is expected at the station level, particularly stations in rural areas and stations operated by Native American groups in the West and Alaska.

overtheair.substack.com

 

[Gopher]

No doubt the cuts will hurt, but the large market public outlets like KERA got off much better than smaller and more rural places in the defunding CPB. The large market outlets generally lost federal funding that was a single digit percentage of their funding. A lot of smaller stations rely on federal funding for 20% or more of their budgets.

KETR Commerce, KTXK Texarkana, Marfa Public Radio (KRTS and relays), KEDT-FM Corpus Christi/KVRT Victoria, KACU Abilene are public radio stations in Texas that will lose 20% or more of their budget.

Public Radio Stations Most Exposed To Federal Funding Cuts

With the Congress passing a bill that cuts $1.1B the next two years from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, the expected fall out is expected at the station level, particularly stations in rural areas and stations operated by Native American groups in the West and Alaska.

overtheair.substack.com

Does East Texas A&M still have a radio/TV program? If so, how much of their daily broadcast content is NPR network and how much is student content?

 

[txchipk]

KETR primarily runs NPR and BBC World Service the last time I checked. They have HD subchannels -- include one that carries the AAA XPN network based at WXPN Philly.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

KETR primarily runs NPR and BBC World Service the last time I checked. They have HD subchannels -- include one that carries the AAA XPN network based at WXPN Philly.

i could see KETR getting more money from ETAMU to keep it afloat unless ETAMU sells out and shuts it down and moves all sports rights for the Lions over to KIKT/KGVL or one of the Dallas stations.

 

[Bongwater]

It's funny that the story you link is behind a paywall. I expect more of the digital footprint of public broadcasting will begin to go that way. The taxpayer funding came with a responsibility to make all content available to everyone for free. That responsibility doesn't exist anymore. I'm not saying that's what they'll all do, but it's now more important to build and monetize the listener base in order to survive. FCC rules don't apply to the digital footprint. They can run advertising on the website and in podcasts. The federal funding runs out in October. Then it's a whole new world.

The flip side of that is now everybody's going to really start getting irritated because now public stations are nickel-and-diming them like everything else in media. Even if this is how they have to survive now....