Oklahoma public radio stations detail harsh realities of funding cuts

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A decision made by elected leaders in Washington last week to cut public broadcasting funding by $1.1 billion is being felt by Oklahoma public broadcasters, at PBS or NPR stations.

News 4 spoke with KOSU Radio leaders and KGOU leaders Wednesday to break down the impact to their own operations.

"It's expensive to operate a broadcast network," said Rachel Hubbard, Executive Director of KOSU Radio.

Hubbard said the approved claw back of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding sent KOSU into an emergency fundraiser. Hubbard said her team has spent the weekend talking to loyal donors about matching money and have been in the emergency fundraiser since July 21. Hubbard said the immediate impact is around $300,000 or 10% of KOSU's budget.

"It's not something in the future," said Hubbard. "This is for our budget year that started 23 days ago. So it's a real and immediate impact that has an effect on our ability to deliver local news and information. Specifically reporting about state government, mental health and addiction, indigenous affairs, water and natural resources, and to support local Oklahoma musicians along with our ability to maintain equipment for emergency alerting."

Hubbard told News 4 the situation has been all hands on deck, and while temporary work is being done to provide some stability while KOSU plots out a possible permanent future without the public funding.

Hubbard said the station has a noncommercial license through the federal communications system, which means it can't just start airing advertisements to offset costs. She said they are limited in what support they can accept from corporate entities or businesses so the major ways they can make up the funding gap are through philanthropy or donations from people.

"We want to avoid layoffs," said Hubbard. "We want to avoid disruptions in service. So, it's just something that, we're making it work in the moment."

Hubbard says they've heard from so many Oklahomans over the past few days, on opposite sides of the political aisle, that have been encouraging.

It's a similar story for KGOU in Norman, with Development Director Jolly Brown telling News 4 Wednesday this is uncharted territory in her over two decades there.

"We've never lost federal funding before," said Brown. "It's about $215,000 for this fiscal year."

Brown said that accounts for about 8-10% of KGOU's budget. She stressed how vital the service is to Oklahomans across the state, especially in rural areas that may not have the same level of access to valuable resources if cuts have to be made.

"When weather comes, that's very important," said Brown. "Internet might go down...or they don't have the internet. So, an over the air broadcast is is very important for folks, and oftentimes they don't have the electricity to operate their television station, but they can listen to a battery operated radio."

News 4 reached out to OETA Wednesday for comment on its financial challenges due to funding cuts. A spokesperson shared the following statement from Friends of OETA, Inc. Board President Garrett King:

Unfortunately, Congress has approved a detrimental claw back of previously authorized federal investments in local public television stations like OETA.

Friends of OETA, Inc. will work closely with the OETA Board of Directors, executive leaders, and state lawmakers to fully assess the impacts of this disappointing and unnecessary action.

We are committed to keeping OETA on-mission and delivering important public safety and educational services to all Oklahomans as we have for over seven decades.

Garrett King, Board President, Friends of OETA, Inc.

Classical KUCO also responded to the funding cuts July 18:

While much of the focus has been on the impact of this legislation on national news providers, it has consequences for non-news stations like KUCO that do not carry NPR programming and offer no national political content. We exist solely to serve our metro and rural communities through music, cultural programming and education.

 Jeff Hagy, General Manager, KUCO