WDET braces for budget hit after public radio cuts
Why it matters: Public radio and TV stations don't just provide news, but also critical information alerts that can mean life or death for local communities.
Amber Alerts, Silver Alerts and natural disaster advisories are among the public safety warnings that are broadcast on local stations.
State of play: The cuts they're facing were included in a sweeping rescissions package to claw back more than $9 billion in federal spending.
The bill cut nearly $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) through 2026 and 2027, marking a devastating blow for PBS and NPR.
Yes, but: While the cuts target NPR and PBS, the national organizations won't feel much of the impact.
Only around 1% and 15% of NPR's and PBS' national revenue comes through CPB, respectively.
The majority of federal funding is allocated to local member stations, which use it for day-to-day operations.
What they're saying: WDET (101.9 FM) is asking listeners to donate more in light of the recent cuts.
"It is a huge kick in the gut to WDET," general manager Mary Zatina told Fox 2. "It's going to create a giant hole in our budget."
Follow the money: WDET was among nearly 20 public TV and radio stations in Michigan that received CPB grants totaling $10 million in 2023, CPB documents show.
Detroit Public Television got almost $2.2 million, the highest allocation that year.
WDET received $262,191.
The average CPB amount received that year among 12 Michigan public radio stations from Ypsilanti to Marquette was $201,598.
Zoom out: Once a broadcaster is shuttered, it's unlikely its spectrum license ever returns to a community news station, PBS CEO Paula Kerger explained in a recent interview with the Washington Post.
"I can imagine they would be auctioned off for whatever purpose and you won't have a local television station again in a community."
Many stations are based in rural communities that are most heavily reliant on federal government funding to survive.
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Newsweek
a day ago
- Newsweek
Exclusive: Trump Cuts to Hit Rural America Like 'a Tsunami,' Democrat Warns
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Representative April McClain Delaney warned that President Donald Trump's cuts to programs like Medicaid, as well as NPR and PBS, are going to hit rural America like a "tsunami" in an interview with Newsweek. Delaney's Maryland congressional district contains some of the areas that could be hit hardest by Trump's policies. It spans from the state's rural western panhandle, which she says could bear the brunt of new rescission cuts, to the Washington, D.C., suburbs, home to federal workers who have lost their jobs amid the mass firings of federal workers. She first won election to the Sixth District last November, defeating Republican Neil Parrott by about 6 percentage points in a light-blue district that has been competitive in recent elections. Delaney spoke with Newsweek about how she believes cuts in the Republican rescission package and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would affect constituents in rural areas in the district and across the country. "When you look at all of these funding freezes on our government employees on our national parks, but also Medicaid, SNAP, and then start looking at some of the other rescissions that it's just a tsunami that's about to hit rural America," Delaney said. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Associated Press/Canva How PBS, NPR Cuts Will Affect Rural America Funding cuts for public media, such as PBS and NPR, which were included in a rescissions package passed by Congress earlier in July, could have devastating impacts on rural Americans, Delaney said. Republicans argued that funding for these programs was a waste of taxpayer dollars and have accused the networks of pushing left-leaning programming. Critics, however, say public funding was a lifeline to communities that relied on their local NPR affiliates for news or PBS for free children's programming. "When you look at the community that really relies on trusted news, one of the last trusted bastions of news is local news," Delaney said. These cuts may have an impact on Amber Alerts and Emergency Broadcast System alerts, she said. Recent flooding in Western Maryland's Allegany County—a rural, conservative county inside Delaney's district—underscores the importance of having robust local radio news, she said. "We had floods in Allegany County, and luckily, because of the emergency alerts, they kept the kids in the school. They didn't release them early. And as the rising waters went, I think, nine feet in 45 minutes, the kids went from the first floor, the second floor to the third floor, luckily were rescued and no one was hurt," she said. "When you think about how alerts are really facilitated by our broadcast stations, particularly these rural communities, it's a pretty big deal." Delaney, who spent much of her career advocating for children in media at nonprofits like Common Sense Media, said cuts to PBS will have consequences for children across the country. "I really look at how this funding will impact rural America in terms of broadcast stations and in particular educational programming for our kids. PBS is really the only free programming, educational programming that these kids receive," she said. "While you might hear some of my GOP colleagues [say] you can stream Sesame Street. Well, I hate to say this, our most disadvantaged kids in rural America, they can't afford to have a streaming Netflix account, much less have rural broadband." Delaney predicted there would be a "significant outcry" from rural Americans if their local stations go under as a result of the cuts and that Democrats would eye the restoration of this funding if they retake control of Congress in the midterms. The loss of these local stations would be a "loss of our community heart," she said, noting that they have historically had community obligations and public interest standards. "I still think there's that residue reporting on the games from the football game at the high school or talking about the local fairs or the rodeo that's going to be in town or what have you," she said. "There is something that's a big community builder. In these smaller stations in rural and even bigger suburban America." Cuts to Medicaid are another challenge facing rural America, she said, noting that one in seven families in her district relies on the program for health care. "What are you going to do in the long term in terms of rural health care and rural hospitals potentially closing? she said. "But also, you know, are all these premiums going to go up? Right, and what's the impact?" How Trump's Agenda Is Affecting Federal Workers Maryland's Sixth District also encompasses parts of the D.C. suburbs and is home to more than 35,000 government workers who may be affected by cuts to the federal bureaucracy as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). So far, at least 260,000 federal workers have left their jobs since Trump returned to office in January, whether they were fired, retired early, or took a buyout, according to Reuters. Delaney said many of them are still looking for jobs and have reached out to her office. Health care is a key concern for these federal workers, she said. "Many of them are concerned about the long-term, how they're going to have health care, in addition to being able to find new jobs," she said. There are concerns that these "well-educated and well-adjusted" workers may be taken to the private sector or even leave the country as they seek new employment, she said. "There are other big concerns about workforce development and how are we going to look at maybe figuring out ways that they can retool some of their skills. I do think that many of our state governments might be able to fill in the gap for some of these workers. But, their concerns are, of course affordability, figuring out their next step and interestingly enough, I've started hear more about AI," she said. Delaney Slams 'Foolish' Foreign Aid Cuts Foreign aid cuts have been "one of the most foolish acts" of the Trump administration, Delaney said. "Our world is on fire right now and we have traditionally always been the one that has stepped in to help, whether it's vaccinations, whether it is feeding women and children, whether it was displacement during times of war. But there is something in soft diplomacy," she said. "What that means is that you are a trusted beacon of light. You are a source that people can depend upon around the world. And you do have more stability and peace when you have that." She warned that there is a "lack of trust" in the United States on the global stage right now, and that other countries, such as China, are "zooming in to fill that void." She described this foreign aid as the "cheapest part of our defense budget." "It is probably some of the most foolish cuts I've ever seen in my life, and it's going to impact us globally, but that's going to come to haunt us domestically as well," she said. Delaney on Trust in Government Delaney also said her work in Congress is focused on restoring trust in the government amid a period of heightened "anger." "It's really impacting the trust that people have in if our country can function and if our county can feel like the people who are elected officials are trustworthy," she said. Elected officials need to take the time to "understand why there's anger" and why people feel like they have not been heard or met in the moment. "My biggest concern and my biggest priority in Congress is to find ways to reestablish that trust, that trust with the American people, that trust on a community level," she said. "And I don't think it is a top-down—I think it's going to be a bottom-up within our communities building back, you know, across our communities and understanding in our elected officials." She said she plans to ask her constituents for their views on the issues so that her vote can reflect their thoughts. "Our world is crazy, but the last thing I'm going to say is I believe that we're going be OK. It's going to be choppy, it's going to be hard, but that we are going to swim through this, but it's a difficult ride at the moment," she said.
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
‘South Park' creators reveal battle with network over wild Trump depiction, joke they're ‘terribly sorry'
'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone discussed their controversial season 27 premiere at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, revealing a behind-the-scenes battle with network executives over airing a less-than-flattering depiction of President Donald Trump's penis during Wednesday's episode. The duo behind the long-running Comedy Central series spoke alongside a panel of other adult cartoon creators at the event, including 'Beavis and Butt-Head' creator, Mike Judge, and 'Digman!' co-creator, Andy Samberg. When asked if they had been following the reaction to their season 27 premiere by the panel's moderator, Josh Horowitz, Parker jokingly replied, 'We're terribly sorry.' As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, that's about as far as the creators went in responding to the controversy stirred by the episode, although Stone did address Trump more directly later in the discussion when the duo were asked about how they originally met. 'For me and Trey, we met over 'Monty Python,'' he said. 'In this day, when PBS is getting their funding cut, that's how I found 'Monty Python.'' Stone's comments on PBS come on the heels of a congressional vote last week to cut funding for public broadcasting. Trump signed the $9 billion spending cuts package into law on Thursday. 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed they went toe-to-toe with network executives before airing their controversial season 27 premiere at San Diego Comic-Con. Getty Images According to Parker, the show's team finalized the season's premiere episode just shortly before it aired. 'Just three days ago, we were going, 'I don't know if people are going to like this,'' Parker said, adding that the duo were reading news headlines and said to each other, 'Let's put that in there.' Horowitz questioned the 'South Park' creators about whether there were any concerns about the season premiere from higher-ups at Comedy Central, with Parker detailing a discussion with the network about showing Trump's penis on the show. The creators of the long-running Comedy Central series detailed how the executives wanted Trump's penis blurred, as the duo told them, 'No, you're not gonna blur the penis.' REUTERS 'They were like, 'We're gonna blur the penis,' and we're like, 'No, you're not gonna blur the penis,'' Parker responded, adding that the show's team agreed to add eyes to the depiction of the president's penis to make it a character. The White House, however, did not seem thrilled about the season 27 premiere of 'South Park.' White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers issued a statement regarding Wednesday's episode to Fox News Digital on Thursday. 'The Left's hypocrisy truly has no end — for years, they have come after South Park for what they labeled as 'offense' [sic] content, but suddenly they are praising the show,' Rogers stated. 'Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows. This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention. President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history — and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak.'
Politico
2 days ago
- Politico
The red state broadcaster bracing for funding cuts
Presented by Chevron Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben President DONALD TRUMP on Thursday signed legislation making sharp cuts to public broadcasting. Now, small, rural radio and TV stations across the country are bracing for the worst. One of those outlets is KEDT-TV/FM, a public radio and TV station in Corpus Christi, Texas. It's the only radio station in the region that has a news department, said station president and general manager DON DUNLAP, and covers a rural service area with a primarily Republican, low-income and Spanish-speaking audience. 'There are 10 public TV stations in Texas, and we're thinking probably six of them will close down within a year,' Dunlap predicted in an interview with West Wing Playbook. The White House maintains that the cuts — included in a rescissions package clawing back about $9 billion in previously approved federal funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid — would limit the taxpayer dollars going to NPR and PBS, the independent but publicly funded news outlets Republicans have long accused of peddling a leftwing bias. 'Democratic paper-pushers masquerading as reporters don't deserve taxpayer subsidies, and NPR and PBS will have to learn to survive on their own,' said White House principal deputy press secretary HARRISON FIELDS. 'Unfortunately for them, their only lifeline was taxpayer dollars, and that ended when President Trump was sworn in.' But critics, including four Congressional Republicans, have maintained that the rescissions would imperil dozens of local newsrooms with little connection to the national organizations — many in rural, deep-red areas. 'I think [lawmakers'] decisions were not informed,' Dunlap said. 'We're there to help people.' This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How will the passage of the rescissions package affect your stations? We would have to make a decision whether we're going to shut down the television service or we have to shut down the radio service. Both of them provide unique services in these communities that are not going to be picked up by commercial media, because the content is not commercially viable. There are other secondary impacts that we don't have any data on right now. What is it going to do to our programming costs? We buy about $600,000 worth of programming from NPR and PBS, and obviously their programming model is going to have to change if there are fewer stations involved. All these different unknowns make this scenario planning very, very difficult. Republicans say they're defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because NPR and PBS propagate left-wing positions. You're in a red district in a red state — how do you respond to that? That's said by a lot of people who don't listen or watch what we're doing here. On the TV side, there's just no way that we could even have two sides to something. What's the political side of bald eagles or nature programs about hurricanes or volcanoes, or classical music programming to play on the radio? There's no political side to that. We have a program on the radio called 'All Things Considered.' I think the nature of that program is what these people don't like. Some people don't like things to be talked about or covered. They want their information limited. So then they have to come up with a name for it, call it 'woke' or something. Both of Texas's senators supported the rescissions, as did your congressman, Rep. MICHAEL CLOUD (R-Texas). Have you spoken to any of them? Michael has been over here to the station, actually. We do an academic quiz show for high school kids that just finished season 20 … and we had him ask some questions about government. What I have found — watching the Congressional testimony and during our visits to the Hill — is that these members and senators have so much information coming to them. The only ones that really know anything in depth about it are their staff, and they're just boiled down to a couple of talking points. A spokesperson for Cloud did not respond to a request for comment. It's likely that many of your listeners are Republicans, too. What do they think about the cuts? We've had a ton of phone calls about all this. I haven't heard from anybody who supports cuts to public broadcasting. We have a big service with the schools down here. We work with over 100 school districts in South Texas, which we provide with PBS LearningMedia — over 120,000 educational videos. It's highly used in the schools, but nobody mentions that as one of the services that we do. MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! POTUS PUZZLER Under which president was the Fine Arts Committee for the White House created? (Answer at bottom.) WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT TWO CAREER NOAA OFFICIALS OUT: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration placed two veteran officials on administrative leave today, NOAA's communications director confirmed to Ben and POLITICO's E&E News' DANIEL CUSICK. JEFF DILLEN, who was serving as NOAA deputy general counsel, and STEPHEN VOLZ, assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service, were both placed on leave for separate issues, according to Kim Doster, the agency's communications director. 'Mr. Dillen was placed on administrative leave by the department's senior career attorney pending a review of performance issues over the past several weeks,' NOAA communications director KIM DOSTER said in a statement, adding that Volz was placed on leave 'on an unrelated matter.' It comes less than a week before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee takes up the confirmation of NEIL JACOBS, Trump's nominee to lead NOAA. Jacobs served as NOAA's acting administrator during Trump's first term, where he found himself embroiled in the 2019 'Sharpiegate' scandal, where he and another NOAA official, JULIE ROBERTS, were accused of pressuring scientists to alter the forecast of Hurricane Dorian, which killed dozens of people. Jacobs and Roberts were attempting to align the forecast with statements made by Trump, who said in the Oval Office that the hurricane would hit Alabama. In 2020, Volz led the investigation into Jacobs and Roberts, and found that the two officials violated the agency's 'scientific integrity policy.' The Oval 'THEY WANT TO DIE': Trump today said Hamas 'didn't want to make a deal' and that 'they want to die,' claiming the U.S.-designated terrorist group wants to retain the hostages to keep its negotiating power, Irie reports. It comes a day after the U.S. pulled out of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas amid pressure on Israel from American allies to halt its military campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, which has led to widespread death and starvation. French President EMMANUEL MACRON said Thursday that his country would become the first of the G7 to recognize a Palestinian state. And Australian Prime Minister ANTHONY ALBANESE said that 'The situation in Gaza has gone beyond the world's worst fears.' Agenda Setting RELEASE THE FUNDS: KATIE BRITT (R-Ala.), along with 13 of her GOP colleagues, sounded the alarm about 'the slow disbursement rate' of National Institutes of Health funding included in the March spending bill signed by Trump, our KATHERINE TULLY-McMANUS reports. Britt, who serves as chair of the Senate Appropriations homeland subcommittee, wrote a letter today to White House Budget Chief RUSS VOUGHT, urging the Office of Management and Budget to 'fully implement' the stopgap government funding package enacted earlier this year. Suspension of the appropriated funds, whether delayed or formally withheld, 'could threaten Americans' ability to access better treatments and limit our nation's leadership in biomedical science,' the senators warned in the latest example of Republican pushback to the administration's pattern of withholding money from programs that lawmakers have explicitly set aside funds for. FUNDS, RELEASED: The Trump administration will release billions of dollars in education funding that have been on hold for review for weeks, our MACKENZIE WILKES reports. Approximately $1.3 billion for after-school programs was released by the administration last week, with today's move marking the release of the remaining portion of the nearly $7 billion in withheld funding. The remaining dollars include money to support teacher preparation and students learning English, among other initiatives. 'UNAVOIDABLE' LAYOFFS: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is planning for mass layoffs in October due to the Trump administration's budget cuts, POLITICO's E&E News' CHRISTA MARSHALL reports. In a video distributed to staff this month, Lab Director MICHAEL WITHERELL said 'as we look ahead to the federal budget for fiscal year 2026, it has become clear that staffing reductions at the lab are unavoidable.' It comes as the nation's 17 national labs that support research on technologies ranging from EVs to coal are facing significant changes due to the cuts. Energy Secretary CHRIS WRIGHT has been a major proponent of the labs, calling them important for implementing the administration's energy priorities. Even as the administration builds additional data centers throughout the country, the president's proposed budget for fiscal 2026 would slash funding for many lab programs, including Lawrence Berkeley. What We're Reading Inside Trump's plan to keep control of Congress in 2026 (POLITICO's Jake Traylor and Adam Wren) ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship (The Atlantic's Lila Shroff) What the Timeline Reveals About Trump and the Epstein files (POLITICO's Ankush Khardori) Trump bump drives D.C. demand for house managers and private chefs (Axios' Mimi Montgomery) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER During the JOHN F. KENNEDY administration, first lady JACQUELINE KENNEDY created the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, made up of specialists in the field, and hired LORRAINE WAXMAN PEARCE as the first curator of the White House, according to the White House Historical Association. To learn more about the presidents and first ladies and how to draw them, check out How to Draw the Presidents and First Ladies.
