The Journal’s editorial board would like to call readers’ attention to tomorrow’s “Protect My Public Media Day,” (visit protectmypublicmedia.org), a day our public media colleagues are working to put the value of public media squarely before those who, we hope, have the ability to protect it, including you.
As March 14 approaches, and the current continuing resolution funding the federal government expires, Congress will be making decisions that may well affect the future of public media, specifically about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that funds a percentage of it, nationally, $1.60 per person annually.
Public and private, we are all a part of a shrinking news media ecosystem none of us wants to see diminished further. Nor do our audiences, especially in rural areas. Since 2005, we’ve lost one-third of the nation’s newspapers. We certainly don’t want to see any erosion of public radio and television stations serving our area.
Our rural region cannot sustain it.
Public radio and television across numerous platforms provides taxpayer-funded, trusted local news and information, music, cultural and public affairs programs, and important public safety alerts.
For decades there has been bipartisan support of CPB. Potential cuts, which are more real than ever, will affect us locally – and negatively.
For 49 years, KSUT, Four Corners Public Radio and Tribal Radio, has operated across 130,000 square miles transmitting across Montezuma, La Plata, San Juan, and Archuleta counties and in San Juan County, New Mexico. It serves the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Jicarilla Apache Nations, and the northeast portion of the Navajo Nation all the way to Monument Valley where little to no internet connectivity exists.
Many of us stream “terrestrial radio stations,” but many without internet access listen in their cars or on home and/or portable radios. This service can be lifesaving during natural disasters and when the electricity is out.
On Feb. 19, KSUT received a Notice of Stop Work for a $537,000 Next Generation Warning System grant. KSJD received the same stop work order for a $55,000 award.
The ink was still wet on the agreement KSUT signed just the week before that would provide back up power and redundancies at all nine of its transmission sites. In the case of a fire, remote login would be possible instead of a time-intensive snowmobile ride up to Missionary Ridge to flip one switch such that the station, and listeners, experienced for three days during the Friday blizzard. A car hit an electric pole taking out power and its 90.1 broadcast, affecting Silverton and Durango. Not an opportune time or locations for radio signals to be down.
The NGWS grant would also help KSJD, in operation for 37 years, upgrade its three aging radio transmitters and improve back up power in the event of emergencies when communication is critical.
Both stations also receive CPB Community Service Grants for general operations – KSJD 30% of its budget, approximately $167,000 a year – which support programming costs and salaries for its programming director and news reporter. KSUT receives approximately 20% of its operating budget from CPB, approximately $333,000 this year.
The reduction or elimination of these funds will likely require cuts not only to staff and programming, but be hard to make up as they will hit the program producers, too, and make everything more expensive.
CPB cuts will erode our rural quality of life and the cultural and informational fabric we weave and share via the airwaves, in KSUT’s words, “creating community on the air.”
Keeping public media alive locally and via its funding from the federal government is vital. It's not a blue or red issue. It’s an issue of isolated rural communities' resilience.
Our public media landscape contributes to this significantly. Take the pledge to protect public media, contact our legislators, and support KSUT during its spring fund drive, March 24-28, and KSJD, April 11-18.
Private contributions are important but will not take the place of federal funding.
