In the decades since the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 became law, public media have weathered threats to their funding.
But none have been as serious as President Donald Trump’s request last week that Congress rescind more than $1 billion of already-approved federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS CEO Paula Kerger said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.
The impact, especially on rural member stations, would be “devastating,” Kerger said.
Federal funding for local PBS member stations can cover up to 40% of those stations’ operational costs, Kerger said. In Utah, that number is closer to 17%, according to a 2024 financial report.
Most of those funds help pay for local programming, said Maria O’Mara, executive director for PBS Utah, KUER and Avanza 88.3.
“By far, our biggest expenditure every year is our investment in local programing,” O’Mara said. “So it’s hard not to think that there wouldn’t be some impact to local programming, because it’s such a big part of our budget.”
Utah Public Radio stands to lose $200,000 – roughly 15% of its annual budget — if the cuts are approved. KUER, Utah’s NPR affiliate station, would lose $500,000 a year, or roughly 8% of its operating budget.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox speaks to media during a monthly news conference in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023.
Generations of kids and adults grew up with public media, Kreger said. PBS produces beloved kids shows like “Sesame Street” and “Arthur.” Public media member stations like PBS Utah and KUER produce hyper-local programming like “The Hinckley Report”, This is Utah and “Utah Insight.” PBS Utah also hosts the governor’s monthly news conference.
“[PBS Utah] does a really great job covering the state,” Kerger said.
In rural communities, affiliate stations also provide some of the only access to emergency alerts and free, accessible news updates.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, PBS Utah and KUER hosted and broadcast a live town hall with public health officials that reached thousands of Utahns and included reporters from multiple outlets — not just public media.
“Everyone put their competitive instincts to the side for a moment.” O’Mara said. “We’re happy to privde that collective feed when it’s smarter for us to work together. I think we’re a really important part of the journalism ecosystem in Utah.”
Federal funding also helps support an emergency alert infrastructure. PBS Warn can broadcast alerts to local member stations and push alerts directly to peoples’ phones through its broadcast channels, said PBS Utah Station Manager James Davie.
“There’s not a great understanding,” Kerger said, “of what this money represents and enables.”
(Anna Rose Layden | The New York Times) Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) questions witnesses in front of an image of Elmo during a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on Delivering Government Efficiency on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. The leaders of the biggest public media networks in the United States defended their programming in a hearing on funding for public media, but NPR’s chief executive said the organization’s leadership acknowledged mistakes in its coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
What Trump asked Congress to do last week, Kerger said, presents an unprecedented threat to public media funding. In the past, attempts to cut federal funds to public media have gone through a “normal” budget process — station executives had the chance to present their budget to Congress, face “tough” questions, make their case. They were also defending future funding.
Trump’s most recent request would rescind two years of already-approved federal funding. It’s money Congress has already appropriated, and member stations have already budgeted. To lose it, Kerger said, would be a total rug pull. The threat is “existential.”
“We would have to very quickly figure out how we could close those gaps. And we’d have to make very hard decisions,” Kerger said.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
