President Donald Trump doesn’t like public media. He has called it biased, wasteful and repeatedly advocated for a stop to federal dollars reaching NPR and PBS.
Ten days ago, he moved to enact that wish, through an executive order legal experts have called dubious and illegal. It is just the latest salvo in the White House’s concerted effort to cripple independent news and entertainment organizations. NPR called the move “an affront to the First Amendment.”
“Absolutely, it’s under siege,” said Arthur Emerson, president and CEO of KLRN, San Antonio’s PBS station. “We need to consider this as a challenge to our way of life for public radio and public television.”
The order came just a few days after Trump attempted to fire executives of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), another move experts called illegal, since the corporation is an independent nonprofit — not a part of the government.
Before that, Trump’s allies in the Federal Communications Commission launched an investigation into how stations comply with guidelines on paid, non-commercial messages of support.
All that came soon after the tense and combative attacks from Republican members of Congress in the DOGE subcommittee.
“It's the highest stakes, least fun game of whack-a-mole that I've ever experienced,” said Ashley Alvarado, president and CEO of Texas Public Radio, of the current landscape of challenges facing public media.
There are many unknowns about what comes next regarding the executive order. NPR CEO and President Katherine Maher has vowed to fight it and to defend the broadcasters’ right to “provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American Public.”
She said the administration’s action jeopardizes NPR’s ability to provide its hourly newscast and shows like “Morning Edition” — which is heard by 14 million people nationwide each morning.
If the executive order were to succeed, it would bar TPR from purchasing programming or services from NPR.
There are some things local public media knows about what has to happen for the $1.1 billion already appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to be taken away from public radio— and what the fallout could be.
Rescission is the act of clawing back money already approved. In this case, hundreds of millions of dollars are sitting in the U.S. Treasury, budgeted for CPB.
Now, congressional Republicans are pushing to vote on a package from the Trump administration to claw back that $1.1 billion. It would require a vote within 45 days of the president sending it, with a simple majority in both houses to succeed. When that countdown begins is unclear.
TPR receives between 5-7% of its budget in direct CPB funds depending on the year. That’s about $355,000 a year. KLRN — San Antonio’s PBS affiliate—receives between 17-20%, according to Emerson.
However, CPB does provide several areas of indirect funding for stations, negotiating the music licensing fees for member stations, as well as funding infrastructure and maintenance of the backend of most public radio station’s websites. The additional items, Alvarado estimates, place the cost at closer to $630,000 a year or roughly 10%.
There are also serious implications for the network as a whole. NPR commissioned a study in 2011 that estimated CPB’s dissolution would result in about 200 stations — largely in rural parts of the country — shutting down. These stations rely far more heavily on federal dollars.
If NPR sees 20% of its customers close down, and stop buying programming, what does that mean for what it charges the remaining stations and, if rates rise, what pressure does that put on the bottom lines?
“It’s not clear to me,” Alvarado said. “I don’t know that anybody has that clarity.”
For KLRN, the budget hit is more sizable, and uncertain. Emerson said he believes the broadcaster will continue but it isn’t immediately clear how they will pay for the programming federal money offset. KLRN estimates more than 64,000 children and families used their broadcast educational services.
“It's important to note … that once [those federal dollars are] gone, that $1.60 per year, per citizen— it's gone forever,” Emerson said. “It'll be very difficult, nearly impossible, to reclaim that.”
Both leaders said sustaining the current level of service San Antonio has come to rely on would be the goal, but it won’t be easy. Additional fundraising efforts to members and additional asks to large institutional donors are likely. Relying on additional support from businesses who purchase underwriting, or non-commercial messages, is tricky because the FCC is currently investigating station practices across the country. If anything, that may be the larger threat to many station’s budgets.
Editor's note: This story was not reviewed by any executives from Texas Public Radio prior to publication. It was edited by Yvette Benavides.
