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The House and Senate have approved the rescission package pushed by the Trump administration. It includes clawing back funds allocated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This negatively impacts San Antonio’s public broadcasters; however, it won’t take local stations off the air.
The rescission package will reclaim $1.1 billion dollars for the CPB, which supports public radio stations like TPR and public television stations across the country like KLRN, San Antonio’s PBS station.
TPR’s President and CEO Ashley Alvarado explains this funding was earmarked for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
“The way that funding for CPB was set up was that there's a two-year advance and that is to protect it from any kind of political challenges it might face,” Alvarado said. “And so right now for us, we're talking about the next two years of funding.”
Arthur Emerson, President and CEO of KLRN-TV said this loss of funding means San Antonio’s PBS station will have to tighten their belts, but they will stay on the air.
“Clearly the dollars that we get from the federal government represents about 18% of our total budget,” Emerson said. “So the glass is still better than half-full. However, 18% of anybody's budget is substantial. Clearly, we would have to make some modifications to how we spend the resources that we have.”
Emerson said KLRN has built up multiple sources of revenue and can carry on, but he’s concerned that some of their community support projects might have to be reduced or eliminated. He offered an example of an event KLRN will be part of this weekend.
“This coming Saturday, we're going to hold a back-to-school event in cooperation with the food bank,” he said. “And we expect 3,000 children getting all of the school supplies they require to enter school later on in the fall.”
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Alvarado said it’s still not totally clear on how the cuts will impact Texas Public Radio and public radio overall. CPB funds public broadcasting services that are behind the scenes.
“So the Corporation for Public Broadcasting negotiates and manages all of the music rights agreements across public media. It's not just classical music, which is [also] critically important,” Alvarado said. “I mean, 96% of classical music that's played is played on public radio, but it's also the music that you hear coming in and out of breaks, that you hear on air. It's the sound beds.”
There are yet other related expenses that might not be so obvious for things that are essential.
“And so what we're talking about, if not only the federal funding goes away, but the music licensing goes away, is a tremendous amount of work to take everything off of our archives or streams, the website, but then also to find new ways to have the licensing to provide that music for folks,” she said.
It’s unclear, but the understanding is music licenses are currently covered through the end of this calendar year. What happens on the first of January? That’s a big unknown, but TPR has to prepare to take on the costs that were once shouldered by CPB – which is why TPR is launching an emergency pledge drive.
“We are looking at how we can turn to community, and we've already had conversations with a number of longstanding donors and foundations so that it's not all on our listeners right now, but we are absolutely going to need to continue the partnership with listeners, with readers, with folks who want to stand with TPR to stay financially strong,” she said.
But Alvarado said other public broadcasters are facing tougher challenges as the CPB dollars go away.
“There are stations in Texas that are more than 30% funded [by CPB] and that's where you have big question marks,” she said. “In a conversation earlier today, one of the things that came up is we're talking about some stations that might go dark within the next several weeks to months.”
Seventy-nine public radio and 33 TV stations in 34 states and territories are “vulnerable” to closing down with the loss of federal funding, according to a “snapshot report” released by Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington. Alvarado said TPR will find a way to carry on and she looks to a former TPR President for inspiration.
She recalled an interview that was part of a memorial video produced in honor of Joyce Slocum who was president and CEO of TPR from 2014 until her death from colon cancer in 2024. Slocum talked about how "you put your head down and you keep working.”
“We are going to keep working, but we're also going to have to find ways to make up not only the direct funding that we've received from the federal government, but all of the indirect services, making sure we have the music, have a satellite connection, that our website works, all those really important things,” she said. “And so we will be working on how we support it.”
