How federal funding supports public media and why it's so essential

What is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and how does it support KPCW?

Photo of KPCW microphone and audio board.

On Thursday, May 1, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order to prohibit the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from using previously appropriated funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). The order applies to direct and indirect spending by affiliate stations to carry NPR and PBS programming.

It is not clear that the president has the authority to make such orders to CPB under the law because CPB is not a federal executive agency.

"Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government," said Patricia Harrison, CPB President and CEO. "In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors' [47 U.S.C. § 398(c)].”

In addition to the May 1 executive order, other White House actions include:

Circulating a federal budget request for Fiscal Year 2026 that eliminates all future funding for CPB, which would impact more than 1,500 public media stations across the country, including KPCW.
Developing a rescission memo asking Congress to revoke already-approved funds for public media programming, including grant funding that KPCW is scheduled to receive.

Should Congress agree to rescission and elimination of future funding for CPB, it would reverse decades of bipartisan support for federal investment in public journalism and educational programming on which millions of Americans rely.

On behalf of the staff at KPCW and the community this public radio station serves, KPCW President and General Manager Juliana Allely has issued the following statement:

KPCW President and General Manager Juliana Allely issued the following statement:

“For more than 40 years, KCPW has served the Wasatch Back with music, news and original programing that keeps our communities connected to each other and to the world. These planned actions of the Trump administration to rescind previously-appropriated CPB funding, signals a significant escalation in efforts to permanently defund public media. This is a credible threat to our work, jeopardizing essential services that inform and unite all Americans.

Stations like KPCW are trusted factual sources of local reporting, civil discourse and community engagement. Our newsroom delivers daily news about the issues affecting everyone who lives, works and visits the Wasatch Back and covers state and national issues while providing local context.

KPCW is not owned or operated by any outside entity. We are a community station, and we are able to remain steadfast in our mission thanks to public support. Noncommercial, independent journalism is crucial to a civically – and civilly – engaged community and efforts to eliminate funding for public media are deeply concerning.

At this time, we encourage listeners to help safeguard the journalism and services Summit and Wasatch counties depend on. KPCW is still here, still broadcasting and more dedicated than ever to our mission of public service. But we truly need sustained local support.

No matter what happens in Washington, D.C., KPCW’s mission remains unwavering: to inform, engage and connect every member of our community.”

Ways to support KPCW:

Donate: Visit www.kpcw.org/donate or call (435) 649-9004 to make a one-time donation or become a monthly sustaining donor. Sustainer support ensures that KPCW has a reliable source of funding in times of federal and economic uncertainty.

Take Action: If you are concerned about efforts to eliminate federal funding for public media, you can contact Congress. Visit www.protectmypublicmedia.org to send an email to your congressional representatives and access more resources.

What is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting?

Congress established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation responsible for stewarding the federal government’s investment in non-commercial programming, telecommunications services and emergency alerts for more than 99% of Americans.

CPB currently receives $535 million annually in federal appropriations – an amount less than 0.01% of the $6.9 trillion federal budget or about $1.60 per American tax payer each year.

CPB does not produce content and is independent of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR), which produce programming that local stations, including KPCW, pay a licensing fee to broadcast.

A primary goal of CPB is to promote an educated, informed and inclusive civil society by ensuring efficient distribution of local, regional, national and international fact-based news and educational programming.

CPB is committed to supporting fact-based journalism that includes a wide variety of ideological viewpoints, and CPB encourages transparency and inclusiveness in local, regional, and national public media newsrooms.

CPB is the largest single source of funding for public media in the country, and funds are distributed directly to public media stations as annual grants. Recipient stations are able to leverage each $1 of federal funding to raise nearly $7 from other sources, including local donors, private businesses and philanthropic foundations. This return on investment makes CPB funding one of the most effective public-private partnerships in the country, serving critical public needs with bipartisan support for nearly sixty years.

flow chart of how Public Media Funding Works

KPCW, along with with more than 1,500 local, independent public media stations nationwide, form the backbone of America’s public information ecosystem to deliver trusted news, educational programming and emergency information to communities across the nation.

1,216 public radio stations and 365 public television stations nationwide receive annual CPB funding. Of these, 245 stations are considered rural, including KPCW.

For a list of frequently asked questions about CPB, click here.

How does CPB support local stations like KPCW?

As a locally-owned and operated nonprofit, KPCW receives an annual Radio Community Service Grant (CSG) from CPB, which accounts for roughly 12-15% of its annual operating budget. KPCW uses this funding for daily operations and to pay for programming like NPR headline news, NPR's "Morning Edition" and American Public Media (APM) programs such as Marketplace, and BBC world news.

CPB funds infrastructure that delivers emergency alerts to local stations, which are then responsible for delivering time-sensitive content to their audiences and public safety partners. Examples include critical alerts for weather warnings, wildfires, avalanches, floods and other public safety messages that public media stations like KPCW disseminate in real time.

CPB also negotiates music licensing rights on behalf of noncommercial radio stations. It would be cost-prohibitive and burdensome for individual stations to negotiate the same music licenses and fees on their own. CPB’s role in securing music licenses is truly an existential matter for noncommercial public radio music stations. Without federal funding for CPB and CPB’s management of these music rights, public radio stations like KPCW would not be able to play any music on the radio of any genre, or stream music on the internet, in turn deeply impacting local artists, musicians, venues and audiences.

KPCW employs a newsroom of 10 reporters and producers, plus other production staff, who work tirelessly to report on issues that directly impact residents and visitors to the Wasatch Back. KPCW conducts daily live radio interviews with city and county elected officials and municipal staff; delivers breaking news and emergency alerts; provides public service announcements for local nonprofit organizations serving our community; showcases local musicians and music spanning genres; and offers services that aren’t found anywhere else, like the hourly “Lost and Found” report.

Beyond KPCW's annual CSG grant from CPB, our station's sources of funding include annual underwriting revenue, local government and philanthropic grants and individual donor support — which is the most significant and reliable form of funding. Should federal funding be eliminated entirely, KPCW would need to make up the loss of more than $260,000 annually through additional philanthropic and direct donor support.

CPB’s federal funding also covers station costs of national programming, music licensing fees and broadcast, satellite and digital distribution services which total another $78,000 in KPCW’s case.