How Will Loss of Federal Funding Impact Local Stations

Congress has rescinded funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which means an annual loss of $264,000 in federal grant funding previously approved for KPCW for both FY2026 and FY2027. Local public media stations, including KPCW, now face significant budget shortfalls.

KPCW must now make up this loss of CPB funding with increased local support.

Click our donate button below or call (435) 649-9004 to make a single donation or become a monthly recurring donor. Sustainer support ensures that KPCW has a reliable source of funding in times of federal and economic uncertainty.

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 nearly 6 decades, longer than KPCW has been on air, public media has enjoyed strong bipartisan support. The decision to rescind federal funding for public media is a devastating blow to the network of radio and television stations that serve our nation without profits driving their agendas. Americans have come to trust the news public media delivers and learn from the inspiring human-interest stories that educate and most importantly connect communities. I grew up on public radio. During my childhood, my family moved frequently, and every time we settled into a new town my mother found the local public radio station low on the dial to learn about the community and ways we could engage locally. KPCW provides that welcoming introduction and instant connection for new residents of the Wasatch Back. We also inform everyone working or recreating in Summit and Wasatch counties about issues impacting them every day, every week, every season. Our news, information and music are vital to a healthy, connected and educated community.

I respect efforts by our lawmakers to eliminate inefficiencies within the federal government, but as the Wall Street Journal has reported, this $1.1B savings translates to just about 1/10 of 1% of the $7 trillion federal budget and will ultimately come at a greater expense to the American taxpayer who relies on public media for educational programming, informed news and stories of unsung heroes in our communities.

I have said it before and will say it again – KPCW is not going anywhere but we now have a significant funding gap. We will work hard to identify new revenue streams, find additional efficiencies in our already lean budget and engage with our state and regional government officials to determine how they can fill the void left by this elimination of federal funding. KPCW has been here for 45 years and will continue to report fact-based, unbiased news, produce original educational programs and broadcast carefully curated and intentionally eclectic music. We will also continue our mission of supporting and elevating the impactful work of the hundreds of nonprofits that operate in Summit and Wasatch counties. But I will be honest, our offerings may look different. We will have to rethink the local programs we produce, the stories we cover and our outreach in the community if we are not able to make up the difference.

I thank those of you who reached out to our lawmakers during this long rescission process expressing your appreciation for public media and KPCW. While this moment is a significant setback, we are fortunate that this community values the services KPCW provides locally. Thank you for doing what you can to keep KPCW healthy and thriving well into the future by making a donation today.”

THANK YOU FOR YOUR OUTREACH

Thank you to everyone who reached out to lawmakers to voice their support for the local news, community connection, and vital public services that stations like KPCW provide. Both the House and Senate only narrowly approved the rescissions package, in close votes that reflected bipartisan concerns about how proposed cuts would impact local radio and TV stations around the country.

Learn More: Visit Protect My Public Media and American Coalition for Public Radio to learn more about how this loss of federal funding will impact stations like KPCW.

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 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.

Congress' elimination of CPB funding comes the same week a new national survey found that a majority of Americans OPPOSE eliminating federal funding for public media. According to the poll conducted by Peak Insights, U.S. voters more widely trust public media compared with media in general when it comes to reporting the news “fully, accurately and fairly” – only 35 percent of voters trust media in general, but 53 percent of voters trust public media networks and local stations. As it relates to stations like KPCW, the survey finds that voters highly value public media’s core services and programming such as emergency alerts (82 percent), local programming (66 percent) and national news reporting (60 percent).

WHAT IS THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND HOW DID CPB SUPPORT LOCAL STATIONS LIKE KPCW

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 previously received $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 taxpayer each year.
KPCW, along with with more than 1,500 local, independent public media stations nationwide, form the backbone of America’s public media ecosystem to deliver trusted news, educational programming and emergency information to communities across the nation. Specifically, 1,216 public radio stations and 365 public television stations nationwide received annual CPB grants. Of these, 245 stations are considered rural, including KPCW.

CPB funded 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 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.

CPB also negotiated music licensing rights on behalf of noncommercial radio stations because it is 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 like KPCW. Without CPB’s management of music rights, it remains unclear how public radio stations will be able to play music of any genre.
CPB was 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 were 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

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