EVERETT — Big Bird and Click and Clack are safe for now.
But public television and radio broadcasters who rely on federal funding are voicing concern about the deepest budget cut proposal ever.
President Bush’s budget, released to Congress last week, calls for slashing in half the $400 million budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2009 and deeper cuts after that.
Local broadcasters say the proposed cuts will be watched — still, they aren’t sounding the alarm too loudly.
“For eight years in a row, cuts have been proposed by the president and none of them have taken place,” said Paul Stankavich, general manager of KPLU (88.5 FM) in Seattle, which is heard throughout Western Washington and southwest British Columbia. “Will there be cuts? It’s possible. Will they be that Draconian? It’s highly unlikely.”
About 5 to 6 percent or $300,000 to $360,000 of KPLU’s $6 million annual budget comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit corporation that distributes federal money to public television and radio stations.
Stankavich, who ran a network of 26 radio stations in Alaska, said some smaller rural stations that rely more heavily on federal funding could be forced off the air if Bush’s budget proposal is enacted.
KSER (90.7 FM) in Everett is preparing to ask for a $15,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or CPB for its 2009 budget.
It received $7,500 from the CPB last year and expects $3,750 in 2008. KSER’s total budget this year of $325,000 is funded through a combination of listener support, businesses, station events, grants and rental income from an old transmission tower that it leases to a cellular phone company.
While it does not live or die on federal funding, it does help, said Bruce Wirth, the station’s general manager.
“It doesn’t represent a huge portion of our budget, but it’s a salary,” he said. “It’s the difference between great programming and good programming and we want to do great.”
Richard Kielbowicz, an associate professor in the communications department at the University of Washington, said the proposed cuts from a Republican president are not surprising.
While public broadcasting viewers and listeners reflect a broad range of political beliefs, Kielbowicz said it has frequently been targeted by conservative critics who say it leans to the left.
“This is partly partisan,” said Kielbowicz, who added much of the debate was sparked after deregulation of the broadcasting industry under the Reagan Administration.
“One argument that has carried currency is, the role that NPR and PBS has played has been filled by other media,” said Kielbowicz. With the rise of a diversity of programming from cable and satellite TV and radio and the Internet “this once vaunted role of NPR and PBS is perhaps no longer so central.”
But cuts threaten to take away a source of quality programing that has found bipartisan support with both Republican and Democratic Congresses.
In press releases, Ken Stern, chief executive officer of NPR called the proposal “drastic.”
The CPB’s president and CEO, Patricia Harrison, a former Republican National Committee official, called Bush’s budget “Draconian.”
Seattle’s KCTS, channel 9, which is broadcast across Western Washington, get’s about $2 million from the CPB every year, or just over 10 percent of its $20 million annual budget.
Michal Anderson Jacob, chief financial officer for the PBS affiliate, said the station pays just over $2 million a year for PBS programming.
A significant loss of federal funding would affect the station’s ability to provide local programming and outreach such as its Golden Apple awards for teachers and Reading Rainbow young writers and illustrators contest.
Anderson Jacob said the station hasn’t seen a drop in funding in recent years and credits public broadcasting supporters in and out of Congress for staving off federal budget cuts.
Federal grants have allowed KSVR (91.7 FM), which broadcasts from Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, to buy needed equipment and to beef up its local programming, said Rip Robbins, station general manager.
A $65,000 federal grant that it was recently awarded helps pay the part-time salary of Robin Carneen, a member of the Swinomish tribe, who is the host of “NAMAPAHH 1st People’s Radio,” an American Indian music and public affairs show.
The station has also been able to pay for Spanish-language music, health and legal programming, which reaches a growing Hispanic community that isn’t served by any other radio station in the area.
“A small amount of dollars go a long way,” Robbins said.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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