EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) – The Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations organization will eliminate its statewide team of reporters and editors at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The Indiana General Assembly defunded the organization, which has 17 public radio and television stations across the state, in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis funding rollback directly affects the ability of stations to continue delivering these services at the scale and quality Hoosiers expect and rely on,\u201d Mark Newman, IPBS Executive Director, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
WNIN, the IPBS station located in Evansville, uses the coverage from the statewide reporting team on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
Tim Black, President and CEO of WNIN, is hoping to fill those gaps in their daily content with more local news coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not going to be as vibrant or as full as it was before, but we will certainly be doing our best to try and fill some of those gaps,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n
The IPBS budget cuts were around $3.675 million in annual funding, which amounts to about $446 thousand a year for WNIN.<\/p>\n
Black said he was barely given any notice before the funding got cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happened, as they say, under the cover of darkness and behind closed doors,\u201d Black said. \u201cWas certainly not expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal funding has not been cut yet, although Black said he is worried.<\/p>\n
He is urging community members to contact their representatives.<\/p>\n