{"id":74378,"date":"2025-07-19T03:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74378\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T03:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:39:10","slug":"its-just-gone-gop-funding-cuts-for-public-media-pose-existential-threat-to-keet-tv-stations-gm-says-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74378\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s Just Gone’: GOP Funding Cuts for Public Media Pose Existential Threat to KEET-TV, Station’s GM Says | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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KEET-TV\u2019s studio is located at the top of Humboldt Hill. | Photo by Andrew Goff.<\/p>\n

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KEET-TV is in serious trouble, as are many other PBS member stations across the country, especially those in tribal and rural communities<\/a>, following last night\u2019s Congressional approval<\/a> of a White House request to strip $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just gone,\u201d KEET General Manager David Gordon said in a phone interview this morning. CPB funds represent about 45 percent of the station\u2019s operating budget, and those funds typically get distributed twice per year \u2014 the first round arriving in April and the second coming in late October or early November. Not this year, though. And likely never again. \u201cIt\u2019s just gone,\u201d he repeated. \u201cIt\u2019s not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A side note: KEET-TV has been off the air for the past week and a half or so due to equipment issues, which staff are working to repair.<\/p>\n

Gordon said he hopes to get a better understanding of how these drastic funding cuts will impact KEET next Wednesday when he meets with other PBS station managers. They\u2019re hoping to hear from executives of the 56-year-old public broadcaster about the network\u2019s plans moving forward, including its expectations for membership dues from local stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KEET received $862,900 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Fiscal Year 2024<\/a>, the most recent data available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless of the details, though, with nearly half of KEET\u2019s funding now eliminated, Gordon expects the impacts to permeate throughout the station\u2019s operations, possibly even jeopardizing its existence in any recognizable form.<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom line: if the dues structure is to stay the same \u2026 it\u2019s doubtful that there will be much if any PBS programming on our air,\u201d Gordon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How much of the station\u2019s current programming comes from PBS? <\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all of it,\u201d he replied. That includes landmark children\u2019s programming such as \u201cSesame Street\u201d as well as news, educational and entertainment shows such as \u201cPBS NewsHour,\u201d \u201cFrontline,\u201d \u201cNOVA,\u201d \u201cAntiques Roadshow\u201d and \u201cAmerican Experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some local programs<\/a> we do,\u00a0and we do have some programs from other sources. But it\u2019s a small portion of our weekly and yearly schedule,\u201d Gordon said. The station\u2019s PBS-sourced programming spans across several channels, including KEET Kids, a Create channel, a World channel and FNX \u2014 First Nations Experience, which is devoted exclusively to Native American and World Indigenous content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interview with the <\/a>Washington Post<\/a> earlier this week, PBS President Paula Kerger said she expects rural stations to get hit the hardest by the elimination of funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[I]t\u2019s hard for me to imagine that there\u2019s a long-term path there,\u201d Kerger said. While PBS will survive in some form, she expects this move by Congress and the White House to simply eliminate a lot of PBS stations across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you lose a local newspaper in a small community, someone can come in at another point and start up another local newspaper,\u201d Kerger said. \u201cBut once broadcast licenses are gone, they\u2019re gone. I can imagine they would be auctioned off for whatever purpose and you won\u2019t have a local [PBS] television station again in a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon said KEET could well be one of the stations lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there absolutely is an existential threat, because although there are alternative programing sources [from which] we could potentially put a non-commercial education schedule together and air it, it\u2019s not going to be PBS,\u201d he said. A financial cut this deep will impact not only programming but also day-to-day operations. Expenses include payroll for the station\u2019s seven employees and bills necessary to keep the transmitters running and the power on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gordon reiterated that he needs to consult with PBS executives and other station managers to get a better idea of what\u2019s next, but he thinks those with the most at stake in the community are the local kids who have no other options for quality early education programs, shows that help teach children how to read and write, practice good manners \u2014 \u201call these things that PBS programming has taught generations of kids,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest impact. It would not be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funding cuts will also impact public radio stations. The Outpost\u00a0left voicemails and sent emails seeking comment from both KMUD and KHSU but did not hear back before publication time. Nearly 25 percent of KMUD\u2019s operating budget comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the station\u2019s manager told reporter Daniel Mintz<\/a> earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KHSU is currently managed by CSU Sacramento NPR affiliate CapRadio, though operations are scheduled to return to Cal Poly Humboldt<\/a> by the end of this year. A spokesperson for the university directed questions about the impact of funding cuts on KHSU to CapRadio\u2019s chief marketing and revenue officer, who has not yet responded to an emailed list of questions.<\/p>\n

[UPDATE, 3:13 p.m.:<\/b> That executive, Chris Bruno, tells the Outpost via phone that the CPB funding cuts will not have a direct impact on KHSU. The station, under CapRadio\u2019s management, has been operating independent of CPB funding for the past two fiscal years. While the station runs programming from National Public Radio, the bulk of funding for NPR comes from business and corporate sponsors, Bruno said.]<\/p>\n

Earlier today, Gordon posted the following statement on KEET-TV\u2019s Facebook page earlier today:<\/p>\n

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Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing to you today not just as KEET\u2019s Executive Director, but as your neighbor on the Redwood Coast.<\/p>\n

Congress has now passed a bill eliminating all federal funding for public broadcasting\u2014threatening the foundation on which stations like KEET depend. At this moment, we are in urgent discussions with PBS and our national partners, working to understand whether they will help us continue to bring vital content to our community. Until we know more, we cannot say exactly what programming will be affected.<\/p>\n

What we do know is this:<\/p>\n

We will be forced to make painful cuts to both staff and programming in the days ahead. These decisions are heartbreaking, but our goal is to do everything possible to keep KEET serving the Redwood Coast.
Your support\u2014now and in the future\u2014will make all the difference as we fight for the station\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n

We promise to keep you informed as the picture becomes clearer. In the meantime, please know how deeply grateful we are for your belief in local public media.<\/p>\n

With resolve and appreciation,<\/p>\n

David Gordon
Executive Director<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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KEET\u2019s studio antenna reaches into Humboldt\u2019s coastal fog. | Photo by Andrew Goff.<\/p>\n

NOTE: This story has been updated to include a response from Chris Bruno and to add financial information about CPB grants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KEET-TV\u2019s studio is located at the top of Humboldt Hill. | Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-74378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114877822577920093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}