While there have been calls to end federal funding for Public Broadcasting in this country over the decades since the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, setting the stage for the creation of NPR and PBS, those efforts never came to fruition, until now.
In July, Republican members of both houses of Congress voted to rescind about $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — along with nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs. The CPB distributed those funds to local member stations — both PBS and NPR — and so that funding that stations have relied upon disappeared. Stations in Florida also lost state funding when Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed funding for Public Broadcasting in the 2025-2026 budget.
Here at WGCU those cuts amount to 2.2 million dollars — representing about 18% of the annual budget. To get a sense of how these cuts could impact operations at the station we sit down with WGCU General Manager, Corey Lewis.
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