On June 12, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to rescind funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. KNKX receives more than $600,000 a year from the CPB. In this conversation, KNKX General Manager David Fisher and All Things Considered host Emil Moffatt talk about what the possible implications are for public media and for KNKX.
Note: This transcript is provided for reference only and may contain typos. Please confirm accuracy before quoting.
All Things Considered host Emil Moffatt: David, thanks for joining us.
KNKX General Manager David Fischer: Thanks for having me.
Moffatt: So first, for people who might not know this, how is funding from the corporation of public broadcasting delivered to stations?
Fischer: Well for more than 50 years, according to a congressional law that was passed in 1967 under the Johnson administration, the Congress would pre-fund two years worth of need for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And so the future two years is what has just been rescinded. So that would have been starting in October of this year, and then another set of funding for October of next year, that's what's been taken back.
And it's not just to KNKX, obviously, but to about 1500 public media stations, both television and radio across the country. Very little of it goes directly to NPR or PBS. They receive their funding through a sort of subscription model that each affiliate has.
Moffatt: So for folks who are listening on the radio and those who are streaming us through a website or an app, they might want to know how this rescission of this funding could affect the news and music programs they rely on.
Fischer: Well, it is a very painful action, one because it leaves us no time particularly to figure out how to stay whole in our current budget year. So automatically, we have $0 from the federal government if this rescission process continues. And so, that's going to be a challenge. That's a challenge for programming of both news and music, a challenge for staffing. And we run a lean budget as it is, so we've got to take this shortfall seriously and keep ourselves in balance fiscally. so it's going to be hard.
Moffatt: With the absence of federal funding for KNKX, could the station make that up with more revenue from advertising, like you might hear on a commercial station?
Fischer: No. Primarily because the Federal Communications Commission and the law that put forward the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and all of us working under that umbrella, stipulates that we are not to operate in the same manner as a commercial broadcaster. And therefore, while we do receive some business support, it is minimal, and it has very tight constraints on how we can engage businesses. In other words, we can't say, ‘Hey, there's a sale going on at this store. Go there now and save this much money, and here's the price.’ We can't do anything like that. What we can do is acknowledge that we're receiving support from a business, and people ought to be aware of what they do and perhaps visit their website, but that's about it.
Moffatt: No superlatives.
Fischer: No superlatives.
Moffatt: And so what are the next steps for Congress?
Fischer: Well, from the house now, it will go to the Senate. And this process of impoundment or rescission, the same idea initiated from the White House. And, because this is not a part of a standard appropriations process, it means that each house only has to get to 50% of their membership plus one vote. And so it makes it easier for these actions to pass, and the next step will be in the Senate. We hope that we're going to hear from our listeners, and that our listeners will communicate with senators across the country and ask them to vote no on this rescission. If it doesn't pass in the Senate, then it's dead. It has to pass in both houses, and there's no reconciliation after the fact. So it has 45 days from the time the President made his demand. So that will be 11:59 PM, on July 18, when the Senate will take their vote, or before.
Moffatt: KNKX General Manager David Fischer, thanks for joining us.
Fischer: Thank you.
