BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — The U.S. Senate pulled the plug on public broadcasting funding that could devastate stations across the country and right here in Western New York.
On Thursday morning, lawmakers voted to slash $9 billion in federal spending. The cuts, requested by President Trump, include deep reductions of $1.1 billion to PBS and NPR.
Public radio and television serve as a resource for education, community engagement, diversity, and emergency preparedness.
I met with the leader of Buffalo Toronto Public Media (BTPM), who is pledging to push through this challenge.
“The loss of the federal funding is enormous, and it isn't a quick fix, like, let's do a pledge drive and we'll get it all back,” Tom Calderone, president & CEO, Buffalo Toronto Public Media, said.
WATCH: 'It isn't a quick fix': Buffalo Toronto Public Media braces for loss of $2M in funding
BTPM is bracing for the loss of about $2 million that supports its public television and radio programs.
"There's no light switch to get that $2 million back, so it is going to take a lot of effort, but also we're feeling the pain as much as every nonprofit in this region. It's not just us,” Calderone explained.
Calderone
told me the $2 million it receives from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting makes up about 15 percent of his total budget for radio and TV.
“Honestly, Eileen, we've been ready for this since January," Calderone said. "We've been prepping for this since January, so if it didn't pass, or it went in our favor, we'd be okay. I will tell you that the majority of our efforts have been around mobilizing our members and our viewers and our listeners to not only make phone calls and do lawn signs and things like that, but to talk about why we're so important to the community."
You might not realize just how much BTPM provides to our community, from kids' programming to radio shows from NPR to classical music.
"It's easy to say we love Ken Burns and Big Bird and Morning Edition, but it's really for the local content that we do, Shakespeare in the Park – the disabilities beat,” described Calderone. “From the children's programming all day long and our PBS kids channel all the way to a thing that we call do, call the ‘Senior Prom’, where we bring people, 65 plus to come in so they don't feel isolated and listen to a band, but also other community nonprofits that actually can help them. We connect those dots.”
For decades, public TV and radio have provided a connection for the community, making sure there is equal access, providing educational tools, community engagement and safety warnings. The cuts to public broadcasting are a victory for President Trump, who claims PBS and NPR “bias”.
“During the Senate vote last night, there was an earthquake in Alaska and a tsunami warning; the only reason why people knew about it is because of the WARN system that public media use," Calderone said. "It happened in real time, and they still voted against it. But what makes me sad is that in the next couple of months, the country could lose a lot of radio stations very quickly that are the ones that put out those emergency warning systems.”
Calderone told me he held a meeting with his entire staff on Thursday about how they will deal with these potential cuts.
“What I said to my team is — 'worry about the audience,'" he said. "Put the audience first and make sure you're doing the best job for your audience at all times, because the lights are so on here, we're still going to work here. It's going to take time, but the entire team here has signed up for that, and they're going to figure it out together, and there's a little bit of skip in everybody's step at this point, believe it or not.”
The public broadcast leader is promising you they'll work to keep their community engagement and programs in place.
“We are not going to stop doing what we're doing,” Calderone said.
