Fund NPR and PBS
You probably still know the theme song by heart. Maybe it’s the cheerful Sesame Street tune, maybe it’s Mister Rogers’ quiet welcome. Public media taught a generation about friendship, kindness and empathy before they could read. But it was never just children’s television. It’s All Things Considered, Fresh Air, Tiny Desk concerts, Masterpiece, and the local station that warns you when a storm is coming. It’s free, and it belongs to everyone. The federal money is gone. Local stations are holding on through donations and determination. Whether the next generation grows up with it is up to us.
Why does it matter?
Your local public station is not a luxury. It tells you when a storm is coming. It helps your child learn to read. It covers the city council meeting nobody else attends.
For nearly six decades, one small agency made that possible. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was an important financial support system behind public television and public radio. It was created in 1967 by Lyndon B. Johnson as a private, nonprofit corporation that distributed federal funding to local public tv and radio stations. Its job was simple: make sure every American, in every kind of community, could get free, non-commercial news and education.
Resources:
Why CPB Funding is Critical to Stations -protectmypublicmedia.org
Corporation for Public Broadcasting shutting down - Politico
How have things changed since May of 2025?
May 1, 2025. President Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to stop funding NPR and PBS, saying their coverage was biased.
July 24, 2025. Congress took back $1.1 billion already promised to public media for 2026 and 2027. The vote was 51–48 in the Senate and 216–213 in the House.
January 5, 2026. With no money left, CPB announced it was dissolving after 58 years.
March 31, 2026. A federal judge ruled the executive order unconstitutional, calling it viewpoint discrimination. It's a real win for the First Amendment. It did not bring the money back. [6]
More than 550 people at public media stations have lost their jobs. PBS Kids laid off a third of its staff after a federal grant was cancelled. Stations have dropped local shows, cut newscasts and, in some cases, left national networks to save on fees.
Donations poured in, and that kept most stations on the air. However, experts at the Public Media Bridge Fund warned that as many as 115 stations were at risk of collapse. Rural and tribal stations, which depend most on federal money, face the greatest danger.
What’s lost?
Fewer independently produced documentaries
Less children’s educational programming
Fewer local investigative journalism and public-affairs programs
Less regional news and free educational programming
Less locally produced emergency and public-service information
Resources:
Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media -whitehouse.gov
Trump signs law yanking $9 billion from NPR, PBS, foreign Aid - News from the States
Corporation for Public Broadcasting is officially shutting down months after GOP cuts - NBC News
Federal judge strikes down Trump order eliminating NPR and PBS funds - Politico
It’s been a year since Congress cut off federal funding for public media. How are things going? - Nieman Lab
Public broadcasting found a lifeline after defunding. How long will it last? - Poynter.
How can you take action in Ohio?
NPR and PBS are not the same as our local stations. Supporting both the national organizations and the local stations help sustain different parts of the public media system. Don’t just watch public media disappear. Here are specific ways you can help save NPR, PBS and our local stations in Ohio:
Contact your U.S. senators and your representative. Ask them to support restoring federal funding for local public television and public radio stations.
Learn more about the state of Ohio’s support for public media. Ohio’s Broadcast Educational Media Commission (BEMC) distributes state assistance to public television and radio services.
Make a monthly donation to your local station. Even $5 or 10 a month provides support:
Consider giving a donation to a smaller station in a rural or underserved community. For example, WOUB in Athens reported to have lost $1.5 million in annual federal funding.
Share public media programming, whether that is PBS documentaries or NPR investigative reporting on your social media channels.
Attend town halls and ask elected officials about public media.
Encourage local businesses to sponsor public broadcasting.
Resources:
Local public media prepare for a frugal future - The Monitor
Columbus NPR stations brace for federal funding cuts - Axios
Ideastream, PBS Western Reserve to Merge Amid Public Media Budget Funding Cuts - The Oberlin Review
WOUB faces federal funding cuts, loss of $1.7 Million - The Post
Stay tuned in… WBGU-TV saved from pulling the plug by arrangement with WGTE Public Media - BG Independent News
Public Broadcasting May be Defunded, but It’s Not Defeated - Cincinnati Magazine
As federal cuts finalized, state lawmakers in Ohio also gave cuts to public broadcasting -ohiocapitaljournal.com
What’s happening in Ohio?
Ohio's stations got $13.3 million from CPB in 2024. That money is gone. And Ohio lawmakers trimmed state support in the same budget.
WOSU (Columbus) lost about $2 million, or 13% of its budget.
Ideastream (Cleveland) lost about $2.7 million from a $4 million budget
WOUB (Athens) lost about $1.7 million, roughly 30% of its budget, and laid off staff.
WBGU (Bowling Green) lost more than 40% of its funding and announced it would drop PBS. It later reached a deal with Toledo's WGTE to keep PBS programming on the air.
Southwest Ohio's CET and ThinkTV lost roughly 20% of their budget.
This means that Ohioans are at risk of losing children’s programming, local journalism, rural coverage, emergency information, arts and culture (local productions, music, documentaries and regional history) and accessibility for people with disabilities.