Official: Effects of defunding PBS won't be immediate

It’s that time again.

A recent election battle followed up by a budget fight.

The inevitable topic of public broadcasting has hit headlines, and the conflict returns between those who embrace PBS as a necessity and those who think it’s useless, damaging and too expensive to tolerate.

How much does public broadcasting cost? What are the chances that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — the corporate umbrella for PBS and NPR — will lose its funding? What happens if CPB goes away?

These are all questions being asked by local public broadcasting officials.

First of all, CPB funding in recent years has run about $445 million, which includes PBS and NPR (National Public Radio), according to PBS President Paula Kruger, who said that PBS has about 350 stations and costs each citizen $1.35 per year.

Duane Ryan, director of the public radio and PBS Broadcast Center at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, said that per capita, taxpayer cost is $1.25 per capita annually. Ryan said he has been in charge of the PBS and NPR affiliate KENW since it started around 50 years ago. The center serves all of eastern New Mexico and West Texas.

Ryan said the fears of immediately losing CPB funding because of what U.S. President Donald Trump proposes for the federal budget are unrealistic.

First, Congress would have to approve defunding. The president cannot do this by decree or executive order.

Second, if Congress defunds CPB, it will not take effect for two years. This is how Congress tries to prevent or minimize political influence on the process. Budgets for CPB are approved/disapproved two years in advance.

If CPB does totally lose its federal funding, it will affect small and rural stations much more than the larger, urban stations, Ryan said. Stations in bigger cities like WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, have much higher private funding than operations like KENW.

Alternate funding from private grants and underwriting are far more successful in larger markets. Underwriting is mentioning businesses and individuals that sponsor certain programs through private grants. PBS stations are forbidden by federal law to convert to regular commercials.

Increasing the number of pledge drives would produce practically nothing but annoyed viewers, Ryan said.

Whatever position anybody has, nothing will happen instantly, according to Ryan. Maybe some wise person will find a reasonable or common sense solution to the standoff, he said. Meanwhile, panic won’t help. Today is probably not all that much different from tomorrow.