The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said Friday that it would shut down next year, effectively ending its half-century role as a backer of NPR, PBS and local radio and TV stations across the United States.
The announcement left Hawaii’s public media landscape reeling.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will continue to support public broadcasters through a transition period that will end in January, said Patricia Harrison, its president and CEO, in a statement.
“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said. “We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been in the crosshairs of Republicans for decades. Conservative policy advocates, legislators and presidents argued persistently that the public shouldn’t be responsible for financing media they perceived as having a liberal bias. But repeated attempts to defund public broadcasters failed, until this year.
The federal rescission bill passed last month slashed $1.1 billion from CPB’s budget, forcing the shutdown of the 57-year-old institution that has been the primary source of federal dollars supporting public broadcasting nationwide.
Nationally, CPB traditionally distributed over $500 million annually to more than 1,500 public radio and television stations — mostly locally owned and independently operated — that serve as critical news outlets and community resources, especially in rural areas with limited alternative funding.
Most CPB staff will be laid off by Sept. 30, with a small team remaining through January 2026 to wind down operations and manage remaining grant obligations.
“CPB shutting down is a big deal,” Meredith Artley, HPR’s president and CEO, said in a statement Friday. “They have been a center of gravity for public media for decades. Prior to the recent rescission vote, we all shared CPB and federal funding in common. We don’t know the immediate impacts today, but those will surely come over time. This adds uncertainty in an already uncertain time.”
Locally, Hawaii Public Radio expects to lose at least $525,000 in CPB funding — about 6% of its annual budget — a figure that could rise with increased programming and infrastructure costs. Smaller neighbor island stations, such as Kauai Community Radio, face similar losses, with many public broadcasters across the state and country bracing for steep revenue shortfalls.
She emphasized that community support has helped cushion the initial blow.
After Congress passed the rescission bill, a two-day “Protect HPR” campaign was held by the radio station to raise public donations to offset the loss of federal funds, which it estimated could total more than $900,000 when factoring in related costs.
“At HPR, we are so grateful to have community support including nearly $500K raised since federal funding was eliminated,” she said.
Public Broadcasting Service Hawaii, which also receives about 20% of its annual revenue from CPB grants, is facing a similar crisis.
Ron Mizutani, president and CEO of PBS Hawaii, described the television station’s funding loss as a “significant turning point” but stressed resolve rather than panic.
Mizutani previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that PBS Hawaii projected 20% of its annual revenue for FY25 would come from CPB funding, which the company received as a grant.
“Thanks to our generous community and careful planning, we’ve built a resilient foundation and we remain committed to serving Hawaii’s keiki, kupuna and families,” he said in a statement on Friday. “PBS Hawaii belongs to the people and with their continued support, it always will. PBS Hawaii is here to stay.”
Recently, PBS Hawaii invested in upgrading its KMEB Maui transmitter — vital for delivering programming and emergency alerts to Maui and Hawaii counties — a project funded through federal investments underscoring public broadcasting’s importance to public safety and emergency readiness.
Mizutani also had noted the station is encouraged by bipartisan recognition of public broadcasting’s value in these areas.
While NPR and PBS have committed to continuing their national programming, the loss of CPB funding removes a unifying federal support system at a time when many stations are still recovering from the pandemic’s economic impacts and adapting to changing listener and viewer habits.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is among the first casualties of the federal rescissions legislation, which puts public radio and TV stations across the United States at risk of going dark. Scores of stations rely on government financing to fund their operations, especially those in rural areas.
That has prompted public media advocates to raise concerns that listeners and viewers in those areas will be without access to news, cultural programming and potentially lifesaving emergency alerts.
PBS, NPR and some of the most popular programs associated with public broadcasting, such as “Sesame Street” and “All Things Considered,” will survive without CPB. NPR and PBS get a relatively small portion of their annual budget from the corporation, and children’s TV programs like “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” are produced independently of those organizations.
Still, the cutbacks could affect the availability of those shows, particularly in pockets of the country without widespread access to broadband internet and mobile data. In some cases, the budgets of the shows also have been reduced; earlier this year, the Department of Education ended a $23 million grant that funded children’s educational programs and games.
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The New York Times contributed to this report.
Source: The Garden Island
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