Public broadcasting took a big hit with the loss of federal funds and in some states even their state support is shrinking. My own view is that NPR and PBS earned all this by dismissing well documented charges of liberal bias that went on for decades.
But these stations are still left with substantial resources — not the least of which are their broadcast licenses (wait until Trump gets around to trying to pull those). Then there’s their studios and their donor lists. In addition, even with deep cuts, most stations still have about 75% of their original funding. Rather than folding up their tents they should see the glass as more than three-quarters full and work from there.
That’s the case with my own feisty little station up in the North Woods. WXPR, which got 25% of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is fighting hard to survive. I’ve upped my own monthly contributions to the station and I’ll do more if necessary. It’ll be tough, but I have little doubt that, with the right attitude, they will make it though.
But then there are the whiners. Case in point is WPSU in Pennsylvania, which may be the first station to go dark after the federal cuts. WPSU has a $7 million annual budget. With the loss of federal funds and a 20% cut from Penn State, it’s budget will fall to about $5 million. A big hit for sure.
But let’s look at it differently. What if you were starting a radio and TV station and somebody said that you’d be spotted $5 million right off the bat? In addition, you’ll be given free studios and a built-in listenership and donor base. Most importantly, your real estate on the radio dial is already secured. You’d probably say that was a pretty good start and you’d make it work.
Instead the station’s leadership wants to wallow in its victimhood — a far too common luxury enjoyed by the hard-left — and just shutter the whole operation. The Penn State regents even turned down a good offer from WHYY in Philadelphia to fold the station into their network in part because they refused WHYY’s perfectly reasonable condition to not guarantee jobs to the existing staff.
When I worked for State Rep. Spencer Black back in the 1990’s we lost the majority and with it Spencer’s committee chairmanship. He sat us down and told us we had to look at things differently. He said most nonprofits would kill to have the budget of a single Assembly office, even one in the minority. So we should think about the next two years as if we were running a nonprofit advocacy group. Think in terms of the resources we still had and how best to deploy them. Don’t waste time lamenting what we’d lost.
That was a management lesson I never forgot. And it’s one public broadcast stations would do well to keep in mind going forward.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
I’m not knowledgeable about whether NPR and PBS has a liberal bias, but I think reality has a leftwing bias, especially if you accept the MAGA view that it’s leftwing to accept documented evidence instead of what we wish were true.
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