The head of Tri States Public Radio said she wants to make it clear: the station is not going away.
“We’re not closing our doors,” said General Manager Heather Norman during a noon hour Zoom call on Wednesday, where she shared information with the public and took questions.
Public media faces an uncertain future after Congress last month rescinded $1.1 billion in funding previously approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB announced on Aug. 1 that it will shut down on Sept. 30.
Norman said public broadcasters knew for more than a month that rescission was possible, which gave them a bit of time to prepare. But there is still a great deal of uncertainty.
“It’s not always easy to be in the swirling abyss of the unknown. We seem to be here a lot lately. But that’s where we are. Everyone is trying our best to keep our services going,” Norman said.
She said TSPR will lose $200,000 annually in CPB funding, which is around 17% of its operating budget.
Norman said during the campaign urging Congress to vote against rescission, 33,000 people in Illinois contacted their lawmakers, 9,000 did so in Iowa, and 20,800 in Missouri. Nationally, 3.7 million people contacted Congress. She said the numbers come from Protect My Public Media and the American Coalition for Public Radio.
Norman said all of TSPR’s current programming is paid for through Sept. 30.
Things become a bit less certain after that. Some of the more expensive programs on the station might go away and be replaced with less expensive options.
She anticipates sending out a survey to get programming feedback from the community.
In the meantime, she wants to quash talk of TSPR’s demise.
“We’re not closing our doors. But that being said, it’s not going to be an easy road. We are going to need increased community support,” she said.
Norman said she does not know what the future for TSPR looks like at this point. But she’s confident the station’s staff will figure it out.
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