Juneau, Alaska – July 18th: The White House’s rescission request was approved by Congress late last night.
We will fight to restore federal funding. In the meantime, donating to KTOO Public Media is more important than it has ever been.
Every dollar helps us to offset this massive attack on our ability to serve the community.
Answers to Your Questions about Federal Funding for Public Media
KTOO, KRNN, KXLL, and 360TV are all part of a larger public media network that includes over 1,500 locally and independently managed radio and television stations, all funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This funding accounts for nearly one third of KTOO Public Media’s annual budget and is essential to our mission of community service.
Through the network of independent stations, the CPB funding blankets the country with support for free and accessible programs and community service regardless of population density, income, or geographic challenges.
What is CPB’s role in public broadcasting?
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. CPB’s mission is to ensure access to non-commercial, high quality content and telecommunications services.
The CPB is distinct from NPR and PBS. CPB does not produce programming or manage stations. As the steward for the federal appropriation for public media, CPB invests taxpayer dollars in a strong public media system, allocating more than 70% of its annual funds directly to locally operated public media stations like KTOO. The CPB retains less than 5% of the annual federal allocation to sustain its own operations.
How much does this cost me?
Federal funding of public broadcasting costs each American taxpayer about $1.60.
Why is the CPB important in Alaska and elsewhere?
The CPB plays a critical role in sustaining Alaskan stations where local fundraising can be limited by population density and/or geographic challenges.
Public stations are also the backbone of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) through which the President of the United States can alert people to national emergencies. Many public stations, like KTOO, serve as a local primary EAS hub for severe weather and AMBER alerts. In Alaska, we’re prone to disasters like earthquakes, avalanches, landslides, and flooding making this a critical component of the federal government’s investment.
OK, so what does this all mean for KTOO?
At KTOO, direct community support accounts for over 54% of our annual revenue. Another 30% comes from the CPB. This federal funding is essential in ensuring that Juneau’s only local-owned newsroom can continue to deliver you the news from our community.
These dollars are also invested locally in the following ways:
- The Emergency Alert System for Juneau and statewide alerts on 360TV.
- Producing and providing access to state government through the statewide broadcast of Gavel Alaska.
- Supporting local arts and culture through interviews, music shows on KRNN and KXLL, broadcast of live local events like the Alaska Folk Festival, Radio Theater Festival, Aak’w Rock, Celebration, and many others.
- Supporting 20 full time staff at KTOO and 10 temporary and part-time staff members.
You can learn more about KTOO’s local investments in our 2024 Content and Services Report.
What happens if KTOO loses CPB support?
In fiscal year 2025, the CPB is providing $1.2 Million to KTOO’s $3.5 million dollar operating budget. KTOO would work diligently to fill this gap, but it would be very difficult to raise this sum of money locally and the loss of funding would result in cuts to KTOO services.
In a time where anyone can post their opinion to social media, journalism grounded in rigorous fact-checking is essential to inform decisions that affect our health and safety, our finances, our democracy, and our future.
Non-profit public media continues to provide a high level of service to communities while other local media outlets are shrinking or closing. Public media abides by rigorous ethical standards to ensure our content cannot be influenced by political or commercial interests. Our mission is to serve you — the public.
What else does the CPB do?
CPB’s investment directly supports local, independent, non-profit stations like KTOO across the country and enables them to provide essential programs and services. As we know in Alaska, public media stations are sometimes the only source of local news and information available.
The CPB also negotiates music licensing for all public stations — including KRNN and KXLL — saving them millions in costs — and offers administrative support that enables stations to collaborate efficiently by sharing information, research and services in a cost-effective manner.
The CPB also supports the public media interconnection system which connects stations, program distributors, and provides a backbone to the EAS system in the United States. No matter where we live, interconnection ensures that local public media stations can provide programming and lifesaving emergency communications. It’s the only system that reaches nearly 99 percent of our nation for free – virtually every American household.
How are CPB, PBS NPR and Local stations related?
Public media in the U.S. is locally based, with stations making programming decisions based on their community needs. CPB is the largest single source of funding for public radio, television and related online and mobile services. Its funding provides the “public” part of the public-private partnership, with more than 70% of the annual appropriation going to local stations. According to NPR, 1% of NPR’s budget and about 15% of PBS’s budget comes directly from the CPB. Learn more at CPB’s Website.
What can I do to support KTOO, KRNN, KXLL, and 360TV?
The best way to support your local public media station is by donating. We thank you for your support!
A strong, diverse base of grassroots advocates is essential to ensuring the retention of federal funding. You can thank Alaska’s Senators for their ongoing support of public broadcasting and ask Representative Begich to follow our state’s proud history of supporting federal funding for public media. Learn more at Protect My Public Media, a collaboration of local public radio and television stations, national distributors, producers, viewers, listeners and others who support a strong public media in the U.S.
Federal Funding Update, June 12, 2025:
On Thursday, June 12, 2025 the House of Representatives passed the rescissions package that claws back previously approved public media funding. The measure now goes to the Senate. If the bill passes in the Senate, nearly all federal funding for KTOO will be cut immediately. The Senate will have until July 18 to act or the measure dies.
Federal Funding Update, June 6, 2025:
On June 3, 2025, the White House sent a rescissions package to Congress requesting a claw back of FY26 and FY27 funding that Congress has approved previously. We have issued a joint statement from 12 Alaska public media organizations about this request. Thank you for doing what you can right now. Donate. Advocate.
Federal Funding Update, May 5, 2025:
On May 1, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order that ends the direct funding of NPR and PBS by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and bars public stations like KTOO from using CPB funds to pay for NPR and PBS programs. You can read the full executive order here, and KTOO’s press release on the matter here. One thing we do know is that your support, both financial and through advocacy, is critical in this moment.