Laist and Kcrw Managers fight taxpayers’ loss of money

The leaders of the two largest public radio stations in southern California said that a threat from Washington Republicans to eliminate federal support for public broadcasting would be a blow for local programming.

While KCRW-FM (89.9) and Laist, which broadcast under the KPCC-FM appeal signal (89.3), obtain the vast majority of their financial support from other sources, a loss of the government grant could threaten the type of coverage illustrated following Eaton and Palisades fires, the executives of the two stations said in an interview.

The remarks occurred after an audience on Wednesday in Washington on Wednesday in which a Congress Committee criticized the NPR and PBS chiefs for what the Republicans called biased coverage. The chairman of the committee, the representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA.), Promised to end taxpayers to public broadcasters, which she described as “communists”.

The reduction would cost $ 1.7 million $ 1.7 million dollars on its $ 41 million budget, while KCRW, based in Santa Monica, would lose $ 1.3 million over a budget of 24 million dollars, said managers.

“We have to balance our budget each year, so we have to make final changes,” said KCRW president Jennifer Ferro. “We don’t want to go back and provide fewer services. We want to provide more service. With this cup, we have to collect an additional $ 1.3 million just to stay where we are. You can’t just get caught and do it. ”

Although the public funding of the media has been questioned several times before, Ferro said that the threat was more serious this year, as so many programs and departments had simultaneously been targeted for the Trump administration discounts.

After Washington’s hearing, the chief editor, Megan Garvey, sent an e-mail to the listeners defending the cover of the station.

“We provide in -depth news, thoughtful conversations and essential local coverage without commercial and political influence,” said Garvey’s message. “We believe that I hear views through the spectrum makes us a stronger and more informed nation.”

The station said it had seen an increase in donations during a recent branch promenade, in which LEUN staff members said on several occasions that the station needed more donations to counter a potential reduction in government funding.

Earlier in March, Rob Risko, Director of Development of Lais, established the magnitude of the threat presented by the loss of federal funds.

“This represents 1.7 million dollars of funding for Leais – or more than 13 jobs – which bring you directly to bring you in -depth reports on housing, public security, climate, breeze and more,” Risko wrote to listeners. “If these dollars disappear, the basin will always be there for you every day.”

But he said that it would be “much more difficult” for the laisages to “discover corruption”, provide the type of information coverage demonstrated during fires and accomplish an in -depth analysis illustrated in the election of Laist “electoral game plan”.

The two stations called unfair to label their information coverage as tilted when the majority of stories focus on non -ideological subjects. Ferro pointed out, for example, to a forum that KCRW led to Zoom, with an audience of 3,000 people asking questions about the health problems raised by forest fires.

“I think it is so important now that people can have institutions they count on and trust,” said Ferro. “Perhaps this is a picturesque idea, but we are not here to earn money or to market your personal data. We are trying to provide news and information for the sole purpose of educating the community.”

Public publication is also threatened by the potential reduction of the company for public broadcasting to take charge of a satellite system which links the NPR stations. The satellite link helps stations provide live reports from anywhere in the country.

The service would disappear, unless the stations find a way to fill the financing gap, said Ferro, who was in Washington for Wednesday’s hearing.

Stations in small distant communities obtain up to 40% of their CPB funding, said Ferro, which makes them difficult to stay on the air without federal dollars.