You’ve heard us talking recently about the threats to public media funding. Last week, the White House submitted a rescissions package to Congress, asking them to eliminate federal funding already appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS stations. We know you want to help, and we will update this page as the situation develops. Read on to learn how federal funding supports NPR Illinois and all public media.
How can you help?
1. Right now, calls are the most effective. Even if you leave a message:
"I support my public radio station, NPR Illinois!"
"Please oppose the recission request!"
U.S. House of Representatives (current priority)
Nikki Budzinski (D-IL, 13th), Springfield 217-814-2880, DC 202-225-2371
Mary Miller (R-IL, 15th), Quincy 217-640-6210, DC 202-225-5271
U.S. Senate
Richard Durbin (D-IL), Springfield 217-492-4062, DC 202-224-2152
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Springfield 217-528-6124,DC 202-224-2854
You can learn more about how to make your voice heard by visiting ProtectMyPublicMedia.org. Protect My Public Media provides resources and information to help you contact members of Congress and share your thoughts about public radio in central Illinois.
2. Make a donation to improve our contingency funds. If federal funding ends, we want to avoid cutting news and programs.
3. Proudly share your support for public radio, and encourage your friends to support us, too. In conversations and on social media. Follow the NPR Illinois social media channels (under the headline above). You can also receive updates by subscribing to the NPR Illinois Daily newsletter.
What's the latest update?
- Rescission Request: On June 3, the White House submitted a rescission request to Congress. If approved, the request would rescind funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) previously authorized by Congress.
- Executive Order: President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order attempting to block the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from distributing federal funds to PBS and NPR as he alleged “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.
Here are six things to know about public media and federal funding:
- Public media reaches nearly 99% of the United States, including the most remote communities, with high-quality, non-commercial programming and services every day.
- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an independent nonprofit that distributes federal dollars (an average of $1.60 per person annually) to local stations. Federal funding for public media accounts for 0.01% of all government spending. This money is used to invest in programming and services according to each community’s needs.
- In FY 2024, 12% of NPR Illinois' annual funding came from CPB.
- CPB funding allows public media stations to pool resources towards satellite interconnection, emergency alert systems, music licensing and development of educational programs, all of which would be too expensive for stations to do on their own and cut down on the local programs and services stations provide.
- Cuts to federal funding would harm the ability of stations to serve the people who need it most. It will hurt other Illinois public media stations that we collaborate with to report on Illinois. In some rural areas, public radio is the only local source of news, weather, emergency alerts, and other critical information.
- Learn more about federal funding and public media at Protect My Public Media.
What role does the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) play in public media and broadcasting?
CPB is distinct from NPR and PBS. It is not a broadcaster, producer, or distributor but a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to support other public radio and television entities. Its two primary functions are to serve as a firewall between politics and public broadcasting and to help fund programming, stations, and technology.
Funding for CPB is established two years in advance through the federal annual appropriations process. The advance is intended to insulate funding from political pressures.
CPB’s general appropriation for fiscal year 2025 was $535 million – with the total federal support for public media amounting to about $1.60 per year per person. The CPB is responsible for allocating its funds from the federal budget in any way that fulfills its mission: to ensure universal access, over-the-air and online, to high-quality content and telecommunications services that are commercial-free and free of charge.
Nearly 70% of the total funding is distributed directly to local stations like NPR Illinois so we can decide how best to program for our communities. CPB has had bipartisan support in Congress for more than 50 years.
How much CPB funding does NPR Illinois receive?
In fiscal year 2024, 12% of NPR Illinois’ annual operating revenue came from community service grants we received from CPB. That annual grant is calculated using a formula that takes into account our region’s population, the amount of funding we are able to raise locally from donations by individuals, and financial support from small businesses and organizations.
In addition to community service grants, CPB allows us to reduce costs on satellite connection, music rights, professional development, and also pays many of those reduced costs for the system. The loss of this funding has an estimated annual impact on our organization of $423,421. Stations like ours would face new operating costs – and they would be much higher without the scale and efficiency CPB provides for the public media system. CPB also supports Harvest Public Media part of our Health+Harvest coverage. NPR Illinois collaborates with the other public radio stations around our state. If we all have CPB funding ended, our ability to pay reporters at the statehouse bureau will reduce accountability coverage of Illinois state government.
Public radio is essential to the country’s music ecosystem, and CPB negotiates blanket music licenses for noncommercial uses of music on behalf of the whole public media system and, with a portion of the federal appropriation, pays those licensing fees for all eligible public media stations. CPB is able to provide efficient rights management solutions for every public media station, and it would be cost-prohibitive and burdensome for individual stations to negotiate the same licenses and fees on their own.
What would happen to NPR Illinois without that federal funding?
CPB funding makes public media as you currently know it, possible. The support enables us to provide all the best programming and unique services for central Illinois and the capital, like the statehouse bureau, State Week, Statewide, Community Voices, local newscasts, the NPR Illinois Daily newsletter, The X and Classic HD streams, and nprillinois.org. Across all public media platforms – from free over-the-air broadcast, to unpaywalled websites, podcasts, streaming, and more. Federal funds support broadcast and digital delivery and lay a foundation for local initiatives that enrich and strengthen our community in a variety of areas:
- Local news: Michelle Eccles, Sean Crawford, Maureen McKinney, and Mike Krcil report everday through newscasts and breaks in national programming.
- Music and the arts: NPR Illinois presents extensive arts coverage through interviews on Community Voices, playing local music on CV-X and The X streaming service, classical music on the NPR Illinois Classic stream, and airing of shows like Fresh Air, Nightsounds, Jazz Night in America, Jazz Inspired, Bluegrass Breakdown, Sound Opinions, Beale Street Caravan, and Hearts of Space. We also partner with multiple arts organizations to promote their events and offerings.
- Preserving and exporting regional life and culture: Community Voices helps us get to know our neighbors and archives those interviews at nprillinois.org. Since 2006, This I Believe has captured the outlook of high school seniors each year.
- Feeding curiosity and building community: with LISTEN sessions in a variety of communities, and other forums like the Citizens Club of Springfield and the World Affairs Council, NPR Illinois helps facilitate, address, and share regional issues. J-Corps (Journalism Corps) is beginning to identify engaged citizens at these meetings and develop them as community reporters.
- Public safety, emergency coverage, and essential information: Tornados, dust storms, flooding, even earthquakes are problems NPR Illinois keeps you apprised of as a local leader in the Emergency Alert System. During the 2023 derrecho, several areas of Springfield were without power for days. With no power to charge phones and many broadband wires down, battery operated radios tuned to NPR Illinois heard the latest local information needed to recover.
