Alabama Public Television weighs in on final passage of federal funding cuts

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Public television in Alabama may be in for major changes. Early Friday morning, the U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to roll back about $9 billion in funding that had already been appropriated by Congress.

While the majority of the funding was for foreign aid, about $1.1 billion was for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR.

About 13% of Alabama Public Television’s budget comes from federal funding, according to Jack Williams, the external affairs director for APT. That’s a little over $2.8 million dollars for the next two budget years.

CBS 42 spoke with Wayne Reid via Zoom. He is the executive director of Alabama Public Television. We asked him how the loss of this funding might impact their operations.

“Overall, it’s going to impact our programming some, but right now we really don’t know,” Reid explained. “We’re waiting for PBS and NPR to give us more instructions on how they’re going to change their operations.”

Reid said costs like licensing fees for music and distribution, which were previously taken care of by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, will now fall back on them.

“It’s probably going to come down to programming,” he said. “And potentially, you know, cuts that we have to make inside the station to keep focused on our mission.”

Alabama Public Television’s mission statement can be read by clicking on the following link:

Alabama Public Television – Alabama Public Television Mission Statement

Reid also noted that they’re waiting to hear from PBS on what their options are in terms of their children’s programing, which he said does more than just entertain.

“It is specifically designed to help kids learn and be prepared to go into kindergarten,” he said. “It teaches them their alphabet, it teaches them how to count, and critical thinking skills.”

Some parents we interviewed Friday afternoon said they’re worried about the fate of the children’s programming.

“My children grew up watching the shows, ‘Daniel Tiger,’ ‘The Wild Kratts.’ It was a good place I knew my kids could watch the shows and not worry about seeing inappropriate things and getting educated at the same time,” said Emily Wade, who lives in Homewood.

Huntsville resident Joey Latham, on the other hand, said he agrees with the cuts.

“I don’t care much for public broadcasting. I care nothing about NPR,” he said. “They only want one opinion, their opinion, okay. They don’t want my opinion.”

Reid said he understands what the legislators are trying to do in Washington, but he believes there are still opportunities for local stations.

“To some degree I agree with what they did in some part, but I would say I still think there’s opportunities for the local stations because our legislators and our senators love what the local stations do across the country.”

Reid said a lot of this is falling back on national, and he would love to see the money come back to the local stations.

In terms of programming, he said they’ll provide the best quality content they can and produce as much as they can with the resources that they have.

“If anything, we may end up increasing the amount of local programming that we do as opposed to buying programs coming from national distributors,” he added.

Changes could take place as soon as October 1, which is the start of the new fiscal year.