LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Big donors are rushing to fill the gap left when Congress cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The move is threatening the future of local public TV and radio stations. Now a group of philanthropists are giving money to the Public Media Bridge Fund. They hope that fund will bridge the gap. It's being run by a nonprofit called the Public Media Company, and its CEO is Tim Isgitt. And he's with me now. Good morning.
TIM ISGITT: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So, Tim, if you could just start by telling me what this fund is and what the Public Media Company is.
ISGITT: Sure. The Public Media Bridge Fund is a pooled philanthropic fund operated by Public Media Company that really aims to secure local public media service, with a focus really on those rural and underserved areas of the country where local stations, local public media organizations are most at risk of going dark.
FADEL: How many stations are at risk at - of their doors closing if they don't get the money they need?
ISGITT: Yeah. So we used some data from 2023 from CPB that suggest about 115 of the total universe of about 550 local public media organizations are at risk of going dark.
FADEL: Wow.
ISGITT: These are organizations that receive 30% or more of their revenue from CPB.
FADEL: Are you looking to replace the $1.1 billion that was cut? Or what's the goal here?
ISGITT: No. Unfortunately, you know, I just don't think that's realistic. The goal here is really to secure local service and to make sure that 43 million Americans that are served by these stations that are most at risk continue to receive local public radio and television service. These communities are almost all in rural and underserved areas of the country. And, you know, one of the great, important things about public media is it's supposed to be free access to all...
FADEL: Yeah.
ISGITT: ...To every American. Right now it covers 99% of the country, and we want to make sure that that continues.
FADEL: And how much money have you been able to raise?
ISGITT: Well, our goal is $100,000,000 over the next two years. That's roughly equivalent to what CPB would provide these at-risk stations. And we're maybe a third of the way there right now.
FADEL: Can stations survive long-term by relying on big donors instead of the federal funds that they had relied on?
ISGITT: Well, I don't think that's a viable strategy over the long term. So...
FADEL: Yeah.
ISGITT: We, you know, definitely want to help stations, to the extent we can, move to more sustainable operating models, less dependent on that federal funding. That's going to look different in every community, but that's part of what we're trying to do here as well.
FADEL: And why is this important to the donors who are putting this money in, to you, who's running Public Media Company?
ISGITT: You know, there are a lot of social ills right now that we could talk about. One of them is just the lack of connection that we have to each other at the community level right now. And that's why public media is structured in this country the way that it is, as a decentralized network where local communities are making local decisions about local needs. This is a public good, and it's in danger of collapsing right now. And we're going to do everything we can to prevent that from happening.
FADEL: That's Tim Isgitt. He's the CEO of Public Media Company, which is running the Public Media Bridge Fund. The goal of that fund is to get emergency funding to local stations that are most at risk of closing now that federal funding for public media has been cut off. Thank you for making the time.
ISGITT: Thank you.
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