8 ms·

Rural stations relied heavily on CPB funding; urban stations get most of their funding from donations or corporate underwriting. So big city public TV and radio

by not2b 1y ago

Rural stations relied heavily on CPB funding; urban stations get most of their funding from donations or corporate underwriting. So big city public TV and radio will survive, but those in less populated areas might go under unless some other source of funding is found.

atonse 1y ago
I agree overall that this is not a good thing for also furthering a knowledge gap between rural and urban areas. But in the age of internet streaming, wouldn't rural areas still have access to stream public radio? Genuinely asking. I tried looking for sources on station audience sizes, alternatives they might have, etc. But it was difficult to find.
- heavyset_go 1y ago
  Local reporting is basically dead outside of metro areas. Sure, you can stream, but the content will be focused on another locale or won't address local issues.
  - radiofreeeuropa 1y ago
    When I'm not busy worrying about everything else, I worry that there's assuredly an explosion of local corruption, especially outside of cities large enough to still have something resembling actual local news media, that we can't even begin to get a handle on because it's... well, it's invisible now, that's why it's (surely—I mean, we can't possibly think corruption is dropping or even remaining steady, with the death of the small town paper and small-market TV news rooms, right?) happening in the first place. I think it's, quietly and slowly, the thing that's going to doom our country to decline if something else doesn't get us first (which, there are certainly some things giving this one a run for its money). The Internet killed a pillar of democracy, replaced it with nothing that serves the same role, and we didn't even try to keep it from happening, so here we are, we doomed ourselves by embracing the Internet quickly and not trying to mitigate any harm it causes.
    - jhoechtl 1y ago
      For some your comment might sound even comic but it is damn true. It safens me that the dangerous spiral is not seen by many others. After all, the milenia old adage "bread and games" silences to many.
  - cogman10 1y ago
    It's pretty dead even in metro areas. My local NPR broadcasts rarely actually cover anything that's happening in like city or county politics. Heck, even talking about state politics is pretty rare.
    - not2b 1y ago
      In the SF bay area, KQED (NPR affiliate) has a lot of coverage of local SF and Bay Area politics. The Pacifica station, KPFA (public radio but not an NPR affiliate) has more.
- esseph 1y ago
  Public radio and local broadcasting has been gobbled up by right-wing sources, including Sinclair Watch this clip: https://youtu.be/xwA4k0E51Oo?feature=shared https://youtu.be/xwA4k0E51Oo?feature=shared
  - dizlexic 1y ago
    As a long time listener of AM radio. Literally nothing has changed from a programming perspective. The only noticeable difference is who supplies the on the hour news.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - Tryk 1y ago
      Well a counter argument would be, how would you know if anything is changed? If you're not part of the editors for a newsrooms how would you know which stories are cut and which make the broadcast?
- jcoby 1y ago
  > But in the age of internet streaming, wouldn't rural areas still have access to stream public radio? Sometimes streaming isn't an option. When Helene hit WNC we lost power, cell, internet, and water all at the same time. The local NPR stations were the only ones broadcasting updates on a regular cadence so we could learn what in the world was going on. And we're not far from downtown Asheville. Some extremely rural areas only have spotty internet or no internet or cell at all and public radio is the only thing they have.
- tptacek 1y ago
  Yes, all the rural PBS markets will retain streaming access, which, again, is how most people under the age of 60 get access to PBS today.
philistine 1y ago
Yeah but the shows that the urban stations are running and producing are all bought by the rural stations. So the whole ecosystem needs the rural stations to help fund the productions.
- not2b 1y ago
  The urban stations raise a lot of money locally (through pledge drives, and by hitting up local companies for underwriting, which is basically advertising). The rural stations don't, too few people. The rural stations get CPB money, and some of that goes back to fund shows that they carry, but mostly it's the cost to operate the stations. The urban stations aren't being propped up by the rural stations, there's too little money, even including the money that they get from CPB.
antonymoose 1y ago
Are there many rural-only districts? Having moved around my PBS districts always seemed to be a metro+rural zone.
- not2b 1y ago
  There are vast open spaces, out of FM radio range of a really big city. Some of the worst-hit public radio stations are on reservations.

by not2b 1y ago

atonse 1y ago

I agree overall that this is not a good thing for also furthering a knowledge gap between rural and urban areas. But in the age of internet streaming, wouldn't rural areas still have access to stream public radio? Genuinely asking. I tried looking for sources on station audience sizes, alternatives they might have, etc. But it was difficult to find.

heavyset_go 1y ago
Local reporting is basically dead outside of metro areas. Sure, you can stream, but the content will be focused on another locale or won't address local issues.
- radiofreeeuropa 1y ago
  When I'm not busy worrying about everything else, I worry that there's assuredly an explosion of local corruption, especially outside of cities large enough to still have something resembling actual local news media, that we can't even begin to get a handle on because it's... well, it's invisible now, that's why it's (surely—I mean, we can't possibly think corruption is dropping or even remaining steady, with the death of the small town paper and small-market TV news rooms, right?) happening in the first place. I think it's, quietly and slowly, the thing that's going to doom our country to decline if something else doesn't get us first (which, there are certainly some things giving this one a run for its money). The Internet killed a pillar of democracy, replaced it with nothing that serves the same role, and we didn't even try to keep it from happening, so here we are, we doomed ourselves by embracing the Internet quickly and not trying to mitigate any harm it causes.
  - jhoechtl 1y ago
    For some your comment might sound even comic but it is damn true. It safens me that the dangerous spiral is not seen by many others. After all, the milenia old adage "bread and games" silences to many.
- cogman10 1y ago
  It's pretty dead even in metro areas. My local NPR broadcasts rarely actually cover anything that's happening in like city or county politics. Heck, even talking about state politics is pretty rare.
  - not2b 1y ago
    In the SF bay area, KQED (NPR affiliate) has a lot of coverage of local SF and Bay Area politics. The Pacifica station, KPFA (public radio but not an NPR affiliate) has more.
esseph 1y ago
Public radio and local broadcasting has been gobbled up by right-wing sources, including Sinclair Watch this clip: https://youtu.be/xwA4k0E51Oo?feature=shared https://youtu.be/xwA4k0E51Oo?feature=shared
- dizlexic 1y ago
  As a long time listener of AM radio. Literally nothing has changed from a programming perspective. The only noticeable difference is who supplies the on the hour news.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - Tryk 1y ago
    Well a counter argument would be, how would you know if anything is changed? If you're not part of the editors for a newsrooms how would you know which stories are cut and which make the broadcast?
jcoby 1y ago
> But in the age of internet streaming, wouldn't rural areas still have access to stream public radio? Sometimes streaming isn't an option. When Helene hit WNC we lost power, cell, internet, and water all at the same time. The local NPR stations were the only ones broadcasting updates on a regular cadence so we could learn what in the world was going on. And we're not far from downtown Asheville. Some extremely rural areas only have spotty internet or no internet or cell at all and public radio is the only thing they have.
tptacek 1y ago
Yes, all the rural PBS markets will retain streaming access, which, again, is how most people under the age of 60 get access to PBS today.

philistine 1y ago

Yeah but the shows that the urban stations are running and producing are all bought by the rural stations. So the whole ecosystem needs the rural stations to help fund the productions.

not2b 1y ago
The urban stations raise a lot of money locally (through pledge drives, and by hitting up local companies for underwriting, which is basically advertising). The rural stations don't, too few people. The rural stations get CPB money, and some of that goes back to fund shows that they carry, but mostly it's the cost to operate the stations. The urban stations aren't being propped up by the rural stations, there's too little money, even including the money that they get from CPB.

antonymoose 1y ago

Are there many rural-only districts? Having moved around my PBS districts always seemed to be a metro+rural zone.

not2b 1y ago
There are vast open spaces, out of FM radio range of a really big city. Some of the worst-hit public radio stations are on reservations.