Rural PBS stations could bear brunt of public media cuts. Just ask those in Kansas BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAYJuly 16, 2025 at 5:03 AM Judy Blackburn estimates she spends at least three hours a day on average watching PBS.
- - - Rural PBS stations could bear brunt of public media cuts. Just ask those in Kansas
BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAYJuly 16, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Judy Blackburn estimates she spends at least three hours a day on average watching PBS.
The 89-year-old lives alone in Courtland, Kansas – a city of less than 300 people around 15 miles south of the Nebraska border in the north-central part of the state.
Afternoons can be "a little long" for Blackburn, who admits to watching "way too much television" to pass the time.
But she says PBS programming – everything from "Antiques Roadshow" and cooking shows to programs on Elton John and The Beatles – bring her comfort and joy.
Sherie Mahin lives in Courtland, too. She said PBS' "good, clean, wholesome" content has been important for the in-home day care she's run for 35 years. Programming like the number and letter of the day segment on "Sesame Street" has become a big part of their daily routine, she said.
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She appreciates that she doesn't have to worry about what kids will be exposed to by watching PBS. Without such shows, she said she'd have to do more vetting of the quality and appropriateness of content on other channels and platforms.
Now, it's all at risk as Congress weighs what is known as a rescission bill this week, legislation that enacts a series of cuts to already approved funding, including $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Blackburn and Mahin both watch Smoky Hills PBS, based out of the roughly 100-person city of Bunker Hill, Kansas. A loss of federal funding, which makes up roughly half of its budget, would be catastrophic for the television station and the more than 1.2 million Kansans it reaches across 71 counties, station employees and board members told USA TODAY.
The station's building in Bunker Hill, Kansas.
President Donald Trump's May 1 executive order called for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting to "cease direct funding" to NPR and PBS. The order asserted that neither outlet "presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens."
Many Republicans have expressed similar sentiment. But some in the GOP worry about the impacts on rural areas.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, said on July 15 he would vote in favor of the cuts after Senate leadership made a deal with the Office of Management and Budget to protect funding for tribal radio stations. He previously said he would not vote in favor of a package that allows Native American radio stations to get "caught in the crossfire," The Hill reported.
Others, such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, have also argued against the cuts over similar concerns. Among their arguments are that the lion's share of the federal funding is directed to local stations that, in addition to offering news and other programming, broadcast local, regional and national emergency alerts.
Public media advocates say it is these local stations, particularly the ones in rural areas like Smoky Hills PBS, that will bear the brunt of the federal funding cuts. Aside from the potential job losses, they say it would also mean less information distributed to an already-underserved population, less coverage of popular local events such as high school wrestling and less attention to day-to-day life in rural America.
Ultimately, the fate of PBS and its affiliates rests in the hands of Congress, which has a July 18 deadline to vote on the rescission package. If they do not do so, the funding will be dispersed to recipients as planned.
PBS has been fighting to keep the funding. More than 3 million people have used Protect My Public Media's platform to contact Congress since the rescission threat emerged, America's Public Television Stations spokesperson Stacey Karp said.
That kind of involvement in the campaign is "hugely meaningful," PBS President Paula Kerger told USA TODAY. But encouragement has also appeared by way of graduation cards sent to PBS in recent months by students who grew up with the network's programming and in the words of support from passersby when she wears PBS merchandise in public.
It's been a "silver lining" amid the turmoil PBS and its affiliate stations have been navigating in recent months.
'A horrible choice to have to make'
If the cuts pass Congress, Smoky Hills PBS will have a slew of difficult decisions to make, according to general manager Betsy Schwien.
The station does not use any of its federal funding to purchase PBS programming, she said. Rather, it helps cover the cost of operating the station's four transmitters, for example, as well as salaries and the station's local programming.
The station would have to weigh the benefit of each of its costs to determine what should be prioritized on a bare-bones budget.
"Do you retain national children's programming that has that historic name of 'Sesame Street' or 'Daniel Tiger,' 'Curious George' – or do you cut the local value where your local students and children are highlighted for their accomplishments?" Schwien said. "It's just a horrible choice to have to make."
Kyle Stringham, vice chair of the station's board of directors, lives in Ulysses, Kansas – a town of less than 6,000 people.
"We're not just rural," he said. "We're isolated."
Such areas may not have the same access to services like broadband internet and cell phone coverage. Up to 1 million Kansans live in areas without "high-speed broadband services at adequate speeds," according to University of Kansas research published in 2023.
Combining such factors with the higher rate of poverty in rural Kansas gives Smoky Hills PBS the opportunity – and challenge – to serve the area's underserved communities, he said. There's the national programming – the classics like "Sesame Street" and "Arthur" – but there's also local programming and events like its "Share a Story" program that's set to take place at more than 80 libraries across the state.
Among the most-watched local programming is high school wrestling, said board secretary Helen Hands. The station also broadcasts other youth sporting events as well.
A Smoky Hills PBS booth at a mental health awareness fair.
And given its location in the heart of Kansas wheat country, the station has programming focused on farming and agriculture.
There's also a "Doctors On Call" program, a live call-in show with local physicians, that Hands said can be a lifeline to rural Kansans who may have to travel long distances to more populated cities, such as Wichita or Salina, to seek medical care.
There have been six hospital closures in rural Kansas since 2010, according to data from the National Rural Health Association.
"Being able to learn something about how you're feeling on TV is more important in a rural area than it is in, say, Washington, DC," she said.
Stringham also said the local programming gives rural Kansans – educators, artists, student athletes and others – a platform they likely couldn't replace.
"We would just feel a little forgotten if we didn't have that," he said.
"Doctors on Call," a live call-in show featuring local doctors, is a lifeline for rural Kansans who often don't have access to medical care in their immediate areas.'We don't want to see people leaving rural Kansas'
A board meeting in June provided "very eye-opening" insight into the difficult decisions to be made if the station loses half of its revenue, board member Nick Levendofsky said.
Along with the potential loss of "good and decent and wholesome" programming would be a potential contribution to the "rural brain drain," he said, referencing a phenomenon in which individuals – particularly younger Americans – leave their rural hometowns to chase jobs and other opportunities in larger cities.
The station's employees tend to have specialized skill sets, such as production and videography, that don't have many matching opportunities in the area. If they want to continue doing the same work, it's all but certain they'd have to leave the area, he said.
"We don't want to see people leaving rural Kansas or rural America for any reason," he said. "We need them out here."
Though he understands the interest in reducing the number of taxpayer-funded programs and entities in the country, he added that public broadcasting provides a valuable service to the community in the same way that law enforcement and libraries do.
"I just wish the folks that were so up in arms about it and so opposed to it would understand there is value there, and it does matter – it matters a lot to a lot of people," he said.
How stations make up for lost revenue
The station had a tight budget and revenue challenges well before the current rescission package came into play, according to Randall Weller, the station's longest-serving board member who's been in the position since 1989.
For the fiscal year ending in June 2024, the station had revenues of around $5 million, according to its nonprofit tax forms.
Televised pledge drives, which he said were once a "marvelous way to get membership," are a thing of the past. Another challenge is getting young people, the majority of whom rely on streaming services, to financially support public media.
The production room at Smoky Hills PBS.
Adding a cut in revenue of nearly 50% to existing challenges would make it an "uphill climb" for the station to survive, he said.
Weller is working to convey just how "devastating" that scenario would be with supporters in the hopes of getting more people to reach out to Congress in support of public media.
Time will tell if his efforts were enough. If the worst comes to pass, the station would have no choice but to pivot.
"We would just have to be creative or else slam the door," he said. "I don't see anything in between."
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment Reporting Fellow at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected].
USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rural PBS stations brace for brunt of cuts from Congress
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