Congress voted to rescind over $9 billion in public media funding and foreign aid on July 18th, leading to budget cuts for various college broadcast stations across the nation. Behind the concrete walls of the Strong Hall at Missouri State University (MSU), KSMU continues to operate and serve the community despite all the hardships it faces.
With the rollback of $1.1 billion in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) included in the rescission, KSMU and Ozark Public Television lost nearly all of their federal funding for the fiscal year.
“Our federal fiscal year started July 1st, so we were 18 days into it already spending the money that had already been promised to us and allocated to us,” Jessica Balisle, Operations and Compliance Coordinator for KSMU, said. “At that point, Congress voted to rescind that funding, meaning that it was basically pulled out from under us. That left us with, for both our TV and radio stations, a $1.3 million budget gap, and we’re a very small operation, so that money was a lot.”
Michele Skalicky, News Director at KSMU, said that they have always tried to and will continue to focus on the core tenets of journalism, even if they don’t have to follow the CTP’s guidelines anymore.
“You know, accuracy, honesty, fairness, balance, those, those things. And so as long as we focus on that, whatever’s happening at the federal level, the state level, we’re going to continue to focus on that. So you know our listeners can count on this to bring them that kind of coverage that you know, news that they know is going to be news they can trust.”
KSMU’s Administrative Assistant Ran Cummings said that with the news of the cuts to public broadcasting, people have begun to reach out more.
“The most interesting and heartening thing to see is that we have a lot of people who have not only given to the station for years, who are giving more, but people who haven’t given to the station for years, who are suddenly coming back and giving,” Cummings said.
With the cuts to funding, community members have stepped up in various ways.
“Our donors have really stepped up,” Balisle said. “We just got off our last fall pledge drive last week, and you know, we had a goal of $100,000 [and] we raised more than $150,000. I have worked here for 18 years next month, and I have never seen a pledge drive like that, where we have had so many people turn out, and not only are they stepping up with their dollar donations, but we are hearing so many encouraging things from the community, in that you know that they value what we do.”
