BIRMINGHAM — The director of Alabama Public Television (APT) said Tuesday that the outlet could drop PBS programming in the future.
Wayne Reid, executive director of APT, told the Alabama Education Television Commission that the network is looking into ways to fully separate from PBS after President Donald Trump’s administration slashed funding this summer to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP), which funded public broadcasting around the country.
Commissioners at the meeting were split over the proposal. And because APT remains in a contract with PBS and other obstacles, Reid said the split may not happen.
“You’re going to have to redo our websites, redo our media library, because that’s all supported by PBS. Now, the traffic system is really set up for PBS,” Reid told commissioners.
CBP faced a $1.1 billion budget in July after Congress approved House Resolution 4. In 2023, APT reported that it received $2.4 million from CBP.
The budget cuts also meant that APT would have to cut NPR programming for WLRH in Huntsville. While APT has local coverage, NPR and PBS provided national coverage to the network through programs like PBS NewsHour.
Commissioner Bebe Williams said she thought cutting all PBS programming wasn’t the correct move for the network.
“When you cut off all the programming that we do, you’re cutting off so many programs I watch. And the people that pay money for what they want and we’re going to have to have the membership in order to be able to afford things,” Williams said.
Williams said the network should keep the children’s programming and Masterpiece, which broadcasts prestige dramas like Downton Abbey, Sherlock and Prime Suspect.
Board member Johnny Curry agreed that cutting all PBS programming would be detrimental to APT due to the amount of content the network gets from PBS.
“You have to be very careful about deciding whether to sever that relationship, because it’s my understanding that 90% of the programs that this network broadcasts come through and from PBS,” Curry said. “If you sever that relationship, and I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t, but if you sever it, you gotta come up with 90% of your programming to replace, and that includes all of the educational programming the children watch during the day, which is the main mission of this institution,” Board Member Johnny Curry said.
(READ MORE: PBS, NPR stations struggle with Trump-fueled government funding cuts)
Commissioner Pete Conroy spoke in support of keeping PBS programming.
“This morning in Hoover, there was a church school, and every single morning, these 6- and 7-year-olds watch (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood) before the bell rings. And that’s 300 moms that we’re going to have to talk to, because that would just be gone,” he said to the commission.
Commissioners William Green Jr., who joined the meeting via Zoom, and Les Barnett said APT should move away from PBS programming altogether.
“PBS right now carries a negative connotation, and there’s no telling what they will do, how they will do it, and then if they make a statement or move a certain way, APT is going to be thrown in with them,” Green said.
Barnett said funding PBS isn’t something he’s interested in continuing to do.
“Even if the federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting money came back in, I still don’t understand PBS. PBS has made themselves anathema to the president and a sizable chunk of the state legislature, and probably a sizable chunk of the 65% of people (who) voted for Trump, and I’m one of those people in both categories,” he said. “I just, I don’t want to fund it, PBS has made themselves the enemy of what I stand with, and so I do not like them, and I don’t follow the philosophy of feeding the beast.”
Jack Williams, APT’s external affairs director, said he was given no indication that PBS programming should be dropped by state officials.
“The conversation is kind of focused around ‘How do we how do we help you guys, since you’ve lost federal funding,’ and we’re looking to do what we can this year, because in (2027) there’s concern that the state may have to dip into the reserve funds for the first time since 2009 [or] 2010,” he said to the board.
Williams also mentioned to the commission that taking away PBS programming could impact school aged children.
“There are (5,800) fewer children in public schools today than there were last year, and many of them were, as evidenced by Wayne’s slide, using the resources of the Learning Media Center, and that will go away,” he said to commissioners.
PBS LearningMedia offers free educational materials for K-12 students and educators. Data presented at the meeting showed that PBS LearningMedia had over 50,000 quarterly users and over 322,000 quarterly streams on videos.
The commission decided at the meeting to not take public comment on keeping PBS programming at this time. A vote to decide whether to maintain programming will happen Nov. 18.
Read more at AlabamaReflector.com.