QuickTake:

Eugene’s NPR member station is staying optimistic about the support of local donors after losing federal funding, which accounts for 10 percent of its annual budget. 

KLCC is facing a funding loss of about $300,000 per year after Congress last week rescinded dollars already allocated to public media. 

The move by federal lawmakers on July 18 followed a May executive order by President Donald Trump that called for an end to federal funding of public media. In the order, Trump cited what he called public media organizations’ “biased and partisan news coverage.”

Congress pulled $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund National Public Radio, PBS television and their member stations. Federal lawmakers had passed legislation in March that would have funded the corporation through 2027. The cancellation of funds represents the full amount the corporation was to receive during the next two years, The Associated Press reported.

“It’s a big blow, and we are looking at the loss of federal funding as a significant problem to solve,” KLCC General Manager Jim Rondeau wrote in a statement to Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “Frugality is already part of our ethos as a nonprofit organization.”

The cut will amount to a loss of about 10 percent of KLCC’s annual budget, he said. 

The end of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting also means the possibility of additional costs for satellite distribution, music royalties and digital infrastructure, Rondeau wrote in an email to supporters. 

Rondeau told Lookout he is concerned how the national public media ecosystem, specifically the NPR network, may be harmed as it is “starved of resources.” Many stations already are in precarious financial positions, he said. 

“This cut comes at a time when funding for local journalism is already in a critical state,” Rondeau said. 

Still, he said he’s optimistic about the future, because local members, businesses and foundations contribute 90% of KLCC’s funding. 

“It’s been the strength of local generosity, not federal dollars, that has allowed us to invest significantly in newsgathering and programming,” Rondeau said.

He said the station’s past success has given it “some runway to look for ways to preserve” what it has built with community partners before considering anything drastic.

“We may slow down and take a close look before jumping into anything new,” Rondeau said.