Here’s How Much Money VA Stations PBS, NPR Lose From Trump Cuts

Virginia Public Media, which helps pay for local public television and radio stations and programming in the Commonwealth, is winding down after President Donald Trump signed a bill canceling about $1.1 billion in government funding.

Local Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio affiliates in Virginia get significant funding from the CBP, which supports operations and also pays for programs such as “Sesame Street” and “Finding Your Roots.”

In fiscal year 2024, Virginia received $99,465,449 funding from the CBP, which supports public television, public radio, television programming, and their systems.

Among the most visible outlets in Virginia that receives money is WETA, which for more than five decades has been one of the top producers for PBS. The DC-area station has helped create popular nationally-aired television programs such as Ken Burns' Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots, PBS News Hour and Washington Week with The Atlantic.

Here’s how different affiliates will be affected:

PBS: $90,870,659 total

• Public Broadcasting Service, Ready to Learn, $16,127,556
• Public Broadcasting Service, television programming, $34,400,000
• Public Broadcasting Service, PUBINT, $20,325,945
• WETA, Television Community Service Grant, $8,609,064
• WETA, Television Programming, $8,100,000
• WHRO, Television Community Service Grant, $1,210,556
• WCVE, Television Community Service Grant, $1,158,211
• WBRA, Television Community Service Grant, $939,327

NPR: $2,102,033 total

• WETA, Radio Programming, $212,972
• WETA, Radio Community Service Grant, $422,076
• WNRN, Radio Community Service Grant, $159,152
• WTJU, Radio Community Service Grant, $131,696
• WMRA, Radio Community Service Grant, $163,266
• WHRV, Radio Community Service Grant, $343,336
• WNSB, Radio Community Service Grant, $163,044
• WCVE, Radio Community Service Grant, $218,314
• WVTF, Radio Community Service Grant, $288,177

In addition, $6,492,757 goes to system support across Virginia.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine condemned the budget cuts on Friday.

"Public broadcasting provides educational programming, local news, and emergency alerts for rural communities," Kaine said on X. "But despite all the good it does, Trump and the congressional GOP gutted the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Now 13 stations across VA have lost significant funding."

Most CPB positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. A small transition team will stay until January to finish any remaining work.

Trump signed the bill canceling already approved funding for public broadcasting on July 24, arguing the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense. Lawmakers with large rural constituencies warned the cuts could have an outsized impact in their states.

Roughly 70 percent of the corporation’s money went directly to 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country. The cuts are expected to weigh most heavily on smaller public media outlets away from big cities, and it’s likely some won't survive. NPR’s president estimated as many as 80 NPR stations may close in the next year.

The private, nonprofit corporation was founded in 1968 shortly after Congress authorized its formation. Then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow had long described commercial television as a “vast wasteland” and called for programming in the public interest. Action by Congress now ends nearly six decades of fueling the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and emergency alerts about natural disasters.

The corporation doesn’t produce programming, and it doesn’t own, operate or control any public broadcasting stations. The corporation, PBS, NPR are independent of each other, as are local public television and radio stations.

From Big Bird To War Documentaries

The first episode of “Sesame Street” aired in 1969. Child viewers, adults and guest stars alike were instantly hooked. Over the decades, characters from Big Bird to Cookie Monster and Elmo have become household favorites

Entertainer Carol Burnett appeared on that inaugural episode. She told The Associated Press she was a big fan.

“I would have done anything they wanted me to do,” she said. “I loved being exposed to all that goodness and humor.”

“Sesame Street” was designed by education professionals and child psychologists to help low-income and minority students aged 2-5 overcome some of the deficiencies they had when entering school. Social scientists had long noted white and higher-income kids were often better prepared.

One of the most widely cited studies about the impact of “Sesame Street” compared households that got the show with those who didn’t. It found that the children exposed to “Sesame Street” were 14 percent more likely to be enrolled in the correct grade level for their age at middle and high school.

Sesame Street said in May it would also get some help from a Netflix streaming deal.

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. started “Finding Your Roots” in 2006 under the title “African American Lives.” He invited prominent Black celebrities and traced their family trees into slavery. When the paper trail ran out, they would use DNA to see which ethnic group they were from in Africa. Challenged by a viewer to open the show to non-Black celebrities, Gates agreed, and the series was renamed “Faces of America,” which had to be changed again after the name was taken.

The show is PBS's most-watched program on linear TV and the most-streamed non-drama program. Season 10 reached nearly 18 million people across linear and digital platforms and also received its first Emmy nomination.

Grant money from the nonprofit has also funded lesser-known food, history, music and other shows created by stations across the country.

Documentarian Ken Burns, celebrated for creating the documentaries “The Civil War,” “Baseball” and “The Vietnam War.” told PBS NewsHour said the corporation accounted for about 20 percent of his films’ budgets. He said he would make it up but projects receiving 50 percent to 75 percent of their funding from the organization won’t.

Over the years, “Finding Your Roots” showed Natalie Morales discovering she’s related to one of the legendary pirates of the Caribbean and former “Saturday Night Live” star Andy Samberg finding his biological grandmother and grandfather. It revealed that drag queen RuPaul and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker are cousins, as are actors Meryl Streep and Eva Longoria.

“The two subliminal messages of ‘Finding Your Roots,’ which are needed more urgently today than ever, is that what has made America great is that we’re a nation of immigrants,” Gates told the AP. “And secondly, at the level of the genome, despite our apparent physical differences, we're 99.99 percent the same.”

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The Associated Press contributed reporting.