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Federal funding for public media stops on Wednesday under a bill passed by Republicans in Congress and signed by President Trump. Now, that means the start of a new chapter for public media stations. NPR's David Folkenflik traveled to South Dakota, where public broadcasters are making deep cuts.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: South Dakota Public Broadcasting had just sidestepped financial catastrophe. Last December, then-Governor Kristi Noem proposed cutting most of its funding from the state right before she left to become Trump's secretary of homeland security.
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KRISTI NOEM: I propose reducing funding for South Dakota Public Broadcasting to bring us in line with the national average.
FOLKENFLIK: South Dakota Public Broadcasting owns NPR and PBS stations and receives almost two-thirds of its revenues from state coffers. Julie Overgaard is its executive director.
JULIE OVERGAARD: We are increasingly facing that news desert conversation that's going around. And I think a lot of people really consider SDPB to kind of be the rock and do the work - the important work of making sure that all of our news in South Dakota doesn't eventually get piped in from someplace else.
FOLKENFLIK: In March, the Republican-dominated legislature knocked down Noem's proposal. Then came the blow from Washington. Just as there have been layoffs at PBS and public media stations around the country, Overgaard announced job cuts too.
OVERGAARD: We're not a big operation, and we're not a huge staff. And, you know, it's like a cookie or a pie, and you keep trimming around the edges so that you don't actually impact the meat of what you're doing. But $2.3 million, there is no way to trim around that.
FOLKENFLIK: Certain programs were off the table. Overgaard promised lawmakers no touching its extensive schedule of high school sports and fine arts activities, nor its gavel-to-gavel coverage of state government.
OVERGAARD: These are excruciatingly difficult decisions.
FOLKENFLIK: The station had 11 journalists. It's down to four. Gone, too, will be the daily hourlong radio show "In The Moment" on all matters South Dakotan.
LORI WALSH: There've been a lot of tears since August 20, and there'll be a lot more.
FOLKENFLIK: Host Lori Walsh says she's been convening a chat around a kitchen table.
WALSH: We're also modeling how to have conversations with people that you might not get to hear, that you might not agree with, that you might have a different opinion of. If you listen, you also understand how to do that in your own life.
FOLKENFLIK: NPR's GOP critics generally say they like the local stations but accuse the network of bias. Overgaard says she'll be more likely to take shows from NPR and other outside producers to fill the holes.
OVERGAARD: Ironically, yes, right? I mean, it costs more money to create local programming than it does to purchase national programming. That's just a fact of life.
FOLKENFLIK: I asked journalism chief Cara Hetland what it means to lose in the moment. She glances over at her boss.
CARA HETLAND: This is our signature show, and it's crushing to not have it. But at the same time, how do you redefine what public affairs sounds like, and how can you still provide that but maybe in a different way?
FOLKENFLIK: Republicans in D.C. say people who like public media should pay for it. In the past three months, the station's private foundation has raised $1.7 million more than it did in the same period last year. The foundation is trying to bring back some journalists to pilot new initiatives. Here's Julie Overgaard.
OVERGAARD: If we as South Dakotans value this, if we want these things to be, we're going to have to pony up and raise the money to make sure they happen.
FOLKENFLIK: The fundraising effort is called the Bison Campaign. The Bison runs through the storm, not away from it.
David Folkenflik, NPR News, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALMORHEA'S "BEHIND THE WORLD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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