Listener supported WNYC Studios.

Ryan Laird on WNYC, as our annual Winter Membership Drive is about to end tomorrow,

and we've been talking about the political threats to multiple public broadcasting funding sources.

With us now for a few minutes to take us a little deeper into what's going on.

There's none other than the president and CEO of WNYC, LaFontaine Oliver. Hi LaFontaine. Thanks for coming back

on the show to report to our listeners. Hi, Brian. Always a pleasure to spend time with you and the

listeners. So we've been talking throughout the drive about the threats to public radio. Can you tell

everybody more about what they are specifically?

Yeah, Brian. So I would start by saying there's sort of several buckets of threats that we're

facing right now. First and foremost, several bills have been introduced before Congress

aimed at either freezing or revoking federal funding

through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

We've also seen sort of a shift in the sort of regulatory environment.

The new head of the FCC Brendan Carr alerted NPR and PBS and stations about an open investigation into

our sponsorship spots for public radio and public television stations.

And, you know, while we certainly are confident that our underwriting messages and practices fully comply with the FCC regulations.

That is a part of another bucket of threats. I think you've also seen and heard information

about NPR and the New York Times. I believe it was NBC News Politico.

Being asked to vacate long-held office space at the Pentagon, things like that make the

job of reporting information to the American public more difficult during a time when, you know, more

reporting is needed. And also NPR CEO, Catherine Marr and PBS president, Paula Kerger, have

been both called to testify before the Department of Government Efficiency Subcommittee in the coming weeks.

...