North State public television among the hardest hit by federal funding cuts
Redding-based PBS station KIXE receives approximately 40% of its total budget from a federal source that was just cut by a vote of Congress. That’s twice as much as most public stations receive on average.
When Rob Keenan started as KIXE-TV general manager a mere 18 months ago, his focus was on ensuring he could tell more stories in the North State — not responding to a looming federal funding shortfall.
“I did not anticipate a major slashing of the federal budget, so it was a little bit of a shock,” Keenan admitted this week in a conversation about recent federal cuts. “Looking back in retrospect, I should have seen the signs.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) just lost more than $1 billion in federal funding, and the North State public broadcast television station is disproportionately affected by the cuts.
Congress approved a measure last week that strips most federal financial support for PBS and NPR national stations as well as their local public television and radio affiliates. North State Congressman Doug LaMalfa voted for the cuts.
They’ll hit especially hard for KIXE, the Redding-based, PBS-affiliated television station that receives about 40% of its total budget from federal sources, according to Keenan. That’s a financial impact of approximately $800,000 over the next 2 years, putting KIXE in the top 30 most federally dependent public broadcast stations in the nation, according to a data analysis by Semipublic. On average, public TV stations receive about 18% of their funding from federal sources, while public radio receives 14%.
“The real issue is smaller, rural markets really do rely on a larger percentage” of federal support, Keenan said.
KIXE has served the market since 1964 while Local NPR affiliate North State Public Radio (NSPR) launched five years later. A source connected to NSPR, which currently operates under the CapRadio network in Sacramento, confirmed today that the station will not immediately be impacted by federal funding cuts.
Steps toward cuts to public broadcasting funds began with a May 1 executive order from President Trump asking Congress to act. In response, KIXE Director Keenan sent a letter to the City of Shasta Lake Council on June 10 urging community leaders to advocate for the need to maintain public broadcasting funding.
“Public media, including KIXE, is facing an unprecedented legislative action which will affect our ability to provide programs and services to our ten-county region,” Keenan wrote at the time.
A June City of Shasta Lake agenda item showed Mayor Pamelyn Morgan advocating for KIXE, explaining how the station plays a critical role in the North State, and the loss of federal support would significantly impact rural and underserved areas. The majority of Shasta Lake City Council was opposed to the measure, and no action was taken to deliver the letter of support to federal lawmakers.
Among other California public outlets, only KEET, a PBS station based in Eureka, stands to lose a similar amount as KIXE, with about 41% of its budget coming from federal sources.
Overall, western states are the most impacted by the federal funding cuts, and could lose up to about 20 % of total federal funding for public TV and radio, more than any other U.S. region. California stations in larger markets are likely to be less impacted than those in the North State because in many cases a smaller percentage of their total budget comes from federal sources. For example, dual-license station KQED in San Francisco reportedly relies on public funding to fund only 7% toward its local NPR and PBS broadcasts. KQED already reduced staff by 15% in the days leading up to the federal budget cuts.
In the short-term, KIXE will be able to weather the budget cuts, Keenan confirmed, thanks to prior budgeting and some financial reserves, which should extend the station’s runway through 2025.
“Within the next year, we certainly can be here and remain viable,” Keenan told Shasta Scout. “So we have a little bit of a buffer, and we still plan on being here.”
For now, business will continue as usual, he said, including a July 30 livestream of the Shasta County Fire Safe Council, which occurs every 3 months. That coverage is part of an effort for KIXE to maintain a mission mentality amid adversity, he said.
To sustain beyond the next year, Keenan expects that serious choices will need to be made. He anticipates some staff turnover and retirements that result in empty positions will remain unfilled. KIXE’s board is set to hold an emergency meeting Thursday, according to Keenan, who called the funding cuts “unprecedented” for public media.
“Some other stations in the system are going to be really impacted and have to make really hard decisions: either lose a big chunk of staff or risk going dark,” Keenan said.
A 2023 study revealed that the loss of federal funding could close between 15% to 34% of all stations nationally. Current research estimates the U.S. would lose up to 117 public radio and television stations, including 35 stations that are members of either Native Public Media or the African-American Public Radio Consortium.
KIXE has already started to fundraise around the lost funding, declaring in an email Monday that “this highly unusual move broke with decades of wide bipartisan support.”
Disclosure: Shasta Scout has an in-kind agreement with KIXE that provides newsletter ads in exchange for on-air ads.
Update 7.22.25: We have updated the article to reflect the confirmed budgetary impact on KQED, the San Francisco-based public broadcast station.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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According to public IRS filings, KIXE’s GM and CFO together make over $200k a year — in a 10-person station. That’s more than 30% of payroll for just two roles. Makes me wonder how much is left for actual programming.
All news and television content should be from the competitive private sectors of free enterprise. Government controlled media manipulates the freedom of people to choose their news content.
This is great news!
Happy Citizen, Where did you get the idea that the government controlled or manipulates PBS? The reality is that because this individual has been unable to control this media, the power of the purse is being used. Do you ever watch any PBS programming. It is “enlightening, entertaining and educational”. News is in-depth. They do not scream at you nor engage in sound bites. You are provided information and challenged to learn more.
Margaret,
Taxpayers should not have to pay for media content.
I like PBS. But PBS needs to start charging for services with antenna, cable, or online streaming. PBS cannot survive on donations alone. Freedom is to choose our media services and not the government media.
Charging? What about all the children whose parents can’t afford streaming costs? What about all the people who need emergency planning communication who could never aford streaming costs or for whom such possibilities aren’t available where they live? PBS is unique and so valuable. If it’s not to be funded by the federal government the northstate must step up. The local, very healthy industries and nonprofits of the northstate should ban together and make this support for now and the future possible. Let’s do this.
No love lost. PBS and NPR lost their way many years ago. They went full Woke often denigrating White, Western civilization, and the United States. Their genuflection to the grifter behind blm riots was pathetic. Let a couple of liberal millionaires and billionairs subsidise them. That said, I’m no trumper. He’s repugnant. But the problems with public tv and radio started long before trump came on the political scene.
white western civilization deserves to be denigrated. Our country was founded by tax dodging slave owners, then they genocided a whole continent of people.
Seems like you have an issue with white people from the 1700 century. Not sure any are still alive. I think you would appreciate this country more if you visited some third world countries not run by white people.
Mary: Many of the “third world countries not run by white people” are facing huge challenges as a result of forced British (white) colonialism. I lived in one for four years. Here in Northern California, clear historical evidence documents repeated genocidal acts by white settlers against our community’s earliest inhabitants, sometimes at the behest of the government. That’s something I for one, definitely have an issue with. https://nahc.ca.gov/cp/timelines/northeast/
Not only funds cut but we have Spectrum as our tv channel supplier. We have the least expensive plan and they have quit including channel 9 KIXE in the channels we can receive since July 1.
MRC analysis of PBS News’ left-leaning bias leading up to the 2024 election (June 1, 2023-November 30, 2024):
PBS staff used 162 variations of “far right” labels and only six “far left” labels, an astounding ratio of 27 to 1.
PBS staff also used mere “right-wing” and “left-wing” labels at a disparity of 33 to 6. So overall, the labeling disparity was 195 to 12.
Fascist Trump, Communist Harris: Independent of the labeling counts above, PBS staff and guests employed 17 total “fascist” labels of Donald Trump, compared to three for Kamala Harris as “communist,” with two of those three denying she was one.”
PBS Reporters: “far-right” labels vs “far-left” labels: 64-2
“Hard-right” vs “hard-left” labels: 16-1
“Extreme right” vs “extreme left”: 57-3
“Hard-line” right vs “hard-line” left: 25-0
“right-wing” vs. “left-wing: 33-6
America doesn’t agree with you Harry. Here’s a poll completed a few weeks ago. 68 percent believe public media serves as a lifeline for rural and underserved communities
66 percent believe public media provides quality educational programming for children
62 percent believe public media should remain available free of charge
My response to both you Christian and Harry/Jay is the same: cite your sources. Polls and statistics are notorious for backing whatever points we want them too.
I cited mine (MRC – a conservative media watchdog), as I almost always do.
I’ll also cite the more centrist media watchdogs Allsides, Media Bias Fact Check, and Ad Fontes Media which respectively rate PBS news as “Lean Left,” “Left Center,” and “Skews Left” .
Just for curiousity, I watched the PBS Newshour clip on Trump signing the BBB where within the first 10 seconds they declared PBS a “safe space” (implying they temper or ignore coverage of issues which might offend demographics for whom the left usually endorse special protections)
“implying they temper or ignore coverage of issues which might offend demographics for whom the left usually endorse special protections)….” Well, another view is implying they don’t cover the news like Fox, Breitbart, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, or OANN. Research from Media Matters for America suggests that right-leaning media outlets dominate the online media ecosystem, at least in terms of audience reach. A study, found at: https://www.mediamatters.org/google/right-dominates-online-media-ecosystem-seeping-sports-comedy-and-other-supposedly 320 online shows in 2024 (191 right-leaning and 129 left-leaning) found that right-leaning shows garnered almost five times the total followers and subscribers compared to left-leaning shows across various platforms, so much for left bias in quantity. But, you know, like the leader of the political right says just about every other day, “The media is the enemy of the people.” Does that kind of talk sound like fascism, Harry?
The poll I referred to is from Peak Insights. The results were from a press release dated July 14, 2025, found here: https://cpb.org/pressroom/New-National-Poll-Majority-Voters-Trust-Public-Media-More-Media-Overall-and-Highly-Value#:~:text=Search-,New%20National%20Poll:%20Majority%20of%20Voters%20Trust%20Public%20Media%20More,news%20reporting%20(60%20percent).
Here’s a bit more. A recent Harris Poll found that two-thirds (66%) of Americans support federal funding for public radio, with the same proportion believing it offers good value for taxpayers. A YouGov survey found 28% want funding increased, 33% want it to remain the same, and 27% want it decreased or eliminated (9% decrease, 18% eliminate). Good ol AI says,
“Yes, Americans generally support public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS. Support is bipartisan, with a majority of both Democrats and Republicans agreeing that federal funding for public radio is a good value. Recent polls show strong public trust in public media, with a majority of voters favoring it over other media outlets,” and listed many sources. Additionally, there are indeed partisan differences: “While overall support is strong, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support ending federal funding for public media. This may be influenced by concerns about perceived political bias, as highlighted in an opinion piece in The Des Moines Register.” In closing, I personally like this chart from The League of Women Voters: https://my.lwv.org/california/torrance-area/article/how-reliable-your-news-source-understanding-media-bias-2022
Another AI hallucination; support for public radio is not bipartisan.
According to a 2025 Pew poll 69% of Democrats support using tax dollars to fund NPR/PBS compared to only 19% of Republicans.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/26/americans-more-likely-to-support-than-oppose-continuing-federal-funding-for-npr-and-pbs/
Thank you. This is true. This poll was conducted by: https://peakinsights.com/.
You can read about it here: https://cpb.org/pressroom/New-National-Poll-Majority-Voters-Trust-Public-Media-More-Media-Overall-and-Highly-Value
Would be very interested to know the source of this data. I can buy that guests may use the labels, and staff may have said the words, but if you listen to the content, it is very unlike the vitriol that you hear on the Fox ENTERTAINMENT (not News!) channels.
Here’s the original article on that MRC report: https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2024/12/04/pbs-news-hours-extreme-makeover-27-times-more-likely-find-far-right
Anchors, reporters, and guests alike used the loaded language, though I wouldn’t call it vitriol (like often found on fox)
Where I personally notice PBS’ bias:
The centrist Democrat perspective is the implied normal with “othering” language used to describe conservative perspectives. Examples:
“How 2024 election could shape the future of abortion rights” (fetal rights?)
“Gun Control Debate Spurs Political Action Across the Nation” (gun rights?)
The use of unnecessary adjectives or selectively highlighting downsides to convey implicit endorsement/condemnation. Examples:
“A look at the policies in the Democrats’ *historic* climate bill”
“Trump *baselessly* blames diversity hiring for deadly D.C. plane collision”
“Breaking down Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and its impact on the deficit and national debt”
Finally I notice it in story selection.
“Trump’s rambling speeches raise questions about mental decline”
(no such stories about Biden often appearing lost-on-stage during his first 3 years)
Why should we subsidize propaganda?
The truth can seem foreign when you have lost touch with reality.
Thank you, Joe Lanane, for this article. Shasta Scout is doing very good work informing the people, and when freedom of the press is killed off, democracy dies, and that’s the point! Control of the media and undermining “truth’ is a key feature of fascism; just ask Mussolini, Hitler, Putin, and Trump. Project 2025, affiliated with the 51-year-old extreme right Heritage Foundation, has laid much of the groundwork for Trump 2.1 policy. (Of course, Trump lied when he said he didn’t know what Project 2025 was.) The leader of 2025 is Russell Vought, now serves as Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. One of the mandates given to Trump by the 2025 plan, who in true fascist fashion despises most broadcasters and calls most of the media the “enemy of the people,” is the elimination of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). Republicans have tried to do this since Reagan and failed because PBS has broad (67% as of July 2025) support from the American people. This time, Trump threatened to primary any Republicans who might try to block the cuts, and the Republican Party, which is beholden to their cult leader, granted the $1.1 billion cut. And of course, D. LaMalfa, a puppet of Trump’s, quickly voted for the cut. But America can fight back; even a small subscription (the cost of a beer and lunch) will help.
Maybe we can get George Soros to donate to keep PBS going? What a great use of his billions.
You might be interested to know that the Koch brothers support many PBS programs. You can see who supports the programs as you watch them. It’s rather impressive.
As for Soros, it’s reported that:
George Soros[a] (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930)[1][2] is an American[b] investor and philanthropist.[7][8] As of May 2025, he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion,[9][10] having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations,[11] of which $15 billion has already been distributed, representing 64% of his original fortune. In 2020, Forbes called Soros the “most generous giver” in terms of percentage of net worth.[12]
Time for new members to step-up….Time for a Go Fund Me…Time to help the lawyers and the lawsuit against the Trump Administration who defunded our PBS and NPR. Think before you vote.