NYPR says that all stations facing significant financial challenges are eligible to participate in the Station-to-Station Programming Project. For public media organizations receiving 10% or more of their budget from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) (approximately 64% of the public radio system), the WNYC Distribution portfolio will be available at no cost. Larger stations facing challenges will also be eligible to participate on an as-needed basis. NYPR will also extend the program to non-commercial educational broadcasters who were not previously part of the CPB cohort but who provide service to their local communities.
The program will take effect on October 1 for the start of the federal fiscal year when previously the CPB would begin the process of calculating and distributing station grants. At launch eight programs will be made available: WNYC’s Radiolab, On the Media, Terrestrials, WNYC and The New Yorker’s New Yorker Radio Hour, WQXR and Carnegie Hall’s Carnegie Hall Live, Freakonomics Radio Network’s Freakonomics, Vox’s Today Explained, and Science Friday.
NYPR President/CEO/Executive Chair LaFontaine Oliver said, “This is a consequential and urgent moment for public media. CPB funding has been a cornerstone of the public media landscape for nearly 60 years, and the speed of its elimination puts stations at immediate risk. We want to help our fellow public radio stations devote as much of their budgets as possible to the excellent local reporting and original programming that keep communities healthy and bring them together. Local news is essential to protecting our democracy, and in this moment, we want to do our part to help ensure that all Americans continue to have access to this critical public resource. This project is a meaningful way to provide peer-to-peer support, and we are grateful to our partners at Freakonomics and Science Friday for joining us.”…