Kansas Public Radio, operated by the University of Kansas, announced Tuesday that it had raised $227,000 in pledges after a week of on-air fundraising supplemented by a direct-mail campaign.

A KU press release says that the news radio show fell just short of its fundraising goal of $240,000.

“Over the next few weeks, we’ll decide on strategies to make up for the funding deficit so that KPR programming, staffing and outreach isn’t cut,” Sheri Hamilton, Kansas Public Radio developmental director, said in the release.

But fundraising is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to giving money from citizens to public broadcasting.

For example, in addition to receiving funds gained through fundraising campaigns, Kansas Public Radio also receives state dollars. Each year, the state allocates grant money to the Public Broadcasting Council, which then determines how to divide the funds between the state’s 10 public broadcasting television and radio stations.

The state allocated a total of $3.448 million to the Public Broadcasting Council in fiscal year 2008 and $2.215 million in fiscal year 2009. The council has requested $3.734 million in funds for fiscal year 2010.

In the last three years, Kansas Public Radio has received approximately $417,600 in state grant money through the council. In fiscal year 2009, it received $126,235, in fiscal year 2010 it received $131,275 and in fiscal year 2007 it received $160,144.

The Legislature has approved $112,857 in funds for Kansas Public Radio in fiscal year 2010, though the amount could be decreased because of budget cuts in upcoming months.

According to Kansas Public Radio's web page, the station’s mission is to “provide the highest quality arts and information programming that inspires, enlightens and entertains an increasing number of listeners.”

The House has attempted shift the taxpayer dollars allocated to public stations into funding for the developmentally disabled, but the efforts never made it into the final budget bill.

Former Rep. Carl Krehbiel championed the effort roughly five times while he was serving as a legislator between 1999 and 2006. Krehbiel, who served as a Republican from Moundridge, proposed the initiative as an amendment to the budget bill.

Krehbiel wanted the millions of dollars being used to fund public broadcasting to be allocated instead to Kansas residents with developmental disabilities. This way, he said, those who really needed the funding could receive it without having to raise taxes or shift the funds from other important areas such as public safety.

“Broadcasting is entertainment and what kind of society would place a higher priority on entertainment than helping our fellow citizens who desperately need it,” Krehbiel told Kansas Liberty. “Entertainment should not be a priority for the state.”

Though the amendments did pass and become a part of the budget bill in the House a few times, once the bill was put into conference committee, Krehbiel said the measure would be quietly stripped off.

Krehbiel said that though he believed that public broadcasting news was “clearly politically slanted” to the left, his motivation behind the amendment was solely to provide more funds to the disabled.

“It is unconscionable to take taxpayer dollars and spend them on entertainment especially when public broadcasting no longer serves a purpose,” he said. “We have hundreds of cable channels, and the Internet for news and education.”

Resource:

KU press release

The Week in Review