Media experts warned that the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will bring an end to public media in small and rural communities. The giants in large markets like New York City will survive, but not the smaller markets.
“Public radio and television broadcasters are girding for battle after the Trump administration proposed a drastic cutback that they have long dreaded: the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“The potential elimination of about $445 million in annual funding, which helps local TV and radio stations subscribe to NPR and Public Broadcasting Service programming, could be devastating for affiliates in smaller markets that already operate on a shoestring budget.
“Patricia Harrison, the corporation’s president, warned in a statement on Thursday that the Trump budget proposal, if enacted, could cause “the collapse of the public media system itself.”
“But the power players in public broadcasting — big-city staples like WNYC in New York City — would be well-equipped to weather any cuts. Major stations typically receive only a sliver of their annual budget from the federal government, thanks to listener contributions and corporate underwriters. Podcasts and other digital offshoots have also become significant sources of revenue.
“Rural affiliates, however, rely more heavily on congressional largess, which can make up as much as 35 percent of their budgets. Mark Vogelzang, president of Maine Public, called the Trump proposal “the most serious threat to our federal funding” since he started in public broadcasting 37 years ago.
“We’re always living on the edge in this ecosystem of public broadcasting,” Mr. Vogelzang said in an interview.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting supports about 1,500 stations that carry a range of educational, journalistic and arts-related programming. The corporation dates to the administration of President Lyndon Johnson. Its funding, while a minuscule part of the federal budget, has been under regular peril since the 1970s from conservative lawmakers, who often denounce what they view as the liberal bent of public media.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thus securing the ignorance of their rural base.
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Can anyone answer if this will impact access to the Emergency Broadcast System?
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https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/emergency-alert-system-eas
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I am a telecommunications engineer. I used to work for WKYU-24 (Bowling Green KY) a PBS affiliate. I also used to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA has jurisdiction over portions of the Emergency Broadcast System. These are separate entities. The proposed cutbacks to the Public Broadcast System, have no potential to impact the EBS. Relax.
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Even if most or all of the rural stations vanish, because of the Internet, the audience that listens to those stations can still turn to the larger city stations that survive through the internet unless the end of net neutrality slows that option too until the only voice out there is that sicko, nut case that’s on InfoWars.
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the end of net neutrality …. This is certainly on the wishlist of big business and all of the investors in online delivery of content/services.
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The Public Broadcasting System won’t collapse: It will become the propaganda arm of the billionaires who will step in to “rescue” it with tons of money. For years now already, they have steadily turned PBS away from programs critical of the Right Wing and its causes, including such things as despoiling the environment, funding Social Security, and public employee pensions. Take a look at the major sponsors of PBS science programs: Koch. Take a look at the sponsors of the New Hour…especially if you’re a teacher. Trump’s budget cuts will merely hasten a process already well underway in PBS.
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Don’t you mean “If Federal Defunding for Corporation for Public Broadcasting is Enacted?”
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