Congress recently voted to eliminate more $1.1 billion in public media funding, money already approved for NPR, PBS, and local stations across the country. To understand the impact, Avanza 88.3 Program Director Edgar Zúñiga interviewed Maria O’Mara, Executive Director of Avanza, KUER, and PBS Utah, on Conexión.
“This decision is unprecedented,” Maria said. “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has always received bipartisan support, until now. This time, all federal support was stripped away and 70% of that money never made it to stations.”
When Edgar asked what this means for Avanza, Maria explained: “Avanza doesn’t yet receive federal money, but we were counting on it as part of our future. Now, we’ll need to rely even more on donors and local supporters.”
Maria went on to explain why public media matters. “Public media exists to fill the gap commercial media can’t or won’t, like early education, civic literacy, and community storytelling,” Maria said.
Maria added that’s precisely why KUER, PBS Utah, and the University of Utah launched Avanza. “There wasn’t a station directly serving Utah’s bicultural, bilingual audience,” Maria said. “What we’re creating here is very unique... that’s the public service mission.”
Despite the funding cuts, Maria was clear that Avanza is a priority: “We’re not going away. We’re here to stay, and we love our growing Avanza audience.”
Edgar thanked Maria for her leadership and vision, saying, “every time we go out into the community, we hear how excited people are that Avanza exists. We’re just trying to be a community service and really bring people together.”
HAZ CLIC AQUÍ PARA UNA VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL DE CONEXIÓN SOBRE LOS RECORTES FEDERALES Y SU IMPACTO
