This Friday, Sept. 9 at 9:30 AM Eastern, the House Labor, HHS Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its spending bill. This is the Subcommittee that decides on Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding. Subcommittee members are listed below. If one of these is yours, consider sending them the letter shown below—or something like it—today or tomorrow.
They may need to be reminded of the value of your station to their district, and the value of community and public radio to the country—and that these are not abstract entities that have nothing to do with them. KBOO is not directly funded by CPB, but that shouldn't make you hesitant to send a letter. Most of our listeners listen to public radio too.
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT), Chair
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA)
Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX)
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID)
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Ranking Member
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY)
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
_____________________________
September 2011
The Honorable First and Last Name
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative LAST NAME:
I write you today to ask that you support federal funding for public broadcasting - $445 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as enacted in the FY 2010 budget and $36 million for Digital Assistance - as you mark up the FY 2012 Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill on September 9th.
The public radio system comprises over 900 stations that broadcast, stream and podcast award winning local, regional, national and international news and information. [DESCRIPTION OF STATION FORMAT / AUDIENCE / ACTIVITIES]. Local public radio stations like [STATION] determine our own program schedules, and produce our own local programming. We respond to community needs and leverage local support.
Federal funding plays an important role in enabling our service to the community. [STATION] receives a portion of our annual budget in the form of a Community Service Grant (CSG) from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives its funding annually from Congress. This CSG accounts for approximately [XX] % of our budget and serves as vital “seed” money that we use to leverage local dollars. [EXAMPLE]
Federal funding is also critically important to rural stations across the country. These crucial federal dollars tend to make up an even larger share of rural stations’ budgets, which don’t have large population bases from which to raise funds from listeners. Rural stations serve these markets as part of their public service mission, and are sometimes the only source of local broadcast radio available.
On an aggregate level, the federal contribution to public broadcasting amounts to only $1.35 per American per year. With this small investment, [STATION] is able to provide members of our community with high-quality, commercial-free news and information, as well as music not found anywhere else in radio.
Our station airs such local programs as: [LOCAL PROGRAMMING]. Without federal funding, much of this service would be impossible.
We recognize that these are fiscally challenging times. We hope, however, that you will federal funding for local public broadcasting stations like [STATION] so that we can continue our service to your constituents.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Name
Title
Station