Corporation for Public Broadcasting Formally Dissolves After Loss of Federal Funding

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is formally dissolving several months after its federal funding was rescinded, but with a plea for public media to continue.

The CPB announced Monday that its board had voted to dissolve the corporation after 58 years. The CPB had been winding down its operations since August, weeks after Congress passed a Trump administration-backed budget bill that rescinded $1.1 billion in previously approved federal funding.

Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the CPB, said in a pointed statement that dissolving the corporation was the best option to help preserve public media in the United States: “For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans — regardless of geography, income, or background — had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling,” she said.“When the administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values [it embodies] by dissolving, rather thanallowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”

Harrison added, “Public media remains essential to a healthy democracy. Our hope is that future leaders and generations will recognize its value, defend its independence, and continue the work of ensuring that trustworthy, educational, and community-centered media remains accessible to all Americans.”

Congress created the CPB in 1967 to help build and maintain a network of local public TV and radio stations, which now number more than 1,500 nationwide. Those stations provide news, educational programming for children and local interest shows.

“What has happened to public media is devastating,” said CPB board chair Ruby Calvert. “After nearly six decades of innovative, educational public television and radio service, Congress eliminated all funding for CPB, leaving the board with no way to continue the organization or support the public media system that depends on it. Yet, even in this moment, I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.”

As part of its closure, CPB will distribute its remaining funds to local stations and support the American Archive of Public Broadcasting’s efforts to preserve and digitize historic programming. The corporation’s own archives will be preserved in partnership with the University of Maryland and available to the public.