FCC Commissioner Gomez Stands With Public Broadcasters

With public media funding under threat in Washington, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez showed her support for public radio and television during a trip to Philadelphia last week. She met with the leaders of WHYY (90.9) and its sister WHYY-TV to call attention to the community service the stations provide.

The stations, whose coverage stretches into New Jersey and Delaware, serves as the Local Primary 1 (LP1) station for the Philadelphia Emergency Alert System (EAS) operational area. As Gomez’s office notes, that means it acts as the region’s primary broadcaster for receiving and relaying emergency alerts to other stations and cable systems — ensuring the public receives timely and potentially lifesaving information.

“Decisions made in Washington have real consequences for communities that rely on local news stations for critical information — emergency weather and traffic updates, local events, and ways to engage with their own neighborhoods,” said Commissioner Gomez. “Public media broadcasters like this one are committed to serving their entire community, regardless of political viewpoints.”

This visit is part of a series by Gomez to engage directly with local radio and television broadcasters, better understand the media landscape, and examine how FCC actions impact communities on the ground. Through these visits, Commissioner Gomez is also drawing attention to what she believes are the unfounded attacks on public media.

The White House said this week it will ask Congress to claw back more than $1 billion in advance funding for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. While lawmakers already approved $535 million in advance annual funding for CPB, including as part of a budget deal reached last month, President Trump wants them to reverse course. He said last month that public media is “very biased” and the money is “being wasted.”

The White House added to that this week, releasing a list of stories and programs aired on NPR and PBS that it found objectionable — mostly related to gender and racial identity — and what it says was soft coverage of former President Biden and his family. “For years, American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing NPR and PBS, which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news,’” the White House said.

Separately, FCC Chair Brendan Carr has opened an investigation into whether NPR and PBS stations are violating the terms of their authorizations to operate as noncommercial educational stations by running underwriting announcements on behalf of for-profit entities.

If the efforts prove successful, Gomez worries they will disrupt the distribution of local news and emergency information — diverting focus from vital public interest obligations that are central to the Commission’s oversight of broadcast licensees.

“Baseless attacks on public media threaten to create a new kind of news desert — one where communities can’t access the local critical information they need,” she said. “The FCC must prioritize protecting and expanding the public’s access to timely, accurate news, free from political interference.”

Pew Research released a survey in March that said 43% of U.S. adults think Congress should keep federal dollars rolling to NPR and PBS. But while nearly seven in ten (69%) Democrats say they think the federal government should continue to fund public media, just 19% of Republicans agree. Instead, 44% of Republicans want to remove federal funding.

Funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a critical source of funding for Allegheny Mountain Radio as well as many other community broadcasters across the country that also reach underserved rural populations and areas considered to be news deserts.  AMR is a proud member of the national Emergency Alert System and exists to serve the communities of the Allegheny Highlands of the two Virginias.

My thanks to Inside Radio, a digital newletter that informs both non-profit and commercial radio.