CHARLESTON, Ill. (WAND) - Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a package of spending cuts that included over $1 billion in cuts for public broadcasting.
The PBS station in Charleston, WEIU, is preparing for what may come.
"WEIU and other PBS stations are going to stay open," said Jeff Owens, WEIU's General Manager. "We're just going to have to learn to operate in a different manner."
WEIU is connected to Eastern Illinois University, offering a training ground for broadcast students.
Owens said the cuts will lead to a loss of about $800,000 per year in federal funding.
"It's not a reason to panic," Owens said. "We're not going away right now, and we don't plan on going away. Our idea and goal is to fundraise and continue to do what we do, and be hyper local and serve the EIU community with a lot of emphasis on student training."
The losses come from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB), which will shut down Oct. 1.
Owens says it will not impact PBS programming from WEIU, which makes up about 25% of what airs.
Reflecting on the impact PBS can make, Owens said, "You get letters from kids that say I only learned how to spell because of Sesame Street. I only learned how to add because of Sesame Street. So we've made such an impact."
Owens said students heading to EIU in the next month will see no difference in what is offered versus previous years.
"We have some money in reserve that we've kind of been fiscally responsible," Owens said. "We also have to have a drastic increase in fundraising to let people know that if you want us to be on the air five, six, seven years down the road, our donors and our supporters are going to have to give. Blatantly honest."
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