Charlotte public radio broadcaster WFAE is warning listeners it’s headed for a $1 million operating deficit in the fiscal year starting July 1 as a drop in local giving compounds the potential elimination of federal funding.
“WFAE is staring down a $1 million shortfall as we enter the new fiscal year,” Mike Collins, host of the station’s “Charlotte Talks” show, said in an email to listeners on Thursday. “That’s not a scare tactic — it’s our reality.”
Community contributions, including corporate sponsorships, account for more than 90% of WFAE’s financial support, while federal funds represent about 6%, according to Dave Handy, the station’s CFO.
“While we are concerned about the potential loss of federal funding, we are even more concerned about a sharp decline in community support that we experienced over the last year,” Handy said in an email to listeners on Wednesday.
The pair of emails solicited for contributions, offering multiple donation buttons, as does WFAE’s website next to the banner “Homegrown Journalism. National Stakes.”
“We can point to political and economic uncertainty, impacts of inflation and even the natural disasters that have constrained philanthropy for that decline,” Handy said, “but it doesn’t change that we are operating with a large financial loss caused by this shortfall.”
Nationally, public radio stations are bracing for the possible elimination of federal funding, spurred by President Donald Trump’s desire to end taxpayer support of what he views as news coverage biased against conservative viewpoints.
The U.S. Senate is considering legislation passed earlier this month by the House of Representatives that eliminates the next two years of federal funding for public media outlets. At risk is $1.1 billion allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes nearly all of the funds to local television and radio stations, for the next two fiscal years.
CPB is suing the Trump administration of its efforts to exert control over its board. CPB, the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio criticized the House vote, urging the Senate to stop the legislation.
The threat advanced May 1 when Trump signed an executive order ending taxpayer subsidization of PBS and NPR. Referring to the outlets as “biased media,” the order ceases federal funding to NPR and PBS to the maximum extent allowed by law.
It also ceases indirect funding to PBS and NPR by prohibiting local public radio and television stations and any other recipients of CPB funds from using taxpayer dollars to support these organizations.
“If the Senate approves, federal funding for public media will come to an immediate and abrupt end after 58 years,” Handy wrote in his email. “The truth is WFAE is experiencing financial hardship from a decline in support at the same time that we are facing the loss of federal funding. We are concerned about our financial stability.”
The financial chief didn’t immediately reply to a request for further explanation of WFAE’s financial problems, described by Collins in historic terms.
“Right now, WFAE is facing one of the greatest threats I’ve seen in all my years here,” Collins, the 27-year host of “Charlotte Talks” host, said in his email.
Two other North Carolina public radio stations didn’t immediately respond to requests for their financial positions. Paul Hunton, president and general manager for WUNC in Chapel Hill, and Tom Dollemayer, general manager of Winston-Salem’s WFFD, didn’t reply to emails.
