Local NPR Station weighs in on federal budget cut

Reaction tonight from local NPR member radio station KAZU on the heels of President Trump’s proposed budget cuts to public broadcasting.

KAZU receives a grant from Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a non-profit founded back in 1967.

With the President’s proposed budget cut, the station’s GM says they would lose that funding.

“We are the news and information station on the radio band” says Mik Benedek general manager at KAZU.

With a staff of eight full time employees, KAZU brings that news and information to 60,000 Central Coast listeners a week.

Benedek says his station, along with many others, stay on the air with some help from taxpayers.

“It costs about $1.35 per U.S. citizens per year to provide these funds from CPB to the local stations”

CPB funds amount to just 10% of KAZU’s budget, the rest comes from listener support.

“People just like you and others donate 10, 15, 20 dollars a month on an ongoing basis and that is primary source of our funding” said Benedek.

Central Coast businesses and organizations also support the local radio station.

Sunset Community and Cultural Center isn’t just KAZU partner, they would also be affected by the budget cut.

Many of KAZU’s listeners are also ticket buyers at Sunset Center where people can catch everything from concerts to dance performances.

“If there’s no KAZU how will we reach these folks to let them know so that’s a basic real concern that we would actually lose access to a core of our patron base” said Christine Sandin, executive director at Sunset Center.

That’s not all, another proposed budget cut is for the National Endowment for the Arts which helps fund programs at the Sunset Center in Carmel.

“I think it would be very shortsighted if there was a total elimination of the NEA and grants for public broadcasting.”