NORFOLK, Va. — After more than six decades, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will shut down operations at the end of September — a move that will have a major impact on public media nationwide, including here in Hampton Roads.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed a bill cutting $1.1 billion in funding for CPB. The administration has long pushed to defund the agency, claiming it has been biased against conservative viewpoints.
CPB’s funding will officially end Sept. 30, and most of its staff members are expected to be laid off. Officials say they will work with stations across the country to help them adjust, but warn some — particularly in smaller, rural markets — might not survive the loss.
WHRO will lose roughly $2 million in federal support. That accounts for a significant part of the station’s budget, but WHRO President Bert Schmidt stressed that the station is not shutting down.
“WHRO is not closing,” Schmidt said. “But we’re trying to figure out now what we’re going to be like without federal funding, because who has never been without federal funding, that funding allowed us to do things that align to our mission, not everything we do makes money. I mean, that’s the difference here. We don’t do things just to make money. We need to make money. We’ve got payroll to make. But we also do things sometimes just because of the pure mission of what public media is. It’s harder now when we don’t have that federal cushion.”
Schmidt said the station has been preparing for this possibility for some time but admits that planning for cuts and living through them are two different things.
“You think you’re ready, but when it finally hits, the reality feels different,” he said. “We’re talking about tough choices — what positions do we fill, what projects can we afford to keep, and what programs we can only do if the community steps up.”
He confirmed some retiring staff members will not be replaced, and the station will have to rethink how it manages day-to-day operations.
“This is about more than just tightening the belt,” Schmidt said. “It changes what we can dream about doing in the future. But at the same time, we still have our mission. That doesn’t go away.”
The funding cut is sending ripples across the country. VPM, another public media station in Virginia, called the move “devastating,” warning that smaller public stations — particularly in rural areas — could close or slash services.
“This will have devastating consequences for millions of people who rely on public media across the country,” VPM said in a statement. “For many smaller public media stations, especially those in rural areas, this loss of funding can mean closing or drastically reducing services. Here at VPM, we will certainly feel the impact of this decision and we are currently assessing changes to our budget. We will continue fighting for federal funding to be restored for public media.”
Schmidt said WHRO will have to do more with less but will remain on the air.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he said. “We’ll adapt, but we’ll need our community more than ever. That’s how we’ll keep WHRO strong.”
