By Staff Reporter |
After this week, Arizona PBS will have one less program broadcasting the western news.
Arizona State University (ASU) declined to renew its contract with NewsHour West, a bureau in downtown Phoenix under the member station operated by ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona PBS (KAET).
NewsHour West provided western regional news, late breaking news, and a West Coast version of the news provided by the East Coast-based NewsHour.
NewsHour Productions sent out an email to PBS News supporters advising that ASU based their decision on “revised priorities,” according to Current.
Arizona PBS will continue its other programs, such as “Arizona Horizon” and “Horizonte.”
Arizona PBS programming under its call sign KAET — meaning “Arizona Educational Television” — dates back nearly 65 years to January 1961.
NewsHour West will have its final airing on Friday. The bureau launched in 2019.
The NewsHour West team consisted of Stephanie Sy, anchor and correspondent; Phil Maravilla, senior producer; Lena Jackson, deputy senior producer; Madison Staten, associate producer; and Justin Stabley, digital editor.
Back in April, Arizona PBS expanded in a different direction. The broadcasting station entered an agreement with Amazon Prime to offer free streaming to Arizona-based viewers.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private, nonprofit corporation which passes on federal funds to both PBS and NPR, announced in August that it would shut down after Congress reduced public broadcasting funds.
CPB lost around $1 billion in funding meant to fund broadcasting over the next two years.
A majority of CPB staff were laid off at September’s end; CPB said it planned to retain a skeleton crew until January, at least, to see through its remaining legal and financial obligations.
As it winds down, CPB has continued to administer its remaining millions as awards to various public broadcasting outlets and news organizations.
CPB’s demise occurred following its repeated resistance to efforts by President Donald Trump to bring the nonprofit to heel.
The Trump administration attempted to fire three CPB board members, prompting CPB to sue in April. That case is ongoing.
Then CPB refused Trump’s executive order, released in May, ordering CPB to cease federal funding for NPR and PBS. Longtime CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said Trump lacked authority over CPB, and that CPB was “wholly independent” of the federal government.
About 15 percent of the PBS budget relied on federal funding. The remainder comes from private donors, corporate sponsors, and nonprofits.
The NewsHour corporate sponsors are BNSF, Consumer Cellular, and Raymond James. Among the top foundation and individual funders are the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Doris Duke Foundation, Ford Foundation, Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation, Lumina Foundation for Education, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Park Foundation, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, and The Walton Family Foundation.
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