Transcript
The Legacy Of Public Broadcasting Is In Trouble (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Thu Aug 14, 2025
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Ta-da-ba along Mr. Aaron Zabers on the board.
It's six past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, August 14th, 2025.
And it is a particularly great day to be a Wisconsinite.
Welcome, everybody.
Glad to have you along.
Harkening back to, is that from 82 Zabers or 87?
Do we know exactly when Brewer Fever was playing out over the air?
Originally 1980.
1980 so it was it was around I think it made it into the the Kelly call Sean Hannes film just a bit outside Which I have in my hot little hands right here Amazing how this movie that came out last year and you can still see it on DVD for free on Roku you can Stream it buy it on Apple TV
prime, just a bit outside the story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers, how relevant it is today, especially after yesterday.
It made the Brewers did it.
They won 12 in a row.
They swept the Cubs, winning 12 games for only the second time in history in the regular season.
Third, if you count the postseason in 2018.
They're off today traveling to the red Cincinnati and then of course that big five game series against Chicago the Cubs right now the Brewers lead the Cubs
by seven and a half games.
The Cubs won yesterday.
They're playing right now this afternoon, wrapping up a series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
But for now, the Brewers have a seven and a half, seven and a half game lead on the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.
But what a deal, Zomers.
I mean, we were watching the end of the game yesterday, right after we got off the show or got done at the show, 12 to five, I believe the final score.
12 to five.
And it was exciting.
speechless.
He understands.
By the way, a big show coming up.
A very important guest at the bottom of the hour.
Sarah Ashworth, the director of Wisconsin Public Radio and John Miskowski, the director of PBS Wisconsin, formerly Wisconsin Public Television, are going to be with us talking about the cuts to the corporation for public broadcasting at the national level and what that could mean to public radio and public television across Wisconsin.
Gonna be talking with them at the bottom of the hour.
And then also in hour number two, little silliness for you, a car edition.
with the Trump tariffs never too early to buy a new car or a car if you need one.
Category a color of cars, color of cars in hour number two and also talking to more serious things.
AI, regular listeners in this program know how much I like that.
AI launches across federal government.
Story and political today.
We'll talk about that.
The great Ernie Johnson, speaking of great Milwaukeeans.
Ernie Johnson now at TNT and well, I guess now ESPN as well with the NBA.
He's from Milwaukee recently got inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.
Some great comments from him speaking to the just a bit outside the movie Mark Cass, one of the great promoters of the film.
He posted this from Ernie Johnson.
So we'll be listening to that a little bit later as well.
And where's your speech on the dignity index?
Talking about that a little bit later in the program as well.
Of course, your phone calls 855-752-4842-855-752-4842.
Feel free to give us a ring a link.
Here is how it sounded yesterday afternoon.
Jeff Levering, I believe, on the call on FanDuel Sports.
Here's the final out to make it 12 and a row from Milwaukee.
3-2 pitch.
Strike him out!
What a run for these guys.
Unbelievable.
If you're not sitting here watching it in person, you wouldn't believe it.
Look at these guys have turned this season around.
Offense,
defense, pitching.
Jeff Levering on the call there.
on FanDuel, the final out from yesterday's game, made it 12 in a row, and that means it's burger time.
Now, if you're not familiar, George Webb, Milwaukee based area restaurants down there, they've done this a couple of times before when the Brewers reached 12, 12 game winning streak.
A little while ago, George Webb announced their next promotion on this, courtesy of JR Radcliffe.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he writes here online that George Webb has set the time from 2 until 6 p.m.
Next Wednesday August 20th Taking place at all locations throughout, Wisconsin the chain has 23 locations George Webb almost entirely in the Milwaukee area vouchers will be available beginning tomorrow
Friday, August 15th, at all locations, quote, for those who want to savor the moment and enjoy a delicious George Webb hamburger at a later date, unquote, the restaurant chain said in a newsletter.
A limited menu will also be available on the giveaway day with deals on extra burgers, fries, and drinks.
I think this is fantastic.
The brewers themselves, the brewers, here's the thing, the brewers are gonna have to get creative.
Or if they want to participate, you get a free hamburger, given that they'll be playing a game down the interstate at Wrigley Field in Chicago next Wednesday.
now.
Maybe, perhaps.
So maybe somebody will truck some down to Chicago for the crew.
Last time the promotion triggered in 2018, the rest of the Senate gave away 90,000 free burgers, plus another 100,000 redeemable vouchers.
In 1987, the first year of the promotion, Bering Fruit, they handed out 168,000 free burgers.
So if you want your free burger, George Webb, day of its next Wednesday, August 20th, two until six in the afternoon.
Speaking of 87, found this, this got posted online by Armand Serrain.
of the game in Milwaukee, went back, found some archives of WTMJ television, television, TMJ4 TV.
This is the story they ran back in 1987.
For decades,
George Webb has been predicting the Brewers would win 12 straight games most season.
There was little chance of that coming true.
So when it finally happened today, fans were eager to hear whether Webb would pay up.
News for tonight's Catherine Heenan answers that question.
That was the home run that made George pay.
And if you think in the midst of this excitement people had forgotten about the George Webb's promise, think again.
George Webb!
George Webb!
George Webb!
Well Robert, whatever he offers, you gonna take him up on it?
I certainly shall.
Being a Scotchman, I will.
Part of the fun of all of this is the history behind it.
The original George Webb began predicting 12 straight winds back in the early 50s with the Braves.
So more than 30 years later, the prediction finally comes true, and this was the crowd that gathered at the webs in North 76th Street waiting for word on what they'd get.
If you picked up a coupon today, it's good for a free hamburger Wednesday through Sunday of this week.
But anybody can walk into any webs Wednesday without a coupon from noon to eight and collect.
We expect to give away an excess of one hundred and twelve thousand hamburgers.
One hundred and twelve thousand hamburgers would feed between three and four times the number of people at today's game.
That's Milwaukee history being made in more ways than one.
Catherine Heenan, news for tonight.
That's from TMJ for television.
back in 1987.
And just to see the, you know, the hairstyles, the clothes, everything else, it was absolutely fantastic.
And again, for the record, according to this story by J.R.
Radcliffe and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this afternoon, back in 87, first time it happened, 168,000 burgers at George Webb in total.
Crazy.
And I remember this game in, I mean, 87, it was a magical year.
It was my first year at WRCO in Richland Center, which carried the games then and still carries now.
Now it's a part of Civic Media, RCO and RCE.
You can still hear the games on WRCE 1450 AM and 107.7 FM.
I remember that year when they started out 13 wins in a row on Easter Sunday like that, and then it was 87 also that won the Avis Pitch Milwaukee's first and thus far only no hitter.
So it was, I mean, after 82, which I also remember going to the World Series, but, but after 82, probably the next biggest year for a lot of Brewer's fans was 87.
It was it was a lot of fun now
and now it might be in 2025 because I haven't seen this kind of excitement in Milwaukee in 2018 I guess when they went to the NLCS Got beat by the terrible Dodgers in that one in game seven in Milwaukee, but This year is something special and again, I hope just to reiterate a little bit.
I hope people are soaking this up
and and adjoined him.
Let's play this cut, uh, zoomers from Brandon Woodruff, who got beat up a little bit early in the game, but ended up being, I believe, the winning pitcher of record.
This is Brandon Woodruff after the game in the gaggle, as they say in the locker room, after the Brewers win.
There we
I
about the free burgers?
I was telling my wife last night that I was more nervous about I wanted to win the burgers for everybody in the stands, including myself.
But no, it was, it was fun.
It's a, it's a cool thing.
Like you could tell, you could tell the energy around today is like on a day game was a little bit more than usual.
And um, no, it was fun, but seriously, I wanted to win those burgers fast
for sure.
That's George.
I will say that's George Webb.
That's Brandon Woodruff.
After the game yesterday, I didn't realize I'm not sure what where Woodroof is from I didn't realize he had such a he has I would call it a very cool southern accent.
Yeah, he's right a redhead, you know the ginger as they say full full beard everything seems like a great guy and and he just kept I mean again, we're gonna I want to hear one more cut here in a minute from
Isaac Collins who could very well be the National League rookie of the year who is gonna be off for a couple days apparently not gonna be with the team in Cincinnati because his wife is About to have their first child and they were based out of Colorado Because that's where he was what he got claimed by by Milwaukee and so
His wife's been out there, apparently her family is out there with her.
And I'm not sure if they're inducing or exactly what, but apparently the child is expected to be born this weekend.
And so they've given Isaac Collins the weekend off to, you know, that was nice to be there for the birth of his son.
We're out of here.
I want to hear from him a little bit when we come back as well.
And then we'll take a couple of look at other non-sports headlines, news headlines of the day.
Henry listing in Madison on WMDX as free burger in paradise.
How about that?
I hope you caught it.
I sure have Brewer fever.
Talk a little bit more about it.
After this is the all ball show across Wisconsin on the civic media.
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1982.
At least the year the Brewers went to the World Series.
Little violent fams for you here.
Love this song.
Could jam out to it all day.
Featuring the movie, just a bit outside the story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers.
Pick it up on DVD today.
Also find it still streaming for free on Roku, the Roku channel.
And you can watch it on Apple Plus and Amazon as well.
It's just, Zomers and I have both seen it multiple times.
And the vibe, Zommer's agree or disagree.
The vibe in that movie, anything, well, wouldn't have been fun to live through those times.
And I'm old enough that I did.
But you, well, you didn't live through those times.
But I mean, in your opinion, as somebody who was, didn't live through that, but now, but seeing the movie, lots of similarities in the vibe.
And I have to say, I got to, thankfully, you know, because of the show, got to meet Kelly Call and Sean Hannes, producer and director, producer.
and thank them for making this movie because as someone my age, you can't experience that anymore.
There is a certain type of magic that in the days of social media and famous people having to distance themselves for their own safety, you can't really have the same kind of vibe as you did in the 80s, but that movie really lets you experience some of that magic.
I got a little taste of what it could have been like,
you know.
Absolutely.
Well said.
And you get the feeling for those of us that did live through 82 and 87 that there is a little bit of that magic in the air again.
And perhaps maybe a lot of it or at least a part of it is due to the late great Bob Euker Euker magic or seeing those signs more and more.
And if you believe in those kind of things, there's just a vibe going on.
I want to hear from Isaac Collins.
who has just been tearing it up for the Brewers, up for National League Rookie of the Year, even though he's, you know, 27, I think 28, been passed around to the minor leagues a lot.
This is his first big shot in the big leagues.
He was on the Major League Baseball Network either last night or the night before and talk a little bit about the guys, with the guys and gals at Major League Baseball Network about what's happening in Milwaukee.
insane.
I'm not
had a poster of pull holes in my room growing up and on it said the machine.
So this is just
crazy moment for me to be talking to you guys.
I loved it.
I loved it.
I'm happy he gave me that shout out playing high school football and I mean he's right like it's just you know it's been a long journey for me to get here and you know I've had a fight at every single level and you know I think those experiences in the minor leagues are helping me out here at this level.
You talk about your journey, Isaac, 2019 ninth round pick.
Uh, no 2020 season was canceled rule five in 2022.
When you look back at it, the journey from then to here, what comes to mind?
What stands out for you?
Uh,
It's just a lot of adversity and how to handle it really.
Again, I was never really a top prospect.
Never was really a priority.
So it's just what can I do to separate myself?
What do I got to do to get on the field?
And that's play out field, play in field, put together quality at bats, and just give my manager no excuse not to put me in the lineup.
Love that.
Isaac, congratulations.
Albert Pujos here.
Talk to us about the energy right now in the clubhouse and the stand and with the fans as well.
And also you just mentioned, you know, playing for Pat Murphy.
Talk to us about how you feel about playing for him.
I love Murph.
You know, I feel like I just fit perfectly with his style of baseball.
The vibes in the clubhouse, the vibes throughout the city are just as good as it gets right now.
And, you know, we're just taking this thing one day at a time.
You know, we're having a lot of fun while we're doing it.
And just executing the game, really, that's that's ultimately what it comes down to, you know, whatever the game gives us, we're taking it and pitching defense at the plate.
We're just, you know, we're playing good baseball right now.
That's Isaac Collins on Major League Baseball Network.
How cool is that?
I mean, here's Isaac Collins up for rookie of the year in National League, rookie of the year.
and gets to go on and talk with one of his childhood heroes in baseball, Albert Pools, who happens to be now in the interview panel for Major League Baseball, and Collins said he had a poster of Pools up on his room that said The Machine, and now some people are calling Collins the Machine.
that?
It really is.
And again, Collins reports are he's going to be out for two or three days here as he is on maternity leave.
His wife is having their first child in Colorado.
So we'll see about that.
They're also speaking of the rumor mill for the brewers.
They have not named their starting pitcher yet for tomorrow.
They're off today, traveling to Cincinnati, the brewers are.
And some reports are saying that it could be a return.
for Jacob Mizorowski, the brewers Phenom, who had a little bit of a shin injury and they're trying to let him rest.
So the thought is they may bring the Miz in on Friday for at least a short start at Cincinnati.
They want him healthy for that five game series against Chicago in Chicago next week, but probably going to get a little bit of work early on.
So we'll see.
Miz may be on the mound on on Friday, but exciting times.
And again, I just hope that people across the state eat this up, revel in it.
This is great summer, end of summer here as people are starting to get squeezed out that last part of summer vacation, maybe go to the lake house one more time before Labor Day weekend, this weekend, go into some of the festivals around Wisconsin.
I know for particularly our listeners on AUK and Southeast Wisconsin, gonna be cleaning it up.
Maybe helping neighbors or friends clean up their basement or things like that.
And again, our hearts and thoughts and prayers continue to go out with them.
But we need some positivity right now and the Brewers are doing
Yes, exactly.
I mean, Brewers play at our station up in Amory.
Up at Hayward, Richland Center, Oshkosh, Park Falls, all across the state, RJN Racine.
So you're right, Zabers.
It binds us all together.
A little farm update from Pam Yankee, and then come back, a special conversation with the heads of Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television, now PBS Wisconsin on the other side.
It's the all-ball show for a Thursday on the Civic Media.
ready to welcome back to the title ball show across Wisconsin, the civic media, ready to work now 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock on a Thursday, August 14th for those of us of a certain age, even as a jazzy version, nicely done, Zommer's Johnny Costa played, won't you be my neighbor?
The theme song to Mr. Rogers neighborhood on PBS.
Wonderful program taught us all so very much for those of us, like I say, of a certain age.
And now programs like that.
may well be an endangered species.
We had covered it last week.
The announcement of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will, for all intent and purposes, cease their operations in September, maybe a few staffers lingering into the next calendar year.
And not just that, but the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress through the rescission bill are going to be clawing back.
a little over a billion dollars from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting that was already passed and signed into law by a previous Congress and a previous president.
I know our friend Jane McNair, McNair and Air had our friend Robert Pilot of Native Roots Radio that plays out on this network, how it might affect Native...
radio as well because that's part of public broadcasting.
But right now we are joined being honored to be joined by two guests for the rest of this half hour.
Our first guest Sarah Ashworth is the director of Wisconsin Public Radio and our second guest is the director of PBS Wisconsin.
For those of us of a certain age grew up with Wisconsin Public Television but now goes by PBS Wisconsin, John Miskowski.
Sarah and John, thank you both very much for joining us via stream yard today and welcome to the program.
Thank you for having
us.
It's our honor.
As we like to do for people who first appear on the program, start with Sarah, then go to John.
Tell us just a little bit about yourselves, where you grew up, and how you ended up in this field of broadcasting.
Oh, sure.
Hi, everyone.
I grew up in Minnesota, actually, across the river in Minnesota.
I've been in Wisconsin now for two years.
I have a lot of family who is in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin was the state we would visit when I was a kid.
And WPR was a station I knew about for...
For the last few decades it's just one of those stations that has been around for 108 years.
People across public media talk about it as Wisconsin has something special going on there and so is the station I always paid attention to.
I came up working in newsrooms.
So I was a reporter.
I was a news director.
I was an editor.
I was a producer on a talk show, a couple of different talk shows, actually, and then moved into management.
And I was at Vermont Public right before this.
But I've worked at five different stations in the Midwest and New England area predominantly.
But I'm really happy to be what I consider home in the upper Midwest now and at WPR.
Very good.
I appreciate it, Sarah.
John.
Well, I grew up in Stevens Point and had the delusion, I think, that if I came to school at Madison, I might discover a career or something like that.
And it turns out I did.
And that was while I was in school.
I started volunteering at WHA TV, then later Wisconsin Public Television, now PBS Wisconsin.
and started volunteering and then had a part-time job.
Primarily my career has been in fundraising, including four years at WGBY in Springfield, Massachusetts, which was a great experience being the sister station to WGBH in Boston.
I'd say the focus and things that I'd talk about in my career has been really the Wisconsin focus that we've
that we have identified as a focus of our work at PBS Wisconsin.
So projects like our veterans projects, our World War II, Korea, Vietnam veterans programs, and community engagement.
Projects like hometown stories are something that's coming up right around the corner on Quilt Show.
That was an idea that Nancy Zieman created for our friend who has passed, but that lives on and is really involved with Nancy and a few other people building that as well.
So those are some of the highlights of my work over those years.
When I think of now PBS Wisconsin and also Wisconsin Public Radio, I think of my childhood.
Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and Sesame Street, certainly.
Also, I'm back in the day in public schools in Wisconsin where they would roll in the television on a cart and turn it to PBS.
And there would be, you know, like social studies programs on there.
That was part of the part of the learning back in the day.
When I think of Wisconsin Public Radio, I think of working on, you know, a high school and college painting sets for musicals.
And it would be tuned to, you know, WHHI Highland.
And that would be the.
background music that you listen to and I'm a huge Garrison Keeler fan.
So these are things that are foundational to me growing up, but I know I share that with a lot of Wisconsinites.
Let's just have a roundtable discussion.
John, then Sarah, just I mentioned this at the top of the segment.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting for all attempt purposes gone after next month.
How is that going to impact for those of us around Wisconsin who are concerned about your two institutions?
What is your first knee jerk take?
How is this these cuts to a Corporation for Public Broadcasting going to affect PBS Wisconsin, John?
Well, let me I'll describe my two major concerns and and one is
That federal funding has been core to the innovation and creation of children's programming.
Daniel Tiger is this.
amazing, you know, continuation of Fred Rogers' legacy.
I have a four-year-old granddaughter.
You take whatever kind of almost any issue she's dealing with.
We know that that show has a show about that.
We know from her and we know from other parents that that show really helps children manage their emotions, find solutions, and things like that.
that main driver of that investment that prepares children for school.
What I've heard described is a reading crisis in this country.
It's just a little frustrating to think that this proven service that is tested and is designed for kids to
learn and succeed and be prepared for school, that has so sort of lightly kind of been defunded.
Now, there are some effort to refund that, but that's one thing that I would say is a priority.
And then a next thing across the country, and I know you asked about PBS Wisconsin, but the next thing that I would say is rural service.
Folks understand like what
You had mentioned tribal radio stations, especially if you look at places like Alaska, those radio stations are literally a lifeline for people.
And so that bringing news and information into rural areas, and certainly Wisconsin is included in that.
That is one of the key things that federal funding was designed was to see that this was a universal service.
One of the consequences is for larger organizations like ours is if those rural stations can't survive this cut, that means the dollars that they bring in through their community then are not shared with the system.
So not only do we lose the federal funding, we start to lose partners who share
the dollars that we put into national programming.
So to me, those are the two critical things, but there's a number of other things.
But those are the two things that are, to me, the most concerning things.
We're discussing the cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C.
and how it will affect broadcasting, public broadcasting, in particular, Wisconsin, I guess, or John Muskowski, PBS Wisconsin, and Sarah Ashworth, the director of Wisconsin Public Radio.
Sarah, same question to you.
Looking at the cuts in D.C., how is this going to impact Wisconsin Public Radio directly?
Yeah, and what John said, you know, we are so closely connected WPR and PBS Wisconsin.
We work together in so many ways.
We look at our budgets together.
So this impact affects both of us greatly.
There's a significant impact on WPR and PBS Wisconsin and the other stations in the state who receive CPB funding.
What John said around rural access, you know, the
The CPB money helped ensure equitable access to everyone across the country, no matter your circumstance, no matter what you can pay for, no matter where you are in the country, CPB helped make sure that public media reached you.
And that could have been through a program like Daniel Tiger.
It could have been through the new service that's offered through NPR or from your local station.
I think the statistic is somewhere like 98 to 99% of Americans can access public media.
CPB ensured that was the case.
So I think we don't know fully the impact of what that access may look like going forward because it's those smaller remote areas that are far harder to get the broadcast infrastructure to to support reliably over time.
The donor base who can support stations in rural areas is just naturally smaller than in larger metropolitan areas.
So the sustainability for those stations.
So the impact
is great across the country and then here in Wisconsin you know to put numbers to it for for PBS Wisconsin and WPR and again we are services of UW Madison and the Educational Communications Board so we look at our budgets across the entire partnership we have that it takes to put public media out statewide in Wisconsin it's it's about 10.4 percent of our budget and that's about six million dollars so we're now starting to plan for what we look like
how we sustain ourselves with that loss in public funding.
And I think that private public partnership, there's a lot of pride in that, that we work together to sustain this service.
Lots of people contribute to make WPR and PBS Wisconsin what they've been.
So I'll put it in Todd terms.
The federal funding basically from Corporation of Public Broadcasting, roughly you're saying 6%, is that basically for both PBS Wisconsin and WPR?
No, across.
it's it's it's it's it's slightly in excess of 10 percent 10 percent and it's about six million dollars sorry i have a number six million that is very significant i mean any business can think about what six million dollars means it's a significant
And I think it is me and some people email in and knew you guys were coming on So I think one of the questions in Wisconsinites minds is all right So you're an entity basically or some scenario or a part of UW Madison So so the the crises if I could use that word, maybe not too melodramatic and both PBS Wisconsin and WPR is it caused by predominantly the Republican control legislature not funding the University system well enough which those monies get put into your two entities is it the fact that the federal
are drying up or is it the fact that not enough people are giving during the pledge drives or a combination of all of that?
It's not a combination of all of that.
The legislature in Wisconsin and the university have been very supportive of public broadcasting.
That has continued this year.
Certainly that was, you know, that is something we need to prove year after year, just like our federal funding.
Community support up for radio and TV are both up.
And so that has been encouraging and looking really good.
It is the federal funding that has created this financial situation.
And our state funding has gone through in the coming budget.
And the state funding goes through the Educational Communications Board that supports the broadcast infrastructure in the state, the emergency alert systems that we have.
It does not go toward the programming on WPR PBS Wisconsin.
I think, and we got about a minute and a half here.
We can pick it up on the other side.
But Sarah, for WPR, some of the frustration I think from listeners was that we're already
Oh, I'm sorry.
See, this is why you're having a good producer.
We'll come back to it.
We'll come back.
We'll ask on the other side a couple of tougher questions, maybe why some of these cuts were made before the federal level, and what that means for listeners across Wisconsin.
We're talking public broadcasting on the All Balls show along with Mr. Rogers and Erin Zommer.
It's on the Civic Media.
Ready to
know.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
I listen to this music all day long.
I'm a huge jazz guy.
They had jazz on the square last night, so I went up after work.
They're playing jazz outside.
Perfect night for that.
Welcome back to The All Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
A little jazzy version of Mr. Rogers.
Eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock at the top of the hour.
ABC or CBS News, depending on which of our great stations.
You're listening to a check of weather.
Mike Clemens with a sports update.
See how Jordan Love is doing after that thumb surgery.
And then our number two little what's worse for you, car colors in the goofy nonsensical in our two right now.
Very serious.
serious to a lot of us across Wisconsin.
We appreciate our two guests this hour or half hour, the director of Wisconsin Public Radio, Sarah Ashworth, and the director of PBS Wisconsin, John Miskowski, joined us via StreamYard.
Sarah, I want to pick back up with you.
Certainly these changes disturbing people like me in Washington, D.C., these cuts.
But I think for a lot of listeners across Wisconsin, there was some frustration, quite frankly, and you folks at Wisconsin Public Radio put out an announcement.
Several shows, all things considered, doctors overpassed.
There were a lot of cuts to a lot of favorite programs and personalities before these federal cuts were announced.
And so I think the question for a lot of people was this proactive?
Were there problems inside of WPR already?
Or was it a lack of state funding?
Why all these cuts?
Because it's really disturbing for a lot of people to lose those local Wisconsin programs and personalities.
Yeah, no, I understand that question and to have four programs end at one time.
Since COVID, so I've been at WPR for two years, moving here two years ago, it was around COVID though that listener patterns started to change, you know, your commute wasn't there in the same way for most people.
And so we saw changes in audience, in listener habits, how people were accessing information, what they wanted to listen to, and we saw a decline.
in membership, we saw declines in audience, not immediately because there was a lot of vital information that public radio was distributing and audiences were high.
But in the last few years, we did not see a rebound back to where we had been.
And so since COVID, WPR was operating.
with a budget deficit and it was not improving and we were using reserves that we had built up over time and with a lot of donor support and member support in order to have those reserves but we were using those for the last five years or so and recognize that we couldn't continue to operate that way and that the threat around loss of CPB funding was real and we have felt that threat
for the better part of the last year and knowing that it was something we want to be prepared to weather.
And so in June, we announced that we were ending four programs and making staff reductions, laying people off.
related to those shows and then in a few other areas.
To focus our service, we are prioritizing our service to Wisconsin and the programming and the stories that are about and with and for Wisconsin.
That's what you will see WPR focus on in the coming years.
And programs like to the best of our knowledge are wonderful hallmarks of public radio.
They've made an impact globally.
They're well produced, wonderful programs.
A program like that was
Just something we financially could not support going
forward.
Quick answer, if you would, please.
Is it that, and we see this in our company, others as well, this online or podcasting or listening to it on demand, is that something that Wisconsin Public Radio is looking at doing to improve listenership in those types of things?
Yeah, yeah, we we definitely see we have a daily podcast a daily news podcast called Wisconsin today It's just a few minutes long each morning.
You can listen to it and get caught up on statewide news We're also we launched a new email newsletter Also called Wisconsin today that you can sign up for a WPR org and that's another way where we're putting stories out there We are investing in the digital experience for Wisconsinites our website we revamped in the last year and
I know yes for short answer.
I could go on, but yes.
I'm going to get to the clock as you guys
can understand.
John,
I want to get to
this because, I mean, I think of Wisconsin Public Television, PBS Wisconsin now.
I think of, you know, becoming or being Bucky, the story of Bucky Badger.
That's something you're not going to get anyplace else.
One of the questions is, why do we need public broadcasting when we have a million choices out there in the, in the stream of fear?
Your thoughts.
Well, I think I'll give you another example coming up and Ken Burns' next epic is the American Revolution.
During that week of that broadcasting, let me just repeat that during that week of that broadcast and the online streams of this and the many ways that people watch it, more people in that week will learn about the American Revolution than has ever happened in the history of this country.
I feel like I need to repeat that.
More people will learn about the American Revolution.
We think that's important.
In Wisconsin, we are going to be working with partners of libraries, museums, the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Veterans Museum are key partners who are providing materials and will convene conversations in communities
across the state.
Okay, so when I hear people say, we have YouTube, we don't need it anymore.
I'm like, I have a four year granddaughter.
That is not true.
I think about, I haven't seen YouTube in our communities.
I haven't, you know, there's, there's, it's wonderful.
YouTube is a great way.
for us to get our content out to people.
It has been very successful.
But YouTube, Netflix are not local.
They do not bring local news.
They do not engage and use the tools of media.
As we've done, Todd, you know about our veteran service.
We're the Vietnam veteran, major effort in Wisconsin to capture those stories, to engage communities and to have veterans be proud of their service and share their story.
Netflix, YouTube, this wonderful service, there's great stuff there.
None of that is replacing what public media means in Wisconsin and across the country.
About a month ago or so I was just sitting at home and I was not feeling that great and I turned on PBS Wisconsin.
This Wisconsin Lighthouse series is phenomenal.
I mean, you're not going to find that anywhere else.
And you learn history, and it's entertaining, and it's beautifully shot.
You know, Jerry Apps, Meet You At The Fair, Wisconsin, the hometown story.
I mean, these are things you're only going to find on Wisconsin Public Television, PBS Wisconsin story.
I'm
an old guy.
And let me add one thing, too, is that that is the equivalent for education in Wisconsin, too, around history.
and things, we are producing things for the classroom about Wisconsin that nobody else is.
Make your donation now to
PBS
Wisconsin.
We'll throw in a free, just a bit outside movie nights.
I couldn't resist myself.
Thanks, John.
This is
Sarah Astworth.
We appreciate you so much.
Stay tuned.
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