Public Broadcasting is facing a $3.6 Million cut in the upcoming budget proposed by Governor Kristi Noem, and they’re already taking to the non-public media to tell everyone they’re going to have to cut high school sports and legislative coverage. Not sure if that’s a smart move for them:
The free broadcast of high school sports tournaments and emergency weather alerts are in jeopardy under Gov. Kristi Noem’s proposed $3.6 million cut in South Dakota Public Broadcasting funding, an SDPB official said.
“If we take a cut of that magnitude one of the things that we would lose would be high school sports,” said Ryan Howlett, the chief executive officer of Friends of SDPB. “We wouldn’t have the resources to cover them…”
and..
Also in danger is the daily coverage of meetings during each legislative session. Howlett said then-Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard established this program to provide media coverage independent of any state agency to serve as a watchdog.
Read the entire story at keloland.com.
I don’t think the cuts this year will generate the sense of outrage that prior years’ attacks on SDPB’s funding have. If it comes down to sports, I’m sure that the legislature or High School Activities Association can negotiate arrangements to stream the events or create legislation permissive where others can do so. Emergency broadcasting? God knows our cell phones do double duty serving that function. I think we’re hitting the point in our society where there’s a sense of obsolescence and questioning how SDPB is competing in todays’s market.
If the response to the funding threat is that they’re going to cut things they do well such as legislative coverage, something they excel at doing (versus rebroadcasting “Call the Midwife” and other British dramas), they’re cutting their own throat.
It’s a 65% cut to SDPB. It’s a huge cut and way out of proportion to other agencies or to the budget as a whole.
I am all in on the cuts as SDPB has become an advertising arm of the Democratic party.
Exactly!
No it hasn’t, you people deep into the right wing media claim this, but SDPB has very little “news” broadcast. The loss of legislative coverage would just create more smoke and mirrors than they have already in Pierre. Nobody covers state issues and SDPB is the only one covering every committee meeting and session.
SDPB should be 100% donor supported. They went out of their way to protect the Marijuana Industry in 2020 and block an opportunity for equal time for the opposition on the ballot measure IM26 they could get the difference from that industry in donations.
I feel that more people watch high school sports than anything else on public broadcasting. I dfon’t think threats are a solution. Get to work and re-do your business plan.
Agreed. Yet there are some really good live streams out there. It can be done on YouTube with high quality and far cheaper. Watertown does it with high school students and it’s a great product. Empty threat by SDPB regarding sports.
We pay for a membership so we can watch British shows. It is the only thing we watch on PBS. We do not watch HS sports but I am thankful they are broadcast for those who cannot attend the games. We do not watch the legislature, but I appreciate that the governmental process is broadcast. What could be cut is their news. It has become one-sided. Some of the boring talk shows as well. They need to find out what the people like and what serves SD the best. It is South Dakota’s Public Broadcasting and it is not one political party’s platform.
Bah. Cut it all. Give the money for the broadcasting on the internets of the sessions to the IT web people or the council for research of the legislatures. Kids sports are in the you tube. Nobody needs “call the midwife” and liberal docudramas. Whack it and whack it good. The bogus threat that you won’t see great grandson Johnny playing golf live on the TeeVee is actually an argument to cut them more.
the time has come. Technology now makes it easy to watch sports on YouTube and elsewhere. For the big tournaments, I would look for Midco or KELO to pick up the broadcasts. The smaller sports can be picked up by other media. State hockey has been broadcast live for years by Midco and now a Pierre radio station with no tax dollars needed.
When I was a kid, SDPB provided educational shows that you couldn’t get anywhere else. Cable TV, YouTube, and hundreds of other content creators can now bring it straight to your desktop, laptop, phone, or TV.
SDPB and their hushed tones can exist via memberships or sponsors. No more federal or state tax dollars please.
KELO used to broadcast them until maybe 20 years ago, when they dumped them. That’s why SDPB picked it up.
The whole point of Public Broadcasting was to provide emergency broadcasting in remote areas for civil defense purposes. There were large swaths of the country where the population wasnt dense enough to sell advertising, and commercial broadcasting wasn’t sustainable..But the fear of another foreign attack like Pearl Harbor made it reasonable to be able to reach everybody. (It’s sort of how credit bureaus went into areas where banks didn’t.)
So out of concern for Civil defense, weather alerts, and so on, the government decided it was necessary to fund public broadcasting. It wasn’t supposed to compete with commercial broadcasting.
That was how it all started, and now it’s an anachronism.
The school events can be streamed by the students themselves, as class assignments in Broadcast Journalism, Public Communications, Television and Film Production. (People actually go to college to earn degrees in those fields)
This would present education experiences for the students so it’s a win-win.
Cutting the public broadcasting budget that serves primarily rural SD to send to private schools in big cities is no bueno.
Cut the voucher program. Keep broadcasting high school football. Easy.
Cut SDPB taxpayer funding. Kill the voucher con job. Redirect funds from SDPB to public education and drug prevention efforts.
YES, YES, YES.
“Won’t you be my neighbor?”
There is a new Sheriff in town. He appreciates that the only radio and TV reception he can get in Union Center without a subscription service is SDPB. He even appreciates, but does not espouse, the left leaning views from NPR when the folks in Verm-town take a break. Whenever the Longhorns make the state tourney he tunes in. He doesn’t Call the Midwife though.
Big Lar understands that it ok to invest a little in public broadcasting and education, and a little less in prisons.
Public schools are going away anyway, so you can get your sports coverage through your church if you are a full tithing member.
The major question I have is just how much of the public broadcast money goes for salaries, not programming. Is it as high as 60 percent ?
What if they just promised to run some Fox News content?
Then we could give them even more money!
I think they provide a unique service that nobody else provides. I like that it’s not corporate driven nonsense and I don’t have to pay 25/month to watch it. The savings in government spending will be spent elsewhere so don’t start with how much less I will pay in taxes. Not saying they couldn’t take a haircut but this is the butcher!
so you are okay with the government subsidizing services to compete with the private sector???
That’s what this is about. The private broadcasters have to raise their own money. They compete for viewers with PBS, which could easily sell advertising just like everybody else.
Government should only do the things that private enterprise cannot do.
Government already competes against the private sector in many areas now.
I think Governor to be Rhoden gets several commercial radio stations in Union Center. Union Center is “out there” but only about 50 miles from the tower of the country station out of Sturgis Les Klevan used to have a live 3 hour daily call in show, with a conservative point of view on that station, but Les is long gone. . KFYR coming out of North Dakota probably comes in with a lot of AG News. But..there is really a paucity of South Dakota news on most commercial news stations. Satellites bring programming from Colorado Springs and many stations play no local news at the breaks anymore. The weather is even programmed by the satellite providers. SDPB has regularly scheduled and special broadcasts of South Dakota news a fella can’t get anywhere else.
Again, the only legitimate reason for public broadcasting is for civil defense.
Some of us are old enough to remember the tests of the Emergency Broadcast System, and “if this had been a real emergency, you would receive directions…” to hunker down in your bomb/fallout shelter, run for cover, or man your antiaircraft guns.
The government should not be in the business of keeping you entertained.