#public-media

#public-media

Every community relies on infrastructure - roads, power grids, water systems. Public media is no different. We've spent decades building one of the most remarkable content networks in the world: a constellation of local newsrooms, national shows, and independent creators. But it rests on infrastructure built for a different era: satellite distribution, analog assumptions, fragmented digital tools, FM carve-outs, and a thicket of vendor relationships that favor scale and capital over mission.

The final results are in for an auction launched on the 2025 finale of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to benefit public media. As reported by , items including a record-setting Bob Ross painting and a bidet signed by GWAR's Blöthar the Berserker raised a total of nearly $1.54 million dedicated to assisting local public broadcasters by the time bids closed on Monday night.

When a deadly landslide tore through part of Wrangell, Alaska, in 2023, there was only one place people there could go for information. "We're on an island, and there's one road, and everybody that lived south of that road lost everything they lost their electricity, internet, television, phones," says Cindy Sweat, the general manager of KSTK, the community's public broadcaster. What was left, Sweat says, was the radio.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated that the Senate aims to vote on the rescissions package, aiming to approve a procedural vote for debate the following Tuesday.

"Through this program, public media stations will further develop innovative digital strategies and use data to create and distribute unique local public media content and services across platforms, reaching and serving new audiences."