The Summit FM had its best-ever fundraising day Friday. It started at 7 a.m., just hours after Congress rolled back $1.1 billion allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and cut all federal support for public TV and radio, including at the Akron-based station.
The radio station will take a $130,000 hit, General Manager Tommy Bruno said — almost 10% of its $1.4 million budget.
At PBS Western Reserve, President and CEO Natalie Pillsbury said the $1.2 million CPB cut amounts to nearly a quarter of the TV station’s $5.3 million budget.
And the $2.6 million grant Ideastream Public Media will lose is just shy of 10% of its annual operating budget of around $26 million, a statement from the company said.
A pop-up pledge campaign from The Summit raised about $50,000 Friday, Bruno said — a figure that was still rising in late afternoon as dozens of new members joined the station, existing members called to pledge more money and The Summit started what Bruno said would be a three-day push to replace $100,000 in lost funds.
But even with record fundraising and strong evidence of community support, Bruno said he expects to have to make cuts. The Summit has received the CPB’s community service grant since 1995 — it may be able to replace the already-budgeted money this year, but doing so on a permanent basis will be a challenge.
“The thing about this grant, it would be there every year,” Bruno said. “I believe I will have to make some difficult decisions. We’re not going to be able to do as many events, to do as much. We’ll look different than we did before.”
New funding in 2028 is the best-case scenario
The vote to remove federal funding will likely lead hundreds of public radio stations that can’t fill the gap to close, Bruno said.
In a statement, Kate Riley, President and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, said the government decision would “decimate public media and force many local stations to go dark, cutting off essential service[s] to communities that rely on them.”
The pullback of money that had already been allocated for 2026 and 2027 will lead to the closure of the CPB, Riley said, and will end all federal funding to local stations beginning Oct. 1. President Donald Trump still must sign the act, which was passed at his administration’s behest.
The nonprofit membership organization intends to “do everything in our power to restore this critical funding, ensure the survival of local public media stations throughout the country and continue the federal investment in their essential missions of public safety, education and community connections,” Riley’s statement said.
Pillsbury, with PBS Western Reserve, said the best stations like hers could hope for is to see money again in 2028, because of the timing of the funding cycle. Her fiscal year began July 1, so she’ll have to revise her current budget to account for the federal decrease, plus a $288,000 cut in state funding.
But Pillsbury and Bruno weren’t caught off guard. Both said they had been planning for months for the possibility that public media funding, long in the cross-hairs, would continue to be a target.
PBS Western Reserve raised $500,000 more than its budgeted goals last year, saw an 18% increase in donors and had significant audience growth, Pillsbury said. She still has to make up the gap left by the cuts but said she’s in a stronger position than a lot of other public media.
PBS Western Reserve is hosting a State of the Station event July 23 at 2 p.m. and July 24 at 6:30 p.m. Click here to RSVP.
Pillsbury intends to raise $1 million to help fill in her operating budget this year, plus an additional $500,000 to help boost the station’s $2 million endowment. That will help protect PBS Western Reserve into the future, she said. She also expects to decrease expenses, but not by cutting staff. Instead, some programming that the station pays for may be reduced, or programming may be paid for in a different way.
“It’s obviously not an ideal situation, but I feel like we’re in a position to reach our fundraising goal, invest in our endowment and get through this transitional period,” Pillsbury said. “I do think our community is going to rally around our organization and other public media organizations.”
Volunteer: ‘I hope it wakes people up’
At Ideastream, President and CEO Kevin Martin said in a statement that his “unwavering commitment” to providing educational services, news, music and arts across Northeast Ohio would not change.
“We recognize the uncertainty this development brings, but we also know that our greatest strength lies in our people, our community and our shared purpose,” he said. “We will continue to operate with resolve and transparency as we work to build a sustainable path forward for public media.”
Pillsbury said she wasn’t happy the money was cut, but it was “almost a relief” to finally know what was going to happen.
Bruno said he had spent the last six months figuring out contingencies. The vote in the House of Representatives led him to knock over the first domino he had positioned to fall — an email blast to Summit members like Rebecca Kaszar telling her what was at stake.
Kaszar, who owns the landscaping business Designs in Nature, said she was a big believer in The Summit’s offerings — from instrument donations for kids to concerts to wellness programming. She’s been a member for decades.
Friday, she decided to head to the station and volunteer her time, going through email donations and answering phones.
“That’s where I need to go today,” Kaszar said she thought. “We’re in it for the long haul. If I need to come back tomorrow and Sunday, I’ll do that, too.”
Kaszar said she hoped people become “a little bit more aware of what’s going on, how deep this is going” at the federal level after seeing cuts to media that many of them enjoy.
“I hope it wakes people up,” she said.
‘People believe in this station’
More than 75 people had donated to The Summit a little after 1 p.m. Friday, with donations ranging from $25 to $5,000. Later that afternoon, Bruno said in an email there were “dozens and dozens” of new members and existing members were adding to their pledges at a record pace.
Bruno had declined to replace his development director when she left six months ago as a way to save some money, but he said he’ll have to move to do that. He said everyone on staff is a fundraiser now, and on Friday, more than one employee who was supposed to be on vacation instead came into the station to help power the pledge drive.
The Summit only has five full-time employees, and before Congress took action, the group huddled around watching C-SPAN together, anticipating the vote. The final 216-213 tally was very emotional, Bruno said. He called it a sad day, but said it’s been heartening to see how the community has stepped up.
“We’ve prepared for this for many years,” Bruno said. “We really have.”
Sometimes, he thinks the area takes the uniqueness of the independent, all-music radio station for granted. But now, Bruno’s feeling the appreciation for what The Summit does to help make Akron different. He said he’s been blown away.
“I believe we’ll come out the other side of it, I really do,” Bruno said. “We understand people believe in this station. It’s an overwhelming joy.”
