From Rachel Smolkin, OPB president and CEO:
The past several months have been a whirlwind at the federal level. OPB’s journalists have focused on covering the impact of executive orders, tariffs, and funding cuts across communities in Oregon and the wider Northwest. Federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is critical to our public service. Federal support is vital in providing universal access to factual information here in the Northwest and across America—and critical to serving often overlooked rural places.
Federal funding for OPB, and the trusted journalism that we and our peers in public media create, is in serious jeopardy. The successful public-private partnership created with the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967 faces a real threat of being dismantled.
Read Rachel’s full President’s Update.
OPB videographer Stephanie Gordon, right, films Jeff Griffin, port manager for the Port of Bandon, during the production of an episode of OPB’s Superabundant, May 11, 2021.
Arya Surowidjojo / OPB
About federal funding for public media
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private corporation created by Congress through the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. It is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting and the largest single source of funding for public radio, television, and related online and mobile services in the United States. Its mission is to provide every American with free, over-the-air access to local public media.
CPB’s federal appropriation is modest: roughly one one-hundredth of a percent (0.01%) of the federal budget.
CPB is distinct from NPR and PBS and does not produce programming or own, operate, or manage any public media stations. It distributes more than 70% of its funding to more than 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations.
Federal funding supports essential local journalism, information, and programs – available to everyone, every day, for free, everywhere they are. Rather than going directly to PBS and NPR, the vast majority of CPB funds go to public media organizations across the country, which are some of the few remaining locally-rooted media, particularly in rural, remote, and underserved communities. These organizations then decide how to best serve the public interest with those critical federal funds.
OPB and other public media organizations across the country play a crucial role in the Emergency Alert System (EAS), providing lifesaving public safety communications to the American people in times of national emergency, in partnership with federal, state, and local authorities.
OPB leads Oregon’s emergency alert system. On a voluntary basis, OPB serves as the ‘State Primary’ or ‘Primary Entry Point’ (PEP) station for the Emergency Alert System. Working closely with the state of Oregon’s Office of Emergency Management and other emergency responders in the event of a statewide, regional, or national emergency, OPB initiates messages informing other broadcasters (commercial and non-commercial), viewers, and listeners of a wide variety of emergencies.
Cuts to federal funding would hurt smaller, rural communities the most, where local public media stations are often the last locally operated and locally controlled media sources. These communities depend on public media for essential public services, from local journalism, education resources to public safety alerts and community connections.
By statute, CPB prioritizes funding for public media organizations serving rural and remote communities. For some smaller organizations, this support accounts for 30 percent (or more) of revenue. Such cuts would hobble beloved place-based institutions across the country.
Given the troubled state of the journalism ecosystem today, federal cuts would also accelerate the growth of news deserts. Nationally, and in Oregon, many news outlets have been decimated by cuts or have disappeared entirely. Others have survived through subscription models that limit information to only those who can afford it.
At OPB, federal support represents around nine percent of our operating budget. Our work is primarily funded by members, foundations, and sponsors based in Oregon and southwest Washington.
While OPB is funded largely through the generous support of our members, the funds we receive through CPB are an important part of our operating budget. Loss of federal funding would hinder our work, especially in serving a vast region across Oregon and Washington with journalism and programs that are freely accessible to all.
What federal funding makes possible
For more than 100 years, OPB has provided an essential, accessible, and free public service to communities across the Northwest. OPB is a bridge connecting communities large and small, both urban and rural. Federal funding helps us deliver news, information and inspiring programs to the wider region. Here’s what it makes possible:
Free, accessible news, information and programs
OPB’s reporting is available free of charge to everyone in our region—never behind a paywall. As the region’s largest, most accessible source of trusted news, we’re committed to providing essential information to everyone in Oregon and the wider Northwest.
A strong local journalism ecosystem
People living in the Pacific Northwest deserve a healthy media ecosystem, and OPB’s work through partnerships aims to maintain that health well into the future. We provide our stories to news organizations free of charge and share partner stories via our website, radio service, and email newsletters—helping connect you with important stories wherever you get your news.
For more information about our editorial partnerships in the region, visit opb.org/partnerships.
Partners include:
- Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
- The Daily Astorian
- The Herald and News (Klamath Falls)
- KWSO-FM (Warm Springs)
- Jefferson Public Radio (Ashland, OR)
- The Columbian (Vancouver, WA)
Access in all corners of the region
People across the Northwest can access OPB’s journalism and programs wherever they are, at any time. We see more than three million engagements per month across all OPB’s platforms. That includes nearly 800,000 people watching OPB TV, more than 750,000 reading OPB.org and nearly 700,000 listening on OPB radio and audio streams. Federal funding helps support this work and the team of journalists, editors and digital staff who report and deliver the storytelling that keeps communities connected and informed.
Our broadcast network reaches across 33 Oregon counties and parts of southern Washington through 17 full-service radio stations, five full-service TV stations and smaller translators that rebroadcast our TV signals to areas that can’t get them directly.
Critical emergency alerts
OPB serves as a 'State Primary' or 'Primary Entry Point' (PEP) station for the Emergency Alert System. Working closely with the state of Oregon's Office of Emergency Management and other emergency responders in the event of statewide, regional, or national emergencies, OPB initiates messages informing other broadcasters, viewers and listeners.
OPB's community impact
The loss of federal funding would impact OPB’s ability to provide the public service journalism and the in-depth stories that our region relies on.
OPB political reporter Lauren Dake asks a question during a press conference in Portland, Oct. 27, 2021.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Investigating the management of old growth forests – a critical public resource
Logging is of the biggest issues facing Pacific Northwest habitats, people and industries today, and one that OPB has reported on in depth over the years. In November 2024, we collaborated with ProPublica on a wide-ranging investigative story on timber harvests in Bureau of Land Management forests, which gave the people of the region a look into whether President Biden’s executive order for protecting these mature and old growth forests – a critical public resource – was being implemented. It demonstrated our commitment to accountability reporting regardless of which political party controls the executive branch.
Exposing groundwater mismanagement and drinking water safety in Crook County
In 2023, OPB Reporter Emily Cureton Cook exposed lax mining regulation and data collection that put residents in Central Oregon at risk of drinking tainted water. Her series of investigative stories looked into the management of groundwater across Eastern Oregon after Crook County residents reported tap water that looked like mud, mysterious livestock deaths and plumbing nightmares. Her investigation found regulators swiftly dismissed complaints of contaminated wells and ignored possible permit violations by a multi-billion-dollar mining company. This reporting led Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality to take a second review of the issue, and also to a lawsuit from Crook County residents against state and local governments for letting a gravel mine continue operating in their rural neighborhood near Prineville.
Leveraging partnerships for greater accountability to communities.
The disappearance of salmon in the Pacific Northwest is deeply concerning for many people in our region, including native communities. Over the last two years, OPB and ProPublica have partnered to investigate the hidden history of salmon decline in the Northwest, who is to blame, what can be done before it’s too late and why salmon disappearance impacts all of us.
Our reporting revealed levels of toxic chemicals in Columbia River salmon that state health agencies deem unsafe when consumed at the quantities that many of the region’s 68,000-plus tribal people consume. Our reporting, which also included a documentary film and podcast, uncovered important accountability for our region’s Native communities and educated us all about the plight of the salmon of the Columbia River and the Native people whose lives revolve around them.
In 2019, OPB political reporter Lauren Dake examined how Oregon’s foster care system had grown reliant on a private, for-profit company to house the state’s most vulnerable children in out-of-state facilities. As a result of this reporting, all children involved with this contractor were brought back to Oregon, and two U.S. senators began investigating abuse at facilities that run treatment programs for children.
Initiating positive change at the Chemawa Indian School.
In 2019, our five-part investigative series into the Chemawa Indian School near Salem examined the many ways the school struggled to prepare students for college or careers in a safe and stable place. In response to our reporting, U.S. Sens. Merkley and Wyden, along with Reps. Bonamici and Schrader, opened investigations into the school’s management and pushed for major reforms. OPB reporters Rob Manning and Tony Schick worked for three years to bring this important story to light.
Chemawa Indian School is the oldest continuously running off-reservation Indian boarding school.
Rob Manning / OPB
Creating connection in eastern Oregon.
In 2024, more than 400 people in La Grande gathered and discovered local history through OPB storytelling. At a screening for our documentary “Horsewomen of the Hen Party,” they learned about local resident Jean Birnie’s all-female horse packing trips into the rugged Wallowa Mountains that began in the early 20th century. Nearly a century later, her descendants still celebrate the extraordinary landscape and intimate connection with nature that Jean passed on to them. The event revealed the power of a shared story, evoking local nostalgia and community learning.
Keeping residents safe with wildfire and winter weather resources.
OPB helped residents stay informed and safe during another record-setting fire season last year in the Pacific Northwest. Our wildfires and air quality information hub online provided comprehensive news coverage and essential resources, including an interactive fire map showing where fires are burning, the latest smoke outlook and information about what wildfire recovery looks like.During severe winter weather, OPB’s winter weather hub offered a variety of resources to help residents prepare, such as the latest flash alerts, closures information, road and driving conditions and home readiness tips
What you can do
OPB and organizations across the country are standing together to protect public media to help us continue to serve Americans from all backgrounds with factual information. We encourage you to visit protectmypublicmedia.org to sign up for updates and learn how you can take action.