A Letter to Listeners About The Importance of CPB Support

Dear Listeners and Supporters,

The future of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is in question. Since WDAV receives a yearly grant from CPB, we want you to know how it is used, and the possible implications were we to lose this support. It could represent the difference between WDAV as Your Classical Companion, and a WDAV that’s significantly different and much less focused on the local community.

The amount of the CPB grant awarded to WDAV for Fiscal Year 2017 was $213,464. That’s about 11% of our operating budget. Looked at another way, it’s roughly the equivalent of what we raise during a single, nine-day on air membership campaign. Losing the CPB grant will mean that WDAV needs to make up that money, either through increased fundraising or cutting back on our service, and most likely through a combination of the two approaches.

What difference, specifically, does the CPB funding make to WDAV’s mission? In our view, the CPB grant builds on the strong foundation provided by members and underwriters to enable WDAV to be a local classical music service delivered at a high standard of excellence and professionalism. Every weekday, 22 hours of our schedule is locally hosted and selected music, and over the course of a week, 153 of 168 hours of programming on WDAV is locally produced.

What difference does localism make to a classical music station? Well, there’s no doubt that using a national classical music service provided via satellite is less expensive. But it’s also less flexible, because national providers have to serve listeners across a continent in four different time zones.

Being locally operated and focused benefits WDAV’s listeners in ways both modest and significant. On a simple level, it allows us to play bright, up-tempo music in the mornings, and to provide a gentle sound in the late evenings. We can play a lot of seasonal music during December because feedback from our local listeners tells us that the majority want us to do that. It means that Douglas Rubel can routinely greet his Saturday morning listeners by sharing what he observed in the dawn sky when he comes in for his shift, and that Mike McKay can remind you to bring an umbrella with you before you leave the house, or Myelita Melton can keep an eye on the traffic trouble spots if you’re commuting in the afternoon.

On another level, being local enables WDAV to connect the region’s arts organizations with our interested listeners in a variety of ways, from affordable program underwriting and sponsorships, to free public service announcements and our online Events Calendar. It means that we can provide a spotlight for local musicians and concert series by presenting visits From the John Clark Performance Studio, and our year-round, weekly concert program Carolina Live.

Because of our local focus and commitment, WDAV is selective about the national programming it acquires. What we do carry from national sources provides content that is of value to our listeners, but which WDAV does not have the resources to provide on our own. These include programs such as Performance Today, with its array of concert highlights from around the world and unique access to established and rising classical musicians; Pipedreams, with its focus on music performed on “the King of Instruments”; and From the Top, which showcases the next generation of classical musicians.

Eliminating some or all of this national programming would significantly diminish WDAV’s service to its listeners, and would not make up for the loss of the CPB grant, in any event. For example, in FY17 WDAV’s fees paid to American Public Media (producers of Performance Today and Pipedreams) totaled only $35, 400.

WDAV pledges to pursue its mission to the best of our ability, whatever is decided by Congress about funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Without the yearly CPB grant, however, it’s clear that WDAV will be a significantly different and less secure classical music service, and will need to rely on support from individual contributors and underwriters more than ever. Continuing your support or becoming a contributor now will keep WDAV strong no matter what the future brings.

You can get more information on the topic here, and you can lend your voice to the effort to preserve this funding by visiting protectmypublicmedia.org.

Sincerely, 

Frank Dominguez,
General Manager & Content Director
frdominguez@wdav.org