PULLMAN, WA – A budget crisis is forcing the public television station in Pullman at Washington State University to go off the air by the end of the year.
The WSU administration announced in an online post this week that KWSU-TV will be shutting down. The move will not affect Northwest Public Broadcasting’s radio network which is also based at WSU’s Murrow College of Communication.
The online announcement reports that shuttering KWSU-TV will reduce Northwest Public Broadcasting’s annual spending by nearly two million dollars. WSU administrators say that in recent years NWPB spent money on upgrades to meet the needs of new digital audiences. NWPB funded the projects based on expected revenue growth which failed to come through. The new spending and failed revenue growth caused a NWPB budget deficit of about 1.5 million dollars in Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024.
WSU officials say revenue projections over the next three fiscal years will not be enough to pay for rising costs of public broadcasting. The announcement also notes that the congressional funding cut to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has compounded the financial crisis. The vote eliminated federal funding to NWPB by about two million dollars a year. Officials expect the spending cuts to lead to a balanced NWPB budget in Fiscal Year 2029. WSU will now try to craft a sustainable funding plan for public broadcasting that doesn’t rely on federal spending.
KWSU-TV serves the Pullman and Spokane markets. Those areas are also covered by other public television stations in Spokane and the University of Idaho. When KWSU-TV goes off the air the remaining public TV stations will continue to serve local viewers. The move to take KWSU-TV down will impact employees at NWPB. WSU officials say they are committed to mitigating those impacts.
