The Case for Defunding Wyoming Public Media

Much is being said to try to keep state funding in place for Wyoming Public Media. (Radio, Television, and their website). You can read below where those funds come from.

A budget amendment is working its way through the Wyoming Senate to restore roughly $1.7 million in state funding for Wyoming Public Media. Those in favor of the bill gathered in front of the capital to voice their concerns and keep the program alive.

I've been a media guy since 1983. I was 19 when I started and have worked in radio, Network talk radio, some television, podcasting, and have written for newspapers and magazines. A lot has changed since I started, and I can tell you right now, public media in all its forms has been obsolete for a very long time.

While radio and television are still a viable means for reaching the people, especially during an emergency, more people rely on their modern cell phones than anything else.

Our phones can scream with weather and Amber alerts when necessary. The average citizen will send the word out from the site of a disaster, like the recent winter pileup of vehicles on Interstate 80. Folks were posting videos, pictures, and broadcasting live from the wreck site long before even WYDOT and the local sheriff had the word out.

There are quality programs available through satellite cable and internet, no matter how far out in the weeds somebody lives. Not all of the programs are done by networks. There are many high-quality programs on any subject if you just search YouTube or many other internet sites. Pick any topic that you can imagine and listen to a podcast on your cellphone.

Public broadcasting is hard-left-leaning, biased, and technically obsolete. Our state legislature would do better for Wyoming by spending that money on our roads.

WPM previously received roughly $800,000 annually in funding. Wyoming PBS maintains a $3.5 million general operating budget in state funds.

Wyoming public media, in all of its forms, can still exist if they want. Let them compete in the private sector like I have been doing for all of these years.

Public broadcasting began in the 1920s and 1930s to reach rural areas as well as provide noncommercial quality shows and information to those living in cities. Commercial broadcasting and the new technologies that came with them far outpaced public broadcasting a long time ago.

Federal funding for public media was cut in July 2025, when Congress passed the Rescissions Act of 2025. This legislation rescinded approximately $1.1 billion in previously appropriated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), effectively ending federal support for NPR and PBS. The shutdown of operations began, with full cessation of federal funds finalized in 2025.

But states still fund most local public broadcasting and their websites, mostly through their universities.