Written by: Tom Rieland
Date: February 19, 2011
Earlier this morning the House passed a continuing resolution eliminating all federal funding for local public television and radio stations by a vote of 235-189. The vote was along party lines as expected. The official results of the roll call vote on final passage can be found online at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll147.xml.
Despite the vote, we understand some 170,000 emails and thousands of phone calls flooded House offices in support of Public Media funding. This support will have an impact as the action now moves to the Senate and eventually a conference committee. Our goal is to come out of the Senate in as strong a position as possible in preparation for conference negotiations. We encourage you to signup at our 170 million Americans website to be ready for the next round. My thanks to everyone who has expressed support for WOSU to our central Ohio congressional delegation. They are listening.
Let me reiterate a key fact. When you eliminate federal funding, you do the most damage to local stations across the country. Stations like WOSU that provides children’s programming 11 hours a day on WOSU TV – along with excellent local programming such as Columbus On The Record and Columbus Neighborhoods – Classical 101 that provides 24-hour access to classical music on the radio and features about the local performing arts scene and 89-7 NPR News that provides invaluable national and local news coverage.