These Philly-area public TV and radio stations most rely on federal funds
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TV and radio stations around Philly and in Pennsylvania at large may feel the pinch after Congress rescinded $1.1 billion in federal funding, per new data obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: Public media outlets serve essential community newsgathering and emergency roles, but the Trump administration and others on the right have long accused them of left-leaning bias.
The big picture: Some outlets stand to lose sizable shares of their overall budgets, per the data.
State of play: Philadelphia's WRTI, which has more than 300,000 weekly listeners, has in the past received 6% of its $5.6 million budget from federal funding — the highest known share among city-based outlets, per the data.
- Exact figures were unavailable for WHYY, which serves more than 3 million households in the Philly region. The outlet received about $3.8 million in federal funding in 2024.
PBS 39, Lehigh Valley's public TV station, could be the state's hardest-hit outlet: Federal funds account for more than 22% of its overall budget. Channel 39 has more than 6 million viewers across the Commonwealth, and parts of New Jersey and Delaware.
- Like many stations, PBS 39 has started fundraising to soften the blow.
How it works: The figures are based on extensive but incomplete data manually collected from station websites by Alex Curley, a former NPR staffer who has been tracking public media financing on his blog, Semipublic.
What they're saying: "The people who stand to lose those stations are the people who need them most," Curley tells Axios. "Local journalism is a vital public service that provides accountability locally — and when it's not there, its absence is felt."
- WRTI, which hasn't eliminated any positions, has raised more than $100,000 from more than 500 donors, and is exploring other sources of revenue to offset the cuts, Porsche Blakey Hill, the station's senior director of philanthropy and development, tells Axios.
- Representatives for PBS 39 didn't immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.