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JPR seeks public support Monday Apr 3, 2017 at 12:01 AM By Julie Akins for the Mail Tribune As public broadcasters face the prospect of losing federal funding under the Trump administration's proposed budget, the local National Public Radio outlet has been asking people for help. Paul Westhelle, executive director of Jefferson Public Radio, sent out a letter to its listeners last week warning of impending cuts to public broadcasters and asking for online signatures. Listeners had until Friday evening to sign an online petition. More than 225,000 people across the country had signed as of Thursday. Local signatures were not being tracked. The proposed cuts amount to $420,000 annually for JPR, which represents roughly 13 percent of its annual budget, according to Westhelle. “Federal funding provides vital seed money," he said, "which is most essential for rural broadcasters.” JPR operates three stations and employs 14 people serving roughly 90,000 listeners weekly through a series of translators and transmitters that provide a signal from Shasta to Roseburg and Klamath Falls to the coast. It has a $3 million annual budget. Much of that funding comes from individual contributors, including $287,000 in individual contributions from Ashland residents, which represents, Westhelle said, the largest per capita contributions in the country. The money JPR gets from the federal government makes it possible to keep up transmitters, translators and electricity, which are huge costs in rural, mountainous Southern Oregon. This year brought additional expenses for repairing transmitters damaged in heavy snow and high wind. “We’re adding value to local listeners in a unique way,” says Westhelle. “We need independent journalism more than ever, and we provide a service that’s essential and valuable. Just because we live in rural and small communities, there’s no reason not to have that.” “There’s no specific goal," he said. "We just want to show bi-partisan support for public broadcasters.” He is planning to continue campaigns where listeners share with Congress individual stories of how they use and rely on public broadcasting. “This is a serious moment for public broadcasting. Elimination of all federal support would have an immediate detrimental impact on JPR and every public radio and television station across the country,” Westhelle wrote in his letter. Southern Oregon Public Television is also asking its viewers to pledge support so it can continue to produce local shows as well as broadcast Oregon Public Broadcasting shows. Ashland resident Robert Pierce is skeptical of the support request, citing a statement by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, Wednesday claiming PBS executives rake in high salaries and cutting the CPB would save taxpayers millions. “Cut funding for them," Pierce said. "Their CEOs make over 600k a year, they need no funding.” PBS CEO Paula Kerger earned roughly $623,000 last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. She has said PBS and NPR would most likely be able to weather the storm of cuts, but the true losses would be felt in rural markets where local broadcasters have fewer revenue streams and the signals cost more to maintain. “In urban areas," Kerger has said, "where there’s a longer-lasting tradition of various forms of patronage for arts and culture, to say nothing of far more people to donate cash, that’s less of a problem. But in rural areas, the Corporation for Public Broacasting is the difference between life and death for many stations.” “We’ll be having to make hard decisions," Westhelle said. "We’ll have to tighten our belt further. We’ll ask listeners to step up. ... We’ll continue making our case.” No hearings have been scheduled yet to consider President Trump’s proposed budget for 2018, which is supposed to be voted on by April 15. The president has called for large domestic cuts in most areas, with the exception of military spending, which he proposes to increase by $54 billion. — Email Ashland freelance writer Julie Akins at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/@julieakins.