As you may know last Friday in the early morning hours Congress voted to cut funding for public media. It’s been a whirlwind weekend trying to absorb what those cuts mean to WMOT and most importantly to you, our listeners.
The most immediate and concerning impact of the cuts is the loss of funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for music licensing.
Radio stations must pay to play songs over the air and on the internet. We’ve lost the money to broadcast the songs written and performed by Nashville artists on WMOT, the largest Americana music station in the country.
The future of public media music licensing is unclear. What I do know is that WMOT wants to make sure our artists are paid for their work. It’s going to take time, money and a lot of attention to find our path forward.
In order to pay for the songs we broadcast, we need to raise a significant amount of money. A modest estimate is $200,000.
If you listen on the radio, on the app, online at wmot.org, on TuneIn or on a smart speaker your experience could be different once our current licenses expire.
This is the moment to join our community of supporters. You can help keep the programs you love on the air. You can amplify powerful stories, connect people through music, and bring joy to lives nationwide.
We will fight to restore federal funding and I’m on the boards of two organizations working to do just that. In the meantime, your donation is more critical now than it has ever been. Every dollar helps. To help us best plan for the road ahead, commit now to a monthly donation. If you are already a supporter, please consider increasing your gift or making an additional donation.
I’ve often said we can’t do it without you and today it is more true than ever before. You are the public in public radio.
Val Hoeppner, Executive Director WMOT Roots Radio
