This summer, Republicans clawed back over a billion dollars that had been pledged to public media. But it wasn’t until this month that the corporation for public broadcasting – longtime distributor of that money – started to wind down operations, and those federal funds finally ran out. 

Now, many stations are weighing whether to spend their shrinking budgets on national programming from the likes of NPR, or to fund journalism on their local communities. We’re affected, too. So begins a new reckoning to save not just individual stations, but the interconnected system that makes public radio so special.

LaFontaine E. Oliver is  the president, CEO and executive chair of New York Public Radio. This week -- which is also WNYC pledge week -- he tells Brooke about how federal cuts are changing public media, and how our station is facing this critical moment.

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