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West Virginia Public Broadcasting officials concerned about future state funding

The headquarters of West Virginia Public Broadcasting in downtown Charleston. (File Photo)

CHARLESTON — One of the two foundations that manages the private grants and donations for West Virginia Public Broadcasting is concerned about what the future political landscape means for state funding for the educational broadcaster.

The West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation held its quarterly meeting Wednesday morning in Charleston at the headquarters for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. The foundation, along with the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Board, are the two nonprofits that seek donations and grants for public broadcasting in the state.

With some members of the West Virginia Legislature either retiring or having lost primary elections in May, many lawmakers will be new going into 2025. The outcome of the November general election will also mean a new governor for the first time in eight years. Michael Farrell, the chairman of the foundation, said there will need to be an educational process to inform lawmakers and the next governor on the value of public broadcasting.

“At the end of the year before the Legislature comes into session, we ought to have a marketing piece that says here is the return on investment, here is what we’ve done about West Virginia, and put that in the hands of the people in state government,” he said.

“There is a substantial possibility that everyone we know in state government (is) not going to be there come next year,” Farrell continued. “As a result, we may have a virgin audience we can make this pitch to or if we still have people who know who we are … we can at least show them and demonstrate what we’re doing.”

According to West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s 2023 annual report, 46.2% of its funding — nearly $5 million — comes from private funds. Another 35.5% ($3.9 million) comes from the state general revenue budget, and 18.3% (nearly $2 million) comes from federal funding sources.

The taxpayer-funded portion of WVPB’s budget has come under threat before in the last eight years, including from Gov. Jim Justice and the Legislature. In November, voters will choose from several candidates for governor, including Democratic Huntington Mayor Steve Williams and Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who has the lead in the most recent WVMetroNews West Virginia Poll.

While not mentioning a specific candidate by name, Farrell said it would be inappropriate for the foundation to get ahead of the November election and craft any kind of messaging that could upset a future governor-elect.

“The probable new governor has an agenda that he is keeping pretty close to his vest,” Farrell said. “He’s not telling the world what he’s doing or how he’s doing it. I’m not going to let this board speculate and get at odds with anybody, particularly that individual, because he has very strong feelings about a number of things. Those of us who litigated with and against him understand that.”

Farrell said the feedback he has received from state government officials is for WVPB to tell more positive stories about West Virginia and to present an image of the state that encourages more tourism.

“We are being encouraged by state government to do more stories about West Virginia. We’ve got people who can do that,” Farrell said. “We will incur good feelings. We will incur more support the more product we put out that highlights West Virginia. … Look for the West Virginia stories. Let’s take those and make those alive and well and prosper and building people who want to come to West Virginia.”

Concerns were raised earlier this year about pressure from the governor’s office on WVPB and its news division after the passage of Senate Bill 844, which reduced the number of members of the Educational Broadcasting Authority and took away the group’s authority to hire the executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. That authority is now directly in the hands of Department of Arts, Culture and History Cabinet Secretary Randall Reid-Smith.

The foundation also discussed future funding for WVPB’s Folkways Reporting Project, a group of 20 reporters who file stories for “Inside Appalachia,” a popular radio and podcast program. The Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies declined to approve a new $600,000 grant for the Folkways program after WVPB violated a requirement to not mention Cargill by name, which it did in an April EBA meeting where it was stated that Cargill had concerns about the passage of SB 844.

According to a June meeting of the EBA, there was $270,000 in Cargill funding remaining for the Folkways project to carry it through until July 2025. But according to WVPB officials during Wednesday’s foundation meeting, the current budget for Folkways takes the program through the end of the calendar year – or 36 episodes. Thirteen stories are now in production.

WVPB plans to approach the West Virginia Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities for grant funding for the Folkways project, though the size of the program would depend on what kind of grant it receives. A grant through the National Endowment for the Humanities would likely keep the program funded at current staffing, but a grant through the West Virginia Humanities Council would likely mean a pared-down program.

“The question really comes down to where are we going to get more funding for this,” said Americo Valdes, director of grant programs for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “We’re always building upon what we did before. I’m not sure the NEH grant would work out at this time, but we’re going to keep on going for it.”

Farrell asked WVPB staff to provide the foundation monthly reports on the grant applications and offered any support the foundation could provide in seeking the grants.

“This needs to be a priority,” Farrell said. “We’ve got to take care of business, and we’ve got to be aggressive in doing it. We’ve got to have the manpower and womanpower to put together these projections to meet the criteria these grant-giving organizations are looking for us to do.”

Foundation member Carol Rotruck asked about the possibility of seeking grant funding from neighboring states in the Appalachian region since the Folkways project is focused on documenting Appalachian culture, history and issues.

“Carol, we’re going to look for funding anywhere in Appalachia or anywhere that supports Appalachia,” said WVPB Executive Director Eddie Isom.

Foundation members also discussed approaching the federal Appalachian Regional Commission – whose co-chair is Gayle Manchin, a former first lady, former state Board of Education member and former cabinet secretary of the predecessor to the Department of Arts, Culture and History – for funding.

“We’ve explored that as well, but it’s quite a difficult process,” Valdes said.

“We’ve got Gayle Manchin sitting there,” Farrell said. “It seems to me given this theme and given our experience and given our success and given the fact that Gayle is probably out of that position by the end of the year that we ought to take advantage of getting an application in while she is still there.”

Reporters on the Folkways project are freelance contract staff and not full-time WVPB employees.

“We plan to continue Folkways no matter what. It’s our product,” Isom said. “It may not be as big as it is now until we get more funding, but we are always going to have Folkways stories.”

“This team that we have that Cargill has helped us finance, they’re not going away,” Farrell said. “They’re going to be hungry. We’ve got to give them an opportunity to show us what they’ve got.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

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