The FCC inquiry isn’t the only cause for concern facing the public broadcaster. As Semafor previously reported, many local stations are concerned that Congressional Republicans will fulfill their promise to nix NPR’s funding mechanism from the federal budget, which would affect both the NPR mothership and its satellite stations.
Maher stressed that the local stations are at the heart of the broadcaster’s mission: “Many of these stations have their local identities. They mean something. Texas Public Radio in San Antonio is always going to be Texas Public Radio, and that is great.”
NPR is simultaneously attempting to build its podcast business while not alienating managers at its affiliate stations who feel that NPR’s focus on podcasts could take away from radio programming — and thus render local stations less valuable to their listeners.
“Podcasting is great, but broadcasting is a big piece of our power, and it’s where we have a huge audience,” Maher said.
