Funding Public Media in Montana
Every day, MontanaPBS, Montana Public Radio and Yellowstone Public Radio
serve the population of Montana with viewer and listener supported public
programming. Licensed as non-commercial/educational broadcasters to the
Montana University System, these three organizations work cooperatively to
provide high-quality educational programming, music and arts programming,
news and public affairs programming, and Montana-made regional programming
that is uniquely tailored to the state and its citizens.
Funding for Montana’s public media organizations comes from many
sources. The largest portion of this funding comes directly from private and
business support from the Montana public. State funding comes through
the Montana University System. Federal funding, primarily from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), completes the funding picture.
Montana’s geography makes providing quality public media for the state difficult. Over
the past three decades, Montana’s public media organizations have constructed a
statewide infrastructure that serves hundreds of communities, many of which are the
very definition of rural. Building and supporting this delivery platform is a major challenge
that is met by leveraging and maximizing the impact of combined local, state, and
federal funding.
Federal support for public media has been a cornerstone of public media excellence for
more than forty years. When Congress created the CPB, it declared that developing
public media is an important objective not only for private and local initiatives, but also
“of appropriate and important concern to the federal government.”
Montana’s public media greatly contributes toward insuring that businesses and
individuals considering an investment in Montana’s economic development can do so
with confidence in the quality of life, education, and culture Montana has to offer.
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Federal Support
Federal support provides a significant portion of the operating funds for
Montana’s public media organizations. Additionally, a number of federal grant
programs have provided critical matching funds for the capital infrastructure that
delivers these services to Montanans. In the past 10 years alone, Montana has
received over $22M in federal funding for public media.
Federal funding 2001-2010
MontanaPBS
Montana Public Radio
Yellowstone Public Radio
CPB
$9.6M
$2.5M
$2.4M
Dept. of Commerce (PTFP) $3.8M
$1.7M
$0.2M
Dept. of Agriculture (RUS)
$1.0M
Other grants*
$1.4M
________________________________________________________________________________________
TOTALS
$15.8M
$4.2M
$2.6M
Source: MontanaPBS, Montana Public Radio, Yellowstone Public Radio
* “pass-thru” grants to MontanaPBS, from non-state agencies, funded by federal dollars.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was founded in 1967 as part of the Public
Broadcasting Act and “exists to promote the growth and development of public media.” It
is funded by an annual appropriation from Congress, and by statute distributes 72% of
its appropriation directly to local stations. The remaining funds are used to support
content creation.
Stations receive their primary support from CPB in the form of a Community Service
Grant (CSG). These grants represent significant sustaining portions of the operating
budgets of Montana’s public media institutions.
Station CSGs as a portion of total annual revenue, FY2010
Total Revenue
CSG
Percentage
MontanaPBS
$5.4M
$0.9M 18%
Montana Public Radio
$1.7M
$0.2M 14%
Yellowstone Public Radio
$1.7M
$0.2M 14%
______________________________________________________________________
TOTALS
$8.8M
$1.3M 15%
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Additionally, all three organizations receive supplementary funding from CPB from a
number of programs including the Rural License Access Incentive Fund, Digital
Conversion grants, Digital Distribution Fund grants, and Fiscal Stabilization grants.
Depending on specific grant activity in a given year, these grants can significantly add to
a station’s revenue line, providing funds for capital projects and operations.
Sampling of recent CPB funded projects
2001
MTPBS
2002
MTPBS
2007
MTPBS
2009
MTPBS
Development Database
Modern development software
Corporate Support Strategic Planning grant
Develop business giving capacity
Great Falls Transmitter
New MontanaPBS service in Great Falls
Kalispell Transmitter
New MontanaPBS service in Kalispell
*funding approved, construction not complete
$72k
$30k
$500k
$684k
Aside from Montana’s three flagship public media organizations, a number of smaller
non-commercial stations also receive funding from the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. These include KGPR-FM in Great Falls, KGLT-FM in Bozeman and
KGVA-FM in Harlem. Combined, these stations receive roughly $350k in additional
funding from CPB.
Students and teachers from Great Falls present a check to the
Friends of MontanaPBS to fund free public television in the area
The Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, U.S. Department of
Commerce
The Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP), operated by the U.S.
Department of Commerce, is a competitive grant program “to help public broadcasting
stations, state and local governments, Indian Tribes and nonprofit organizations
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construct facilities to bring educational and cultural programs to the American Public
using broadcasting and nonbroadcasting telecommunications technologies.”
Over the past ten years, PTFP has provided grants to Montana’s public media
organizations totaling $5.7M. These grants, with matching funds provided by private
donors, corporations, foundations, and the State of Montana, have built the infrastructure
that provides public media to Montanans.
Free public television is finally available to the families of Great Falls thanks to grants
from both PTFP and CPB, as well as local matching dollars from Great Falls businesses,
viewers, and public school children and teachers. (photo, previous page)
Sampling of recent PTFP funded projects
2001
MTPBS
2003
MTPBS
2005
MTPBS
2008
YPR
2008
MTPBS
2009
MTPBS
2010
MPR
Bozeman DTV Conversion
$1.7M
DTV transmitter in Bozeman
Satellite Distribution System
$1.3M
MontanaPBS distribution to rural communities
Missoula HD Conversion
$927k
Digital conversion of Missoula studio.
Satellite Distribution System
$183k
Signal delivery to translators
Great Falls Transmitter
$400k
New MontanaPBS service in Great Falls
HD Upgrade in Bozeman
$370k
Upgrade MontanaPBS NOC to High Definition
Service Expansion & Improvement
$727k
Provide service Polson and Libby
Improvements in Flathead
Distribution Infrastructure in Missoula
PTFP has also been responsible for much of the initial infrastructure investment
necessary to create MontanaPBS, Montana Public Radio, and Yellowstone Public
Radio.
Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) program continues in the tradition of the early federal
programs that initially brought modern utilities to rural America by forming public-private
partnerships in difficult to reach areas. Today, the USDA’s RUS program provides grants
“to finance rural America's telecommunications infrastructure,” making some of the funds
available to public broadcasters to update rural infrastructure. Although the program is
very competitive, with only a fraction of their total applications awarded, MontanaPBS
was successful in 2004 in securing almost $1M from this program to fund digital service
in the Billings area.
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Summary
The projects listed above represent an investment in the quality of life for all
Montanans and would not have been possible without the critically important
sustaining funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Montana’s public media organizations exist to enrich the lives of Montanans. The
children’s programming on PBS represents the most respected educational
programming available today and is cited as the most used television programming by
educators. Montana Public Radio produces the longest-running children's program in
public radio, The Pea Green Boat, which encourages reading and helps children develop
social skills through songs and stories. The arts and music programming on both
television and radio is totally unique, often providing the only access Montana families
have to the worlds of jazz, classical music performance, opera, and theater.
For many Montana artists and musicians, Montana’s public media is the only avenue to
a statewide audience. The news and public affairs programming provided by PBS and
NPR is consistently rated as America’s “most trusted.” In Montana, often the only longform state and national news available on radio comes from public media. The only longform, in-depth television news documentaries and series on Montana issues are on
MontanaPBS.
None of this is possible in Montana without all three critical legs of funding in place:
local, state, and federal. Public media was formed because others recognized the power
of radio and television not only to entertain, but to educate, elevate, and inform a
citizenry. Thanks to Montana’s public media partners, that mission is fulfilled every day
in homes all across Montana.
This document was created in March, 2011, by MontanaPBS (KUSM-TV, KUFM-TV), Montana Public Radio, and
Yellowstone Public Radio. For more information, please contact:
William W. Marcus
Montana Public Radio / KUFM-TV, Montana PBS
Director, Broadcast Media Center
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
406.243.4154
[email protected]
Eric Hyyppa
General Manager, KUSM / MontanaPBS
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
406-994-6252
[email protected]
Ken Siebert
General Manager, Yellowstone Public Radio
1500 University
Billings, MT 59101
406-657-2945
[email protected]
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