Latest news, weather, high school sports for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

MARQUETTE -- WNMU-TV and WNMU-FM Radio have a large footprint in Upper Michigan.

The TV station has a potential audience of over 300,000.  The radio station broadcasts to over 200,000 listeners.  The public stations have been known for providing cultural enrichment and vital information to the U.P.

"We hear from viewers and listeners on a regular basis, how much they enjoy the stations, but not only that, how much they rely on them for certain kinds of information," says Eric Smith, General Manager for Public Radio and Television at NMU.

The U.S. House recently passed a bill that would prohibit local public radio stations from using federal funds to pay for national programming.  But that's not all that's at stake.

Congress is also talking about de-funding public radio and TV entirely.  This would hit WNMU especially hard.  Out of their 1.4 million dollar budget, 38 percent of that comes from the federal government.

Funding cuts are felt especially hard by rural stations like WNMU because, where their operational costs are as high as a major market station, their public donations are not.  And because the WNMU stations have a non-commercial license, they can't sell adds to raise money.

Officials say it's too early to say what they'll do if they face federal funding cuts, but a few options being explored are more fund-raising, increased support from the university, and changes to programming.

"It really challenges us to look at programming and the length of the programming," says NMU President Dr. Les Wong.  "The various services we provide locally; a lot of that local programming is threatened."

Dr. Wong says the stations's role in the university as an educational tool would prevent them from being shut down entirely.

"This experience here has really helped me in the classroom.  In my studio production course, I basically learned everything I was learning just from working at Public i-News," says NMU junior Jordan Weyers.

Because nothing has been finalized yet, university officials are adopting a cautious wait-and-see attitude.