Corporation For Public Broadcasting Votes Itself Out Of Existence

Leaders of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted Monday to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967.

CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell.

“CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,” said Patricia Harrison, the organization’s president and CEO.

Many Republicans have long accused public broadcasting, particularly its news programming, of being biased toward liberals but it wasn’t until the second Trump administration —- with full GOP control of Congress — that those criticisms were turned into action.

Ruby Calvert, head of CPB’s board of directors, said the federal defunding of public media has been devastating.

“Even at this moment, I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so,” Calvert said.

When cuts to CPB were announced in summer 2025, Terry Lickona, the producer of long-running live performance stalwart “Austin City Limits,” told local CBS affiliate KEYE it was “a kick to the gut.” The show is produced by Austin PBS station KLRU, which received funding from CPB. Lickona told the news station that the expectation was “Austin City Limits” would have a 25% budget hit.

Also last summer, the producer of National Public Radio’s “Tiny Desk Concerts” said that show was not shutting down.

“I’ve heard from many friends, family and audience members who are worried that NPR/‘Tiny Desk’ is shutting down. It is not,” host and producer Bobby Carter said on X August 3. “Unfortunately, CPB is shutting down. I encourage everyone to support Public Media and donate. I appreciate all the calls, texts and messages. They have been overwhelming and heartwarming.”

“Tiny Desk” is produced by NPR itself, rather than by a local affiliate, so the loss of CPB grants is more diffuse and less dramatic.

CPB said it was financially supporting the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in its effort to preserve historic content, and is working with the University of Maryland to maintain its own records.

Additional reporting by Pollstar Senior Writer J.R. Lind