San Antonio PBS affiliate KLRN warns it could go away with proposed Trump funding cuts

Arthur Emerson, president and CEO of San Antonio’s KLRN-TV, warns in a new op-ed that the PBS affiliate could shut down if the Trump administration is successful in rescinding more than $1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting.

The Trump administration is expected to ask Congress to halt federal funding that NPR and PBS receive through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Additionally, the Trump administration directed the CPB to halt funding for NPR and PBS in an executive order filed last Thursday titled “End Tax Pay Subsidization of Biased Media.”

“If federal funding is revoked, KLRN might cease to exist and our families, friends and generations of neighbors who rely on our programs and resources will lose access for good,” Emerson said in his May 3 commentary carried by the San Antonio Express-News.

The Trump administration’s executive order argues that bias displayed by PBS and NPR stations disqualifies them for CPB funding.

“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” the executive order said. “The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not ‘contribute to or otherwise support any political party.'”

The executive order claims it’s not targeting the stations for perceived liberal bias but the existence of any bias at all.

“Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” the EO continued.  PBS CEO Paula Kerger, in an interview with Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan, said PBS gets 15% of its funding in aggregate from the federal government, but for stations in smaller communities, that percentage can be as high as 50%. Emerson says those include stations in El Paso, Corpus Christi, Midland and Lubbock.

For such stations, “it’s existential,” Kerger said, adding “that’s what’s at risk if this funding goes away.”

KLRN’s federal funding fluctuates between 17% and 20% depending on the year, according to the station.

The CPB has fired back at Trump’s executive order, stating that the administration doesn’t have the authority to rescind its funding, as reported by ABC News.

“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the president’s authority,” Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the CPB, said in a statement Friday. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”
In his op-ed, Emerson said federal funding for public media amounts to $1.60 per American annually, and less than 0.01% of the federal budget. However, he added, the payoff is big.

“Public television provides critical educational resources for the more than 50% of 3- to 4-year-olds in the U.S. who do not attend preschool,” Emerson’s said, explaining that public broadcasting is designed to fill crucial education gaps for the households most in need.

“We shed a light in the darkness,” Emerson told the Current, adding that KLRN (which stands for K-LEARN) serves 33 counties, including many rural areas where resources are scarce. “Often those counties either don’t have access to WiFi or if they do, they may not be able to afford it. We offer a signal that’s free and without commercial.”

Congress, which already approved the $1.1 billion in funding for public media for 2026 and 2027, will have 45 days to act on the White House’s proposal and decide whether to rescind the money. But with an approval rating of 76% according to Emerson’s op-ed, public broadcasting has the majority of the community behind it.

“It’s been encouraging to see the swell of support,” KLRN Digital Marketing Manager Ian Cruz told the Current, adding that donations have flooded in from supporters. Cruz said the station has also received emails from supporters stating that they’ve contacted their congressional representatives urging them to preserve CPB funding.  
“That is why our community’s outreach today is critical,” Emerson’s op-ed added. “If we can show Congress that most Americans value public media, we can protect the federal funding that makes KLRN’s work in our community possible.”

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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 13, 2025.