Description of the video:
VIDEO DESCRIPTION
[Video opens with an aerial scene of Indianapolis, and images from around the WFYI station, including news desks, TV cameras, and people working. Greg Petrovich, WFYI President and CEO, talks in the WFYI master control room. Behind him, there are various TV screens with different public television programs playing.]
GREG PETROWICH: I think public media has a very clear role these days in that it is media for the people, by the people. Because we're a nonprofit, we're not beholden to shareholders. We're not trying to generate a profit. We don't have to worry about corporate influences. We're influenced by the audience. So, we do what we think is in the best interest of the audience. We ask the audience what they'd like more of, and we try to give them more of what they want. It's that direct connection to the audience that you increasingly can't find in a commercial media venture because there are other forces trying to influence those ventures. But the only force trying to influence public media is the public. And that's what I think makes it so unique and special and why I'm personally attracted to it.
[When Sarah Neal-Estes, WFYI News Director, speaks, she is pictured on a video call with a blurred background. Additional scenes from around the station are also shown, including the front door of the building, more aerial views of Indianapolis, and employees working.]
SARAH NEAL-ESTES: You know, everyone listens to the radio. Everyone needs their local stations. People need to know what's happening all over the state. Nonprofit journalism has to fill the gaps. There are 9newsrooms all over the state. And those newsrooms can engage with the community, community engagement, journalism, where you really try to discover what people want, need, where the gaps are, and give it to them.
[Video shows a vintage-looking screen that says “Public Television Stations.”]
ANNOUNCER: Funding for this program was provided by this station and other public television stations.
[Video fades into a clip of a breaking news story on WISH-TV, Indianapolis. The bottom of the screen says “Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close.”]
REPORTER: Bombshell out of Washington. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down operations. Comes after President Trump signed a bill that took back more than a billion dollars in funding. It's not just Big Bird in big trouble. The final state budget sent to Governor Mike Brawn cuts more than $7 million of funding for 17 Indiana public broadcasting stations over the next 2 years.
[Video returns to interview with Sarah, interspersed with clips of WFYI, including donors holding up an “I love WFYI sign,” local news pieces, and 4 Emmys that are displayed in the station.]
SARAH: Stations lost, you know, 10% of their budget to 35% of their budget. You just can't "weather that." Like, "Oh, it's fine, and we'll just, you know..." We did not have to do any layoffs. So, that was really great. We have great leadership here. We have a lot of support in Indianapolis, and people saw what was happening, and major donors to, you know, who always give, to people who've never given, to people who are like, I'll just give $25 more. They really helped us through that. We're not out of the woods. We are told over and over and over again, like when we lost funding, people really value us. They trust us more than anyone else. They say this. But we are really lucky. We have really great leadership, and we have the network of stations across the state to try to help its share, and everything like that. But 2025 was rough.
[Video shows a vintage holding screen that has an old WFYI logo]
ANNOUNCER: This is viewer-supported WFYI Indianapolis, where education and fun go hand in hand.
[On screen, while Greg talks, similar clips play, including scenes from around the station, aerial views of Indianapolis, snippets of local news stories, and Greg in the control room. Soft inspirational music in the background.]
GREG: I think it's challenging, but I also think it guarantees we do the best work, because we're directly responsive to the people and the organizations who are providing money for us. So, the most recent challenge was that we used to get a significant amount of money that was the people's money through the government. So people paid taxes and invested in the government, and the government reinvested that money on their behalf. The government has since decided not to give us that money, and the people are saying, "Well, if it's not going to happen that way, we'll just give it directly to the station." So it just kind of takes the government out of the loop, but what we're seeing is public support is going up because the people really wanted to see public media funded, and if the government's not going to do it for them, they're going to do it themselves. So, I kind of think of this as the eye of the hurricane, like there was the big funding cut, and now we're kind of in this quiet zone, but there's probably something else coming. And we're not exactly sure what's still coming. So, I think most stations are trying to take for the next couple of years. Try not to do anything drastic. Figure out how you can get as much support as you can out of your community. But don't assume that this is where it all is going to land because we're seeing so much transition in commercial media networks being bought, merged together, that the environment we're in right now is not the environment we'll be in in a couple of years. And so I hope that stations just kind of hold on and embrace their role in the community, but assume that things are going to change again. And it could change in a better way. It could make things even better for the stations if we can just get by for a little bit.
[Benjamin Thorp’s report is filmed on a smartphone with a vertical format. The bottom third includes a news logo, Benjamin’s name, his title, Government Reporter WFYI, and closed captioning.]
BENJAMIN THORP: Republicans in the Indiana House and Senate released their priorities for the 2026 legislative session. I'm Benjamin Thorp, government reporter for WFYI. Here's a quick recap on what they said.
[Video returns to Greg in the master control room with multiple running TV screens and computers, as well as clips of station employees working at microphones and desks.]
GREG: I think the challenge has been the uncertainty, and the thing I'm proudest of is how we've adapted and how resilient our staff has been, and really the whole public media system, how resilient they've been. Because it would have been easy, in the midst of the cuts, to just fold up shop and say, "Well, that's it. We lost. We're done." And nobody was going to do that. It was never an option. And I think the day that the congressional rescission was passed, we took the staff all out for drinks and pizza, and we said, "You know what? Today was not our day, but tomorrow we're going to be back at it. And so, let's just take a pause, acknowledge what happened, and then get back at it." And the resiliency of the staff, how immediately they came back the next day and said, "We're not done. We're just going to do it differently, and we're just going to plow on." And I think that's what you're seeing in most stations.
[Video returns briefly to the video interview with Sarah.]
SARAH: We can totally do this. We can totally do this. We're going to win.
[The last scene of the video is a silent aerial view of the city that shows cars driving. In the foreground, you can see the WFYI building. In the distance, you can see a billboard that says “Share your light” and beyond that, the Indianapolis skyline.]
[Words Appear: A project of The Media School at Indiana University. Produced by Jack Bassett.]
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
Sarah Neal-Estes, the news director at WFYI Public Media in Indianapolis, doesn’t mince words when it comes to describing recent developments for public media organizations. In July 2025, Congress ended federal funding for PBS, NPR, and member stations in a devastating blow to public media nationwide.
“2025 was rough,” she said.
Indiana took the cuts a step further by eliminating public media from the state budget as well in 2025. Across the country, state-level funding for public media varies widely, with some states increasing appropriations and others leveling off or eliminating them.
WFYI, which is the largest public broadcasting station in Indiana, lost 15 percent of its budget to the state and federal cuts for a total $2.1 million shortfall.
One casualty of the cuts was the statewide reporting team that served all 17 public radio and television stations in Indiana. Eight journalists on the team were laid off at the end of 2025.
Public funding cuts are most likely to harm smaller stations, particularly those that serve rural or lower-income communities. Ball State Public Media in Muncie and WNIN Tri-State Public Media in Evansville both received nearly two-thirds of their budgets from federal and state funding.
In Indianapolis, WFYI benefits from a diversity of funding sources, including individual giving, grants, and underwriting.
After the funding cuts were announced, listeners and viewers responded with a surge of increased giving, which has protected WFYI from layoffs so far.
“People saw what was happening. Major donors who always give, to people who’d never given, to people who said, ‘I’ll just give $25 more,’ they really helped us through that,” Neal-Estes said. Still, “we’re not out of the woods.”
“I think it’s challenging, but I also think it guarantees we do the best work because we’re directly responsive to the people and the organizations that are providing money for us,” said Greg Petrowich, president and CEO of WFYI Public Media. “Public support is going up because the people really wanted to see public media funded, and if the government’s not going to do it for them, they’re going to do it themselves.”
Both Petrowich and Neal-Estes attribute increased giving to the relationship the station has engendered with the Central Indiana community over the decades. While surveys have reported declining trust in media overall in recent years, PBS in particular enjoys strong trust from audiences. A recent study showed viewers rated PBS high in value for public dollars and evaluate its journalism as unbiased, even across political affiliations.
For stations in lower-income areas that may not be able to close the budget shortfalls through individual giving, larger foundations are marshaling their fundraising resources. Three major national foundations gathered $50 million late last year as part of an initiative called the Public Media Bridge Fund that will support public media organizations that are at high risk of layoffs or even closures.
Public media organizations still face a lot of uncertainty. But for both Petrowich and Neal-Estes, there is room for optimism.
“The thing I’m proudest of is how we’ve adapted and how resilient our staff has been,” said Petrowich. “It would have been easy in the midst of the cuts and just fold up shop and say, ok, we lost, we’re done, but no one was going to do that. It was never an option.”
“We can totally do this,” said Neal-Estes. “We’re going to win.”
