We need YOUR help!
We need YOUR VOICE right now in support of public funding for public media. The current budget proposal includes a 34% reduction in state funding for the Educational Communications Board (ECB), the technical backbone of Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), and the state’s ENTIRE emergency alert/AMBER alert systems (the system that triggers tornado alerts for all media statewide). Without emergency alert funding, your emergency communications system will be at risk.
ECB is also the home of the Wisconsin Media Lab, which creates, curates and disseminates K-12 classroom resources and educational materials statewide to more than 800,000 school kids each year, an irreplaceable service critical to classroom success. The state budget as proposed would undermine this service which is now available free of charge for public, private, charter and home school instruction year round.
Public Media Belongs to YOU! Use your voice!
Please call your legislators TODAY and tell them you value the services that can only be provided by Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) and Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), and ask them to restore State GPR (general purpose revenue) funding to ECB to protect and preserve these critical and valuable services.
Need help finding contact info for legislators? Visit legis.wisconsin.gov.
If the budget cuts stand as proposed WPT and WPR will be forced to reduce staff, who assure the reliability of the network and the vital, educational engaging content you’ve come to rely on. Public media belongs to you – if you value the services only public media can provide, call or visit your legislators now, and ask them to restore State GPR funding of ECB and public media.
Public media was invented in Wisconsin nearly 100 years ago. We need your voice, and your support, to ensure we’ll be here 100 years from now, continuing to make Wisconsin a special place to live, work and play.
Sincerely,
Linda Prehn
President, Friends of Wisconsin Public Television
Dean Dietrich
President, Wisconsin Public Radio Association
Wisconsin has a long history of growing and supporting public funding of public media. It is critical for a whole host of reasons that funding of the ECB be continued at it’s most recent level or even at a slightly higher level. Wisconsin should continue to be a leader among all states in offering the very highest quality services and programming for its residents.