SDPB officials outline impending job and programming cuts

Plans dealing with congressional rescission of federal money to public broadcasting won't be final for two or three weeks

South Dakota Public Broadcasting is bracing for layoffs to about a third of its staff, as well as cuts to programming following passage of a federal law that rescinded about $9 billion in spending.

Included in the recissions legislation was money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an entity created in 1967 by Congress that includes Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.

The trickledown effect will hit state affiliates, including SDPB. But the full impact just a few days after the cuts happened remains unknown, and Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting CEO Ryan Howlett described the situation as a “chaotic scene” to the state Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee.

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