It seems like everything we do, wear, eat, etc is politicized to the point of absurdity. Personally, I think it’s destructive and a huge problem facing this country today. Professionally, however, the existence of public media is of paramount importance to our country. For those in the broadcast industry and related marketing and creative fields, we should be deeply concerned with the new FCC commissioner Brendan Carr and his efforts to end public broadcasting or at least do away with its federal funding. Just because the President doesn’t agree with the general content of public broadcasting, this is no reason to end its funding. This would put most, if not all, of these radio and TV stations out of business. It sets a very bad precedent and as marketers it would eliminate a valuable sponsorship platform for us.

A large percentage of public broadcast content is not political in nature, e.g. Science Friday, Marketplace, This Old House, The Moth Radio Hour, Masterpiece Theatre, NOVA, etc. How many of us grew up watching Sesame Street and got valuable learning while being entertained by Elmo, Bert and Ernie, Big Bird and a great cast of guests.

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was created to provide non-commercial, educational and diverse programming generally not available on standard commercial airwaves. For years these broadcasters struggled to get supplemental funding in addition to the federal money they received so they could run a quality operation and still stay within the non-commercial guidelines. In the 90’s I worked with NPR, PBS, APR, Radio Pacifica and a few local public stations help them understand how their platforms could be extremely valuable to advertisers, and what they had to do in order to get them in the consideration set with media buyers, planners and marketing departments while still adhering to their charter. I [accomplished just that, and these outlets became important channels for local and national advertisers.

In advertising we talk about reach, i.e. reaching as many people as possible, and target audiences, i.e. communicating our message to the people that are right for our product/ service. Public broadcasting is a great vehicle to expand brand awareness and speak to a specific crowd in a unique environment. Most experienced ad agencies, media companies and brand marketers know this. Don’t let us lose a valuable option!

From an economic perspective, don’t let these thousands of employees become the latest addition to our growing unemployment numbers further draining the present economy. This ultimately affects a company’s profits. We all know when profits are down, ad budgets follow suite. Tell the RAB, NAB, the ANA to use their D.C. influence and keep us strong like they did for AM radio in cars last year.

Pic by elxeneize for Envato Elements.

Matt Feinberg is the Chief Strategy Officer, Sales & Marketing at Gen Media Partners, he is a seasoned media and marketing executive strategist and university level educator.