Street Smarts: How to Support WQLN After Federal Funding Dropped

Contributed

The STREAM Machine, a mobile classroom, provides lessons in science, technology, reading, engineering, art and math to kids in under-served areas.

"Can you tell me how to get (how to get) to Sesame Street?"

Actually, my GPS did all the work by directing me to WQLN's studio, located at the end of the road named after the celebrated Children's Television Workshop program.

As I drove down Sesame Street in Summit Township, I cried – tears of joy for my younger self and tears of sadness for the loss of $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Republican-controlled Congress eliminated all federal support for National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and member stations, including WQLN, on July 18, 2025. Congress had previously approved this funding for two years for the fiscal year that started July 1. Now it's all gone.

There is even more uncertainty about the future of public media nationally after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Aug. 1 that it is shutting down. Most of its 100 staff members will be laid off by Sept. 30, with a plan to fully shut down operations by January 2026.

In a prepared statement, Patricia Harrison, CPB's president and CEO, said: "CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care."

For WQLN, those cuts mean a loss of 40 percent of its annual budget, said Alyson Amendola, WQLN's vice president for advancement.

"We are so grateful that we have enjoyed bipartisan support for close to 60 years, since the inception of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting," Amendola said. "We have never wavered from our mission to inform, educate, and engage. We create meaningful experiences by sharing enriching local and national content, providing safety and emergency communications that help save lives and property, educating children to prepare them for their next steps, and fostering connections that uplift and support the community."

Cindy Spizarny, WQLN CEO, elaborated on what the elimination of funding means for WQLN. "We're talking about $1.2 million a year. We cannot fundraise out of that," said Spizarny. "We are being prudent with our expenses, with every dollar that comes in, with every dollar that goes out."

Spizarny described the staff of 20 as "small and mighty," with no overlap in departments. "They are being very loyal to us. We are trying not to touch the staff."

I have been a loyal PBS viewer since 1970, when I got hooked on Sesame Street with my baby brother. He was three, I was 18. High on the lyrics about inclusion and acceptance in "Everyday People" by Sly and the Family Stone, I discovered a similar theme in Kermit's signature song, "It's Not Easy Bein' Green."

"When green is all there is to be, it could make you wonder why. But why wonder? Why wonder? I'm green and it'll do fine. It's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be," Kermit crooned. So did Frank Sinatra in a cover of "Green," I sassily informed my boyfriend, a huge Beatles' fan. He knew the way to my heart, and rather than buy Let It Be for me, he gave me the first-ever Sesame Street LP for Christmas that year.

The Republican-controlled Congress gave Donald Trump a Christmas-in-July gift by wiping out all public media funding, money that had already been appropriated.

WQLN had begun preparing for the loss of federal funding a year ago, after Amendola read about the plan to go after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on pages 235-236 in Project 2025. That is the Heritage Foundation's blueprint "to downsize the federal government and fundamentally change how it works, including the tax system, immigration enforcement, social welfare programs, and energy policy," according to FactCheck.org at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Tipped off by Project 2025, WQLN's staff and board prepared to survive the funding loss for this year. But there is a serious threat to the future of WQLN, a beloved community institution since the TV station went live in 1967 and the radio station started broadcasting in 1973.

"The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was established to provide backbone funding to public media stations, enabling them to share meaningful content with their communities, regardless of a person's ZIP Code," Amendola said. "But the loss of federal funding is irreplaceable and will have a devastating impact on our operations."

For decades, WQLN has received kudos for creating local content, including Free to Choose in the 1980s with the late Milton Friedman, a conservative University of Chicago economist, promoting free enterprise and personal liberty, when the late Robert Chitester headed WQLN.

In 1980, that series and other programming Chitester produced prompted Ralph Nader's National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting to call for Congressional hearings into what the committee claimed was WQLN's right-wing bias.

Children from the Buckethead KIDZ drumming program show off their talents at a concert at WQLN. (Contributed photo)

Other local programming has included Guppies to Groupers, Chitester's TV series on tropical fish, a docu-drama on famed Erie illustrator Eugene Iverd, nostalgic looks back at Koehler Brewing, the Boston Store, and Erie's Irish heritage, a nationally syndicated radio show with Ron Slomski, Polish American Spotlight, and the television series Chronicles, covering Erie history. Chronicles will wrap up its three-year run with programs on Marc Brown, author of the Arthur books and creator of the PBS program by the same name, and on Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor and the first Secretary of Homeland Security.

Erie residents have always been proud that Brown and Ridge have Erie roots and they also have closely identified with WQLN employees and volunteers.

They have been able to match names and faces with the late Paul Brown, radio host of Two Cents Worth, described by Showcase writer Dave Richards as "the inquisitive broadcaster with a gentle voice" when he retired in 1990, jovial emcee Brady Louis, who retired in 1998 as president and general manager after four years, and Mavis Sergeant, the WQLN music librarian, remembered for her "eternal good humor" when she, too, retired in 1990.

Staffers were so fond of the late Tom McLaren, director of programming and production at WQLN, that they said he was "like our dad," said Patricia Combine, president at the time, when McLaren retired in 2002.

Amendola volunteered at WQLN for 30 years before she became development director. "No matter where I went, (people) would say, 'Oh, you're the WQLN girl,'" she said with a laugh. WQLN-FM has long been bolstered by a bevy of accomplished volunteers who host radio programs featuring jazz, classical music, and sacred music. Currently, there are 14 volunteer hosts, including Aubrey Dillon, Al Lubiejewski, and Rob Hoff, among others.

"Rob has been hosting Jazz Flight for over 52 years and wants to continue," said Amendola. Hoff, a native New Yorker, was wowed by Erie's jazz scene when he moved here in 1969 from the Twin Cities in Minnesota to teach psychology at Mercyhurst University, where he is now a professor emeritus.

He was quickly introduced to John Vanco, head of the Erie Art Center, which became the Erie Art Museum. "I went to the Art Center and we've been brothers in jazz ever since," he said. Many jazz musicians in Erie are, like him, also educators, he said, relaying an old joke: "What's the difference between a jazz musician and a pizza? With a pizza you can feed a family of four!"

Hoff said that "a great deal of jazz is directed to the challenges of our time." He recommended We Insist 2025! featuring Terri Lyne Carrington and Christine Dashiell. Released in June, it's being called a "reimagining" of Max Roach's 1961 album, We Insist! "

Rob Hoff has volunteered at WQLN-FM for 52 years as a host of jazz programs. Jazz has always showcased lessons in democracy, as demonstrated in this new album, We Insist 2025! (Contributed photo)

"Jazz is inherently a democratic activity," Hoff said. The individual performer must pay attention to what the other musicians are doing, to create the sense of balance needed in the music. Hoff, for one, continues to contact U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly and Sens. John Fetterman and David McCormick to ask them to restore public media funding. "Keep the pressure on these politicians," he said. Anything that has been undone can be restored, Hoff said.

Since the funding cuts were approved, WQLN's Spizarny and Amendola have been heartened by the non-stop calls and emails from people with stories about their love and appreciation for WQLN and asking how to help.

One way is to donate on Erie Gives Day on Aug. 12 or during Crawford Gives Aug. 12-15. But Spizarny and Amendola also urge supporters to consider switching from "static" donations to sustaining gifts. Monthly donations help in preparing budgets, they said.

It's also vital to remember that publicly funded media is committed to informing and educating people, no matter where they live or what their politics are. WQLN's reach goes as far as Crawford, Warren, Venango, and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania, Ashtabula County in Ohio, Chautauqua County in New York, and London, Ontario.

And just as when my brother was 3 years old and later when my boys watched Mister Roger's Neighborhood, WQLN continues to teach children from their youngest years. Two examples at WQLN are its "Buckethead KIDZ" and "STREAM Machine" programs.

"Each year, hundreds of fifth-grade students across our region receive weeks of instruction in bucket drumming. The classes are led by their school's music teacher where they learn to read notes and create rhythmic grooves," Amendola said. "At the end of the school year, hundreds of fifth graders are invited to play in the front yard of WQLN to jam with local musician Jim Dowds. WQLN Buckethead KIDZ is supported by the Les Paul Foundation and the Dougie Bleu Foundation."

The "STREAM Machine" brings pop-up classrooms to community centers, playgrounds, community events and neighborhoods where "resources are needed most," Amendola said.

"We're putting our mission in motion with this mobile outreach vehicle, stocked with PBS KIDS-themed STREAM Kits and books. The programming is designed to engage students and families with remarkable learning opportunities in the areas of science, technology, reading, engineering, art, and math."

If you reach out to federal lawmakers, as Hoff has done, you could direct them to the song on The Official Sesame Street 2 album, "Everyone Makes Mistakes," by Big Bird.

WQLN/PBS/NPR is participating in Erie Gives Day on Tuesday, Aug. 12. To donate, visit eriegives.org

Liz Allen also owns Songs from the Street, a boxed set of three CDs, released in 2004. She can be reached at lizerie@aol.com