The fallout from the US government clawing back the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s funding is already hitting home, with the org deciding to wind down its operations. And the stations CPB funded are expressing grief over losing the institution that helped finance iconic PBS KIDS series like Sesame Street.

On Friday, the CPB released a statement that it would begin “an orderly wind-down” of its operations following Congress’ vote to cut its entire US$1.1 billion funding budget. The nonprofit helps support more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public TV and radio stations across the US. 

The CPB is also the largest single source of funding for public media in the US. Throughout its decades-long run, it funded live-action and animated children’s programming, such as Lyla in the Loop (Mighty Picnic, Pipeline Studios), Donkey Hodie (Fred Rogers Productions and Spiffy Pictures) and Super Why! (Out of the Blue Enterprises). 

With its funding withheld for the first time in more than 50 years, the 58-year-old org told its employees on Friday that most staff roles would end on September 30, the end of its fiscal year. A small transition team, focused only on compliance, making final distributions of funding and ensuring rights and royalties are continued, will remain through January.

“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” said Patricia Harrison, CPB’s president and CEO. “We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”

PBS’s budget will be affected by the wind-down, since it typically received about 15% of its annual budget from federal funding. But CPB’s shutdown is not ruinous to PBS, which will be able to keep operating because it also gets funding from other sources, including grants, donations and corporate sponsorships. 

PBS and local stations have issued statements that serve the dual purpose of mourning the org that helped bring Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (pictured) and Odd Squad to screens, while making it clear that the stations plan to endure. 

PBS released a brief statement decrying the org’s shutdown. “For over half a century, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has partnered with PBS and our member stations to serve communities large and small in every corner of the country. As this remarkable institution winds down, PBS is committed to building on CPB’s legacy and maintaining our service to the American people for years to come.” 

Margaret Low, CEO of WBUR (Boston), expressed a similar sentiment via LinkedIn. “The CPB has been a bedrock of public broadcasting for nearly 60 years and a critical source of funding for local stations like WBUR,” she wrote. “As CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison said, ‘public media will endure.’ We will indeed. Onward, dammit!” 

Jason Jedlinski, president and CEO of PBS member station WQED (Pittsburgh), shared his views in an emotional statement. “Although we knew this was coming, it is heartbreaking to see it in writing,” he wrote. “We agree that public media must evolve. But tearing down its very foundation, and labeling the entire system ‘un-American,’ is a gross overreaction that harms independent, local stations like WQED and weakens our country.” 

Jedlinksi also outlined how CPB’s closure could affect the station. “Our programming will change. Our organization will be smaller. But WQED is not going anywhere. For 71 years, we have educated, inspired and uplifted communities across western Pennsylvania—and we’re determined to continue, no matter how the landscape shifts.”