Madison radio station WORT-FM lost $112,000 in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, putting it in “a substantial deficit which is unsustainable,” according to an email sent to volunteers and obtained and reported on by Isthmus.
“We can no longer spend our reserves without replacement,” Tanya Graham, vice president of the WORT board, said in her Nov. 10 email. “The board must act to ensure that WORT not only survives but thrives in the years and decades to come.”
WORT-FM laid off two of its seven full-time staff members this week.
The public funding cut was 12% of the radio station’s 2025 budget.
WORTstock, an annual springtime concert the station hosts, has been cut for 2026.
President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill cut $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
