SOUTH BEND — PBS Michiana WNIT-TV (34.1) President and General Manager Amanda Miller Kelley and her staff had an extra reason to celebrate Thanksgiving this year: The day before the holiday, the public television station learned it had received a Public Media Bridge Fund grant.
The money, $694,000, makes up for a little more than half of what WNIT lost when Indiana and the federal government cut funding for public broadcasting this year, Miller Kelley said in a phone interview.
As The Tribune previously reported, WNIT lost a total of $1.3 million in public funding — 34% of its annual budget — between the federal and state cuts.
As a result, Miller Kelley said, the station enacted a “shortfall budget” when its fiscal year began Oct. 1.
“‘Bridge’ is a really great word for it,” she said. “It doesn’t make up the gap, it doesn’t close the gap, but it helps to stabilize when we truly need it. … This buys us a year to land on our feet and address significant needs that were left in our budget.”
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