"The vast majority of radio stations that have broadcast my music over the last 40 years is from National Public Radio. I would go as far as saying that without NPR, PRI and the PBS, I am not sure that I would have become a nationally known solo artist because commercial radio has, for the most part, ignored violin/fiddle music almost completely. I am linking a video from one of the most prominent PBS Specials I have created – with Yo-Yo Ma. I remember the budget of this special from 2000 nearly exactly. $180,000 came from Sony Classical Records to film this at Avery Fisher Hall, and it was matched by $180,000 from Public Broadcasting, and was aired on PBS several times. Without the funding from the National Endowment, the special would not have been possible. This and many more specials as well as the ongoing NPR airplay, put my music in the spotlight over the years and continued to do, usually drowned out by popular culture. As a young boy, I am not even sure I would have gotten into arts music without PBS and NPR in our household almost daily."
-Mark O’Connor
Mark O'Connor portrait by John David Pittman
Excerpted from:
“The White House released its budget proposal on Thursday, which suggests eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts…
White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney says Trump administration officials focused on areas of the budget where they felt they could not ask taxpayers to foot the bill, specifically citing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
"When you start looking at the places that will reduce spending, one of the questions we asked was 'Can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?' And the answer was no,” Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a Thursday morning interview…
"We can ask them to pay for defense, and we will, but we can’t ask them to continue to pay for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting."
Under Trump’s proposed budget, the funding for the CPB would be eliminated, as would the funds for the National Endowment of the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.
According to Patrick Butler, President of America's Public Television Stations, around 23,000 people work in public broadcasting across the U.S., many at small town and rural radio and television stations.
According to Patrick Butler, President of America's Public Television Stations, around 23,000 people work in public broadcasting across the U.S., many at small town and rural radio and television stations.
"In the long run it's entirely possible that everybody would lose his or her job," Butler told NBC News, "If that funding goes away."
Remote areas will be hit hardest if CPB funding — 70 percent of which goes to local stations — is eliminated. Bill Legere, General Manager of Juneau, Alaska's KTOO, oversees a staff of 24 people that run both the public radio and television stations in the state capitol. Funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting makes up about one-third of his budget, but in some smaller towns, CPB grants account for closer to 90 percent of operation costs.
Remote areas will be hit hardest if CPB funding — 70 percent of which goes to local stations — is eliminated. Bill Legere, General Manager of Juneau, Alaska's KTOO, oversees a staff of 24 people that run both the public radio and television stations in the state capitol. Funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting makes up about one-third of his budget, but in some smaller towns, CPB grants account for closer to 90 percent of operation costs.
According to a statement issued Thursday by PBS, public television is "America's largest classroom," with 68 percent of all kids aged 2-8 watching and learning from shows like Sesame Street, Thomas and Friends, Arthur, and others.
Speaking on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said that cutting public broadcasting was in the best interest of rural and inner-city Americans.
Speaking on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said that cutting public broadcasting was in the best interest of rural and inner-city Americans.
Mulvaney also said Thursday that much of the budget came from policy proposals Trump outlined in speeches and interviews during his campaign.
"We went back and pulled lines from speeches, interviews and turned his words, his policies into numbers,” Mulvaney said. "So folks who voted for the president are getting exactly what they voted for. "”
Mark O'Connor's "Appalachia Waltz" (Feat. Yo-Yo Ma) Loved Composition For Strings
"Orchestral programming would nearly cease to exist as well. There is really no outlet for interesting Symphony Orchestra work, and the distribution of it without NPR and PBS. This link here is a piece of mine with the Buffalo Symphony that was the subject of a PBS Special. It featured my critically acclaimed "American Seasons" violin concerto which obviously would not have had a chance on commercial T.V. or radio, but still worthy of being promoted and supported I believe. There is really nothing in the pop culture that could make up for the loss I am afraid, not for symphony orchestra."
- Mark O'Conner
"Fall" from Mark O'Connor's "American Seasons" w. JoAnn Falletta/Buffalo Philharmonic
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