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Budgetary concerns have forced Arkansas TV, formerly Arkansas PBS, to leave the national Public Broadcasting System, but the head of the TV station said that the programming on Arkansas TV will likely be similar to what Arkansas PBS viewers are used to.
Carlton Wing, the CEO of Arkansas TV, said the decision to leave PBS was necessitated by federal funding cuts and the winding down and eventual dissolution of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit private company created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. Dropping its PBS membership buys Arkansas TV time to figure out it’s budget, Wing said during an appearance at the Little Rock Rotary Club on Tuesday.
About 20% of Arkansas TV’s funding, was lost after federal budget cuts. By leaving PBS, Arkansas TV has three years under current budgetary conditions before bankruptcy, as opposed to two years if they remain a PBS member.
“We’re bleeding two and a quarter million dollars if we stay on the course that we’re on. If we don’t we’re still bleeding a little over a million dollars. But that million dollars… gives us a longer runway to make the changes that need to be made,” Wing, a former state Republican state legislator from North Little Rock, said.
According to Wing, Arkansas TV will feature programming made in Arkansas, like Blueberry’s Clubhouse, an educational kid’s show filmed in Conway. Other programming from cheaper licensing sources like the National Education Telecommunications Association (NETA) and American Public Television (APT).
Amir Mahmoud
Amir Mahmoud is a general assignment and transportation beat reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He has worked at the newspaper since 2022, starting as a copy editor and designer before becoming a full-time reporter in March 2024. The Little Rock native attended the University of Miami, where he worked for its student newspaper, The Miami Hurricane.
