Redding public television station KIXE announced it cut staff by a third and chopped its budget after losing more than 40% of its revenue this year.
The 61-year-old station still needs to find roughly $400,000 in bridge funding to keep operating in 2026, said KIXE’s general manager Rob Keenan.
KIXE and other public television broadcasting and national public radio stations across the country are struggling financially or closing after President Donald Trump’s administration and Congress ended $1.1 billion in federal funding in summer. Rural and small town stations are some of the hardest hit.
The Redding station cut its budget enough in 2025 to operate off a reserve and keep its three channels on the air into next spring, Kennan said, but those cuts were painful.