MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – WNMU-TV has received a grant fund large enough to stabilize its operations over the next year.
Following a federal funding cut of 1.1 billion dollars to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in July, WNMU had anticipated losses of roughly 2.2 million dollars across the next two years.
Now, some hope has returned with a recent stabilization grant of $576,532 dollars from the Public Media Bridge Fund. Although this only covers roughly a quarter of WNMU-TV’s operations, the funds aim to keep local broadcasting stations afloat in the meantime.
“The grant is to help rural stations that lost federal funding to be able to stabilize and move into a more sustainable model moving forward,” said WNMU General Manager, Patrick Lakenen.
Beginning in August, the Bridge Fund was created in response to these federal eliminations. This week, they awarded $26 million dollars across 74 broadcasting organizations, who in total, operate 186 TV and radio stations nationwide.
With sustainability as the main goal, WNMU-TV will utilize these funds to continue its critical broadcasts such as emergency alerts, educational programming, and local productions such as Public Eye News.
On the other side of the campus-based station, WNMU-FM/Public Radio 90 will not be seeing any of the funds from this grant opportunity.
“WNMU-TV and WNMU-FM are actually treated as separate organizations on a number of fronts,” explained Lakenen. “For this particular grant, there was strict eligibility criteria that WNMU-TV qualified for, and WNMU-FM did not.”
Even with the funds, WNMU will be under strict budgeting in 2026, and is still asking the Upper Peninsula for help. More information about donations to the station can be found at wnmutv.nmu.edu/support or wnmufm.org/support.
