In a memorandum sent to staff on Sept. 30, KCUR General Manager Sarah Morris announced financial adjustments made in response to the current national trend of declining listenership and advertising revenue.
This includes a reduction in staffing, primarily at the classical station, 91.9 Classical KC. Additional cuts include non-essential travel, professional development, and non-essential supplies.
“Listeners will continue to enjoy free, 24-hour classical music on 91.9 FM, and to find classical music on our website, classicalkc.org,” Morris said.
“Unfortunately, despite strategic investments in local programming and expansion efforts at our sister station, financial headwinds facing many of us in public media have forced us to make some very difficult decisions. We remain a steadfast champion of the arts and classical music in Kansas City.”
Established in 1957, KCUR is a nonprofit service of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a charter member of NPR. KCUR — like dozens of other nonprofit media outlets across the country — has experienced budget deficits for the past two fiscal years, largely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic led to dramatic shortfalls in advertising revenue (generally known as “underwriting” in public media), and increased competition for philanthropic support.
Meanwhile, KCUR made strategic investments, working to increase newsroom staff salaries and launching new products and audience growth strategies. Concurrently, Morris cited increased competition for audiences and changing broadcast consumption habits — a lingering result of the COVID-19 pandemic — as parts of the downward pressures of the organization’s budget.
Morris said, “These were difficult decisions to make, but reducing the size of our overall operation as we seek new ways to grow listenership and revenue will allow us to focus resources on our highest priority: providing free, high-quality journalism for our community.”
KCUR is not unique in its budgetary challenges. As of June 2024, the public media industry journal Current has tracked more than 400 jobs lost to layoffs or buyouts in the system since March 2023, including NPR and some of the largest and traditionally most-successful stations.
