If you asked the average Mississippian to name all of Mississippi’s state agencies, Henry Williams has a pretty good idea which entity would be a stumper.
“When you think of all the state agencies, people don’t normally think of MPB,” Williams said during Thursday’s meeting of the Columbus Exchange Club. “The truth is, MPB has been a state agency since it was founded in 1970.”
That status, said Williams, MPB’s human resources director, is a blade that cuts both ways.
This year, MPB (Mississippi Public Broadcasting) — a statewide network of public television and radio stations — received $6 million in funding from the state, about 57 percent of its budget.
But like virtually all state agencies, funding for MPB has suffered cuts over the past several years.
“Two years ago, the funding was $8 million,” Williams said. “Today, we have 87 employees. When I started at MPB in 2014 we had 107. Maintaining funding to sustain the services we provide is an ongoing challenge. We’ve long since realized that we cannot depend on state funding, that we need to take steps to increase our funding in other ways.”
For MPB, that means private support.
A big part of that challenge, he said, is public awareness.
“A lot of our heartache as a state agency is getting the message out about who we are and what we do,” he said
Williams said MPB has three core missions — public safety/health, education and civic awareness. MPB’s programming — both on TV and radio — focuses on providing information on those topics.
“These are all critical subjects that touch the lives of all Mississippians,” he said. “We believe the work we do is important.”
In fact, said Williams, MPB often fills important gaps in service.
There is no better example of this than MPB’s programming for children, which includes such educational shows as “Sesame Street,” “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Odd Squad” and “Wild Kratts.”
“Our data shows that 87 percent of Mississippi children between the ages of 2 and 8 watch our children’s shows,” Williams said. “For more than half of the children in the state, our programming is all the pre-K education they get.”
Williams said MPB also provides 500 wifi “hot spots” to provide internet access to kids throughout the state who would otherwise not have it.
With rising costs, Williams said the MPB board has established a foundation to stabilize funding and limit the impact of state funding cuts.
“We’ve had 10,000 people give to our foundation,” Williams said. “We are also working on ways to increase funding from bigger corporations and businesses. We simply cannot rely on state funding. Private and corporate donations are going to be critical for us.”
MPB’s budget of $6 million comes out to $2.04 cents per person per year, Williams said.
“That’s not much,” Williams said. “We do believe that, when people become aware of what we do, what it means to our state, they are more likely to give. Every dollar we get matters.”
Williams said anyone wishing to make a one-time donation or become a sustaining member (pledging a certain amount of money on a monthly basis) can go to mpbonline.org.
“We have a lot of options for giving,” Williams said.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.