With the threat of federal funding being cut, WCTE’s Great TV auction fundraiser this year may be more important than ever.
General Manager Avery Hutchins said 100 percent of the funds raised from the auction go to supporting the station’s operating costs. Hutchins said 40 percent of WCTE’s operating budget comes from funding from the federal government. Hutchins said with the loss of federal support, WCTE is putting more emphasis on this year’s auction.
“I’m hoping that we don’t see that federal funding cut and that we can continue business as usual, but we have to, you know, be paying attention to what’s going on so that we can plan and prepare appropriately for the station,” Hutchins said.
Hutchins said WCTE has served the Upper Cumberland for 48 years. Hutchins said she encourages people to support WCTE as the station provides local news and services to rural areas in the Upper Cumberland.
“We want to be here to serve our youngest all the way to our oldest in a capacity that best suits them, whether it’s alerting, early learning literacy, programming that helps entertain and engage for those seniors that may not be able to get out or they are stuck at home, but we are also providing free over the air content, which we are the only ones that do that,” Hutchins said. “WCTE is the only broadcast station in the Upper Cumberland.”
Hutchins said WCTE has had a campaign against the federal government cutting funding. Hutchins said a recision package is supposed to be submitted to the federal government.
“We were told last week that the recision package was gonna be coming down this week, so we have amped up that campaign again just to kind of keep everybody current on what’s going on. We are still waiting to see if that is something that is gonna happen. You know, we were told that it’s gonna happen, but we don’t know.”
WCTE’s Great TV Auction is already underway and will end on June 8. WCTE will have an online portion of the auction while also having an in-person auction at Spankie’s in Cookeville on June 5 from 7pm-9pm.
