Many state agencies in Oklahoma face periodic reviews by lawmakers. And if they deem an agency has become obsolete, they can sunset it — or wind it down. If they think the agency is still relevant, they keep it around for a while longer, extending the sunset period.
OETA is on a path to dissolution thanks to Stitt's veto of Senate Bill 1461, which would have extended the life of the agency for another half-decade. Lawmakers in the Senate failed to override the veto, and now the fate of Oklahoma's public broadcasting and emergency alert system is in the hands of the next legislature — and governor — to gavel in at the statehouse.
But there is no guarantee the political will exists next year to undo Stitt's work, who for his part thinks taxpayers need not pay for public media at all. Still, Executive Director Shawn Black says it's his mission, going forward, to ensure incumbent and newly elected lawmakers understand the value of OETA before they vote to shut it down.
Part of that mission relies on Friends of OETA, the network's dedicated nonprofit advocacy arm, to spread the word about the station, its benefits to Oklahomans and its future.
Full interview with OETA's Shawn Black
Lionel Ramos: First, if you could just talk about what OETA is facing, just a quick summary, and then we can get into some of the deeper questions that I have.
Shawn Black: Okay. So, OETA is fully funded until the end of the fiscal year, which would be June 30th, 2027. Which means we're fully operational. So we're doing everything as though it's business as usual from that standpoint. Now, obviously, we're waiting until when the legislature reconvenes in February 2027. And, you know, we're just confident that lawmakers know what our impact is for Oklahoma and the need for our services, and that they will resolve this issue in their next session.
Ramos: If lawmakers don't reinstate the sunsets and you guys have to kind of move on from there, what does that look like for you guys kind of at that point? Have you even been able to think that far ahead?
Black: You know, there are different options for a public TV station like ours. The issue becomes: What would really happen? You know, we could be a university-affiliated organization. We could be a community organization. So we have been looking at what those options are, and it's just very initial right now. We'll weigh them as things go. If it looks during February and March that the legislature is saying we don't want OETA to continue in this vein, then we'll have to really look deeply at those options. At this point, we haven't really said, 'okay, if this doesn't happen, we're going to this is our plan B.'
Ramos: Now, one thing I've been wondering is whether you've talked to Governor Kevin Stitt about his decision to veto those sunsets?
Black: No. We haven't. This will make the third veto of OETA that Governor Stitt has put in place. And so his veto message was pretty clear. There's really not a lot to talk about with him, since we know where he stands.
Ramos: How about leaders in the legislature? I'm thinking of Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, who had the opportunity to override those vetoes. And House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, whose chamber overwhelmingly decided to override those vetoes.
Black: Yeah. And Representative Hilbert did say that there would be time next year to really look at this issue. And that's what we really plan to do is, get with the legislature and have them look at it. And again, work with whoever the new governor is to get our authorization put back in place.
Ramos: Isn't that quite a gamble on the fate of the agency, though? I mean, what's to say that there is the political will amongst the newly elected next year? And the governor, whoever that may be.
Black: Our reach across Oklahoma is about 762,000 — is what we did in April. That number is both TV and digital streaming. And we have a lot of advocates across the state. And we're just asking our advocates to make your voice known to both your legislators and to whoever the new governor is going to be in place to let them know how critical our services are. And so we feel confident that people across the state will let their legislators know OETA is valuable to them and where they live.
Ramos: I hear you. I guess I wonder about whether the legislature always acts in the interest of the people who do let them know what they're thinking … I guess that's where, for me, the gamble is in my mind.
Black: And I understand what you're saying, but next year we expect them to act. And we are going to work with the new governor in order to make sure that he fully understands our programming, and he fully understands the value of OETA to the state of Oklahoma, because we're not just broadcasting TV, we also do the emergency alerts. And that's very important for people who live in rural areas.
Ramos: Can you — I guess for our listeners…I mean, pretty much everyone has experienced an OETA emergency alert if they've been in Oklahoma for any recent amount of time. Can you give an example of what that might look like for someone who's, I don't know, sitting in their car after work commute?
Black: So because we have the WARN alert system, what happens is a lot of times a cell tower may or may not go out. If that cell tower goes out, we still have our emergency alert system that will warn people on their radio or on their TV about impending weather that's going to happen. And so it's a vital part of the entire emergency alert system that we have here in Oklahoma. And let's just say OETA went away. We would still expect the state to operate this emergency alert system. And so not only do we operate the emergency alert system, but then we also provide education, free access on TV and digital. And so you really get two for one compared to if you only operated the emergency alert system, you'd still have all the towers. They would still be in place, but you'd be spending money only on a singular issue.
Ramos: And to be clear, that emergency alert system is independent of, say, Wi-Fi connection? Right?
Black: Correct.
Ramos: Okay. So it's like you're literally listening to the radio waves and that's where it comes through weather. And so I think that's important for people to know because we rely on the internet for so many things right now.
Black: That's true. And, when you really live in a rural area and the only thing you have, maybe satellite, we know satellite goes out all the time. OETA is always there across every county in the state of Oklahoma. And so people who live in Guymon, the only news that they're going to get is going to be the news that comes from Oklahoma City OETA because they are living in other markets locally. So we're the only ones who would broadcast Oklahoma news to them from our channel.
Ramos: What would happen to the emergency broadcast system if the extension isn't passed next year? Are you guys still going to be responsible for that in some fashion, or is that a state responsibility?
Black: Correct. It's a state responsibility. And if OETA just completely went away, someone would have to pick that up.
Ramos: Okay, interesting. And there's no telling… and there's no… I mean, have you had any indication of what that might be?
Black: No, no, I haven't. And I think that kind of goes to why, when I said there's not a full understanding of everything that we do. That's an example of what I'm talking about.
Ramos: Okay, okay. One last thing that I wanted to touch on: Congress rescinded funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last year, which is ... hit us at KOSU as a public broadcasting entity pretty hard. It's hit public broadcasting across the board pretty hard. And, and I just want to get a sense of what that's meant for you guys. And then if you could speak a little bit to the compounding nature that the latest legislative action or inaction has caused.
Black: I think the CPB cuts were significant to us as well. But because of our Friends of OETA, we were able to absorb those cuts and they actually won't take effect until September of 2026 because of the way we budgeted. We always spent the money at the end of the cycle, not at the beginning. And so we haven't felt those cuts yet, but all of the fundraising that we have done has been tremendous. And the outpouring from viewers and donors here in Oklahoma has made a tremendous difference. Now, that's not to say that we are not going to have to look at things a little bit more closely than what we were before, but we're going to. So between that and then this sunset, it has. It has been challenging from the standpoint of making sure we're continuing. Because not only did we lose funding now, we lost support from the executive branch and the governor who wanted to veto us.
Ramos: Was there anything else that you think I should be thinking about or that I maybe missed?
Black: Again, I want to emphasize that... most people don't realize this… the backbone really of what we do is education. We do 11 hours of education on our main channel, and then we have a 24 hour kids channel that we run. And we have a lot of kids who watch. They watch it. Because when you watch the education shows on OETA, a lot of parents say this is a safe zone for my kids. I know I can put them here and they're going to learn. They're not going to get this YouTube stuff that has commercials on it. They're not going to get the stuff that Disney, that the studios have in place in order to make money and drive kids in a different direction.
