Our fictional station team reflects on the growing regulatory storm

This is an account of an imagined second senior staff meeting at a major university joint licensee in the wake of the U.S. House DOGE subcommittee hearing on public broadcasting in March 2025 and the earlier FCC announcement of an inquiry into public media underwriting practices. The first account recorded the staff’s thoughts about the hearing. This account shares the staff’s thoughts two weeks later about the original FCC inquiry, analyzing it in light of the hearing and their earlier discussions.

As before, those attending the meeting were the Division Director and the management team — the Television and Radio Station Managers and the Associate Directors for Communications, Development, Engineering and Technology, Online Content and Membership.