West Virginia Public Broadcasting laid off five staffers Friday following a cut to the network’s state funding.
The layoffs affected four full-time employees and one part-time employee, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Susan Hogan, chair of the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, confirmed the paper’s report but declined to disclose who was laid off. The Gazette-Mail said layoffs affected the engineering and business departments.
The paper added that three staffers have also left WVPB voluntarily and eight have retired.
A state budget enacted Saturday reduced WVPB’s state funding by more than 20 percent in the bill. In addition to the layoffs, the cut could lead to reduced expenses for local productions and shutdowns of TV translators in remote regions of the state, Hogan said in a statement last week.
“Through good management and with help from our friends, WVPB will continue to tell West Virginia’s story, despite these cuts,” Hogan said. “The station’s leadership is still determining how to best protect the high quality of services and programming you’ve come to expect from West Virginia Public Broadcasting.”