Iowa Public Radio 
to cut nine positions in reorganization

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IOWA CITY (MCT) — Iowa Public Radio will cut nine positions this fiscal year in a reorganization aimed at saving money.

Four of the nine positions are vacant and will remain unfilled. Of the remaining five, two people qualify for early retirement and one employee will be shifted to a different position. The other two will be laid off.

The reduction of nine jobs is 14 percent of the work force and will drop Iowa Public Radio’s statewide staff to 55 full — and part-time employees.

The fiscal 2010 operating budget is $6.1 million, a 10 percent reduction from the previous fiscal year.

Funding for Iowa Public Radio dropped this year by 6 percent from the state and 17 percent from the three regent universities. Those entities provide about one-third of the budget, CEO Mary Grace Herrington said.

“No programming changes will result from this realignment,” she said. “We remain a philanthropic organization that delivers what we believe is a fabulous public service in public media.”

The three separate ra dio groups at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa merged into Iowa Public Radio in 2005. One goal was to make Iowa Public Radio self-sustaining and reduce funding from the three universities.

The number of member donors was up 7 percent and membership revenue up 6 percent over the previous year. And station ratings show the number of listeners has increased 22 percent since the merger.

The state Board of Regents established Iowa Public Radio to operate KSUI-FM and WSUI-AM at the UI, WOI-AM and FM at ISU and KUNI-FM and KHKE-FM at UNI.