Texas Tech will stop funding its Public Broadcasting Station within the next 14 months.

Chris Cook, managing director in the office of communications and marketing at Tech, said in a statement the reduction in funding will allow for more support for academic areas.

"The university seeks to ensure that student tuition dollars are used for academic services," Cook said. "Grants and private donations received by KTTZ will not be affected by the removal of the university-supported funds."

Robert Giovannetti, associate vice chancellor for communications and marketing at the university, said KTTZ has received $605,000 annually, and is slated to receive $305,000 for the next fiscal year.

The university has been working closely with KTTZ, Giovannetti said, and the goal is to make the station self-sustaining. He said the station will rely more on gifts from donors, private grants and funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Giovannetti said Tech is trying to cut down on expenses and increase revenues, and to do that the university's vision is to make its non-academic entities become self-sustaining.

"We looked at the budget, and we need to be more efficient," he said. "We want to put more money and funds in academics."

Programming on KTTZ should not be affected, said Giovannetti. Though the station has spent $568,000 on programming this fiscal year, he said the money for programming comes from funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The funding received from Tech was used to cover operating costs such as equipment maintenance and personnel.

Cook said when the university hired John Kirby as general manager of the station, he was made aware one of his primary duties was to increase private funding and improve donor relations.

The station has been preparing for these circumstances, said Kirby.

"We are trying to increase our underwriting efforts," he said. "We want private, not public funds, and right now we have two outstanding sales executives working on this. We have a wonderful relationship with Texas Tech, and we support them.

"We will continue to try to build the best public television program out there."

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