BATON ROUGE - The head of Baton Rouge's National Public Radio affiliate said Monday that donations to the non-profit station have increased since Congress clawed back about $1 billion in federal funding.

General Manager Paul Maassen told the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday that WRKF had received $150,000 annually from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Donations from the station's patrons are up in recent weeks.

"We weren't sure what was going to happen and we have seen an uptick here locally and I'm talking to my colleagues across the country and they're also seeing an uptick in that," Maassen said. "Right now, it's top of mind. People are thinking about it. They're energized to act on those kinds of things."

The concern, he said, is what happens in the future.

"It's $150,000 this year, but it's also $150,000 next year and the next year and the next year that we won't be seeing," he said. "It was fairly consistent. We have to look at it as short gain and long gain. How do we keep it going and continue like we were before?"

Funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting aided eight public television stations and nine non-profit radio stations in Louisiana. In the Baton Rouge area, the stations aided were the Louisiana Public Broadcasting network (WLPB) and radio stations WRKF, KLSU and WBRH.