Rural stations hit hardest by Trump’s ‘life or death’ public media cuts
Public media stations of all sizes are scrambling after President Trump in July moved to slash over $1 billion in federal funding and dissolve the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
But broadcasters that serve rural communities with already strapped resources will feel these cuts most deeply — and the financial pain is already hitting home. Stations have resorted to scaling back staff or switching to automated programming to stretch their shrinking budget.
“Before CPB was defunded, these stations were under a lot of stress,” said Scott Finn, the former president and CEO of Vermont Public, noting stressors facing the local news industry such as declining revenue and evolving audience consumption habits.
“Now on top of it, stations are losing a percent of their funding, and for some stations, it’s up to 50 percent or more,” he continued. “For the average station, it’s a lot less than that, but the stations that tend to be losing the most money are the stations that need that money the most.”
KRBD, an NPR station with five staff members, serves several small communities in Southeast Alaska reaching roughly 20,000 people. When CPB officially dissolved last month, the station lost nearly 40 percent of its funding. It organized an emergency fundraiser to close the gap, but only raised roughly half of what was lost.
Stations serving remote areas in Alaska are critical for informing communities on natural disasters and other breaking news, Mike Gates, general manager of KRBD, said.
Karen Petersen, a 65-year-old retiree originally from Seattle, Wa., and a longtime listener and supporter of the station, echoed this sentiment. She says she’s worried about losing access to reliable information in emergency weather events.
“Here’s the cool thing about radio, as opposed to anything else, is most people’s cars have radios in them too. So if you have to evacuate, your car has a little radio, you can tune into the radio station and still get live and real time updates,” she said.
“That was where the importance of this system really struck me,” she added. “We’ve had a number of landslides that [have] prevented access to services, and people find out about it that way.”
In July, the House, in a 216-213 vote, moved to rescind $9 billion in previously allocated funding — including $1.1 billion that would have gone to CPB. As a result, Oct. 1 marked the first time since 1967 that public media stations are without federal funding.
In a May executive order, President Trump said the rationale for the funding cuts was that “today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options” and that “the CPB fails to abide by [impartiality] principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS.”
“Neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” the order reads.
The White House did not respond to The Hill’s repeated requests for comment.
Petersen said she believes the government should allow viewers to decide whether public media coverage has a political bent. And if they decide it does, they can choose not to consume it, she added.
“They are really doing a disservice to people that listen to the radio or read the news [as if] we can’t figure out for ourselves if something is or isn’t liberal, if we do or don’t agree with that,” she said of the Trump administration. “It’s pretty crazy that people aren’t allowed to decide for themselves.”
KRBD was one of two stations that Report for America, a service program placing journalists in local newsrooms, provided emergency funding amid the cuts. It funded 100 percent of a salary for a prospective reporter until next year, according to a press release.
Just one public station has gone dark as a result of the cuts in Washington. In September, Pennsylvania State University Board of Trustees chose to pull the plug on the university’s PBS station, WPSU, after 60 years of operation.
But others are feeling the pinch and making tough decisions.
“A lot of these stations are going to be cutting funding, staff [and] programming, and they’re already, a lot of [them are] rural stations,” Zach Metzger, director of State of Local News Project hosted at Northwestern University, said. “That’s just going to exacerbate the amount of coverage that they can provide and reduce what coverage they already are providing.”
Desiree Hagen is the sole reporter and news director at KOTZ in Kotzebue, Alaska., an NPR station over 500 miles away from Anchorage that reaches up to 10,000 people. She provides news to the northwest region of the state, which has an Alaskan Native population of roughly 75 percent. KOTZ received 41 percent of its funding from the government.
“This really was a big blow because it took back two years of funding, which in terms of government spending doesn’t sound like a lot, but for a small station like us, it’s really like life or death,” Hagen said. “We’ve cut our programming.”
Some outside funding sources have also emerged. Joan Kowalski, the president of Bob Ross Inc., announced last week that the company will auction off 30 of the renowned artist and PBS personality’s paintings to support small and rural public media outlets.
And last month, seven philanthropic organizations pledged $37 million to fuel local public media amid the federal funding repeals.
Even public stations with more sound financial footing are worried about the impact on programming.
PBS Reno, which covers over 60 percent of Nevada, still has a robust amount of resources, programs and community involvement in elementary schools across various counties. And only 17 percent, $1.3 million, of its budget comes from federal funds.
But this stability doesn’t eliminate all concerns about the cut, particularly its impact on national shows like “NOVA,” “Finding Your Roots,” and “Antiques Roadshow,” CEO and president of PBS Reno Kurt Mische said.
“The majority of the American public wants public broadcasting to be funded, and it’s very disappointing that Congress ignored the wishes of the majority of American people and voted to approve this rescission,” Mische said. “We are very concerned about the impact of these cuts on some of the larger stations that create the national programs.”
On Oct. 1, GBH — PBS’s largest programming producer, which produces “Frontline,” “NOVA” and “Antiques Roadshow” — launched “Fund the Future,” a three-year $225 million fundraising campaign to keep the company strong during an unsteady time for public media funding.
“This is a challenging time for the entire public media system, and it is requiring us all to quickly evolve,” Susan Goldberg, president and CEO of GBH, said to The Hill.
“Like others, we have had to make some difficult choices and we will going forward. There is no way to remove federal funding and not have it make a difference,” she continued. “That said, we’re looking to the future, and to our supporters everywhere to invest in the media they need and love.”