Rural NPR stations ‘disappointed,' determined to survive after rescission package eliminates federal funding

Fox News

7 days ago

Leaders of NPR member stations in rural America are "a bit sad" and "disappointed," but determined to continue to serve their communities despite their loss of federal funding.
Congress is officially sending a package detailing $9 billion in spending cuts to President Donald Trump's desk after the House of Representatives passed the bill, called a "rescissions package," in a late-night vote on Thursday.
Trump's multibillion-dollar clawback package teed up cuts to "woke" spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS, as Republicans finally yanked federal money from public news outlets in a move advocates said was long overdue.
Tami Graham is the executive director of KSUT, an NPR member station located in the southwestern corner of Colorado that serves the rural Four Corners region. On October 1, KSUT will lose nearly 20% of its budget because of the rescission bill.
"So, for us, that's $330,000, and it's a pretty immediate turnaround we're having to do to try to fundraise so that we don't have to cut critical staff, programming, local news, et cetera. Those are the kind of decisions we're facing down right now," Graham told Fox News Digital.
Graham said staffers were "somber and yet determined" upon arriving to work on Thursday, after the Senate approved Trump's rescission package and reality set in.
"We know how much our region supports us and values our hyperlocal service to them in emergency alerts, and local news and information about what's happening in the region," Graham said.
"It's heavy, it's a bit sad," she continued. "There's very much a determination of, 'We're going to get through this, our listeners value us, and our region values us,' but it's not the kind of news that any of us want to be contemplating."
KSUT is "not going anywhere," Graham stressed, noting that rural areas that rely on public media because of spotty cell service, broadband and internet will significantly feel the impact of the rescission bill.
Trump's rescissions package includes $8 billion in cuts from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS.
"We get a larger percentage of support from CPB than major market stations because we're rural, because we are serving news deserts, because we don't have the ability to fundraise from our listenership in the way that cities, major markets do," Graham said.
"It'll have minimal impact on NPR," Graham said. "But it's a huge impact on rural America and the news and information and emergency alerts they receive."
Shawn Turner, who serves as WKAR Public Media general manager and also sits on NPR's Board of Directors, oversees the member station that serves eight counties across mid-Michigan that include several "news deserts."
"The loss of federal funding will significantly impact our ability to have our reporters get out to those communities, go to community meetings, talk to people in those communities, go to events to be able to report on what's happening in those communities," Turner told Fox News Digital.
"We'll be relying more on part-time reporters, volunteers, where we can over time, but the quality of the reporting will be impacted," he added. "People across Michigan will not have access to local news and information from their NPR station like they've had in the past."
Turner said there was "disappointment" inside WKAR on the heels of the funding cut.
"People are feeling like the commitment they've made to serve their community has just taken a hit. And that simply does not feel good for any of the people who have committed their life to this work," he said.
While staffers were frustrated, Turner said he was heartened by the degree to which mid-Michiganders worked to ensure that their voices were heard. He said thousands of phone calls and letters reached members of Congress imploring lawmakers to understand that communities need public media.
Much like KSUT, Turner wants Americans to know that WKAR will not simply fold, and that member stations will attempt to adapt.
He explained that some of the services WKAR provides, such as a radio reading service for the visually impaired and educational services, will be reduced but will remain in some capacity for as long as possible.
"We're adjusting the way that we serve our community, but it will be more difficult," Turner said.
NPR and PBS have long been lambasted by Trump and other Republicans as left-leaning institutions that don't deserve taxpayer money. Whistleblower Uri Berliner, a longtime editor at NPR, laid out in painful detail the liberal bias gripping public radio on a national level last year.
The President is expected to sign the spending cut bill on Friday.