Rural and Tribal Public Radio Stations Brace for Funding Cuts

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Jamie Roberts was at home in Wrangell, Alaska, in November 2023, when she heard what sounded like a jet overhead. Her first thought was that an Alaska Airlines flight was about to crash—but this was no plane. It was the roar of mud, rocks, and trees barreling down the mountain, smashing through homes and swallowing the island’s only highway.

The landslide Roberts observed killed six Wrangell residents and severed access to power, internet, and roadways for weeks. Throughout the crisis, she and others in the community relied on the local radio station, KSTK, for emergency information, rescue coordination, updates from local officials, and advice on accessing essential services. “Radio was critical,” Roberts said. “It was our lifeline.”

Today, stations like KSTK are facing an existential crisis. Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to cease all funding to NPR and PBS and to eliminate indirect sources of public financing like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually to stations nationwide. The move could wipe out funding appropriated through 2026 and 2027, endangering stations that already operate on razor-thin margins. “If CPB funding disappears, I don’t know how we’d survive,” said Cindy Sweat, KSTK’s general manager.

In the days since the executive order, the country’s major public media organizations have pushed back strongly. Katherine Maher, president and CEO of NPR, called the move “an affront to the First Amendment rights” of journalists, stations, and their audiences. “We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,” she said, pledging to challenge the order “using all means available.” The Corporation for Public Broadcasting argued that, as an independent nonprofit, it was not subject to presidential directives. “Congress expressly forbade any direction, supervision, or control over CPB or its grantees,” said CPB president Patricia Harrison. Meanwhile, PBS has launched a campaign urging viewers to contact Congress and protect public media funding. A banner on its website warns, “Your PBS viewing experience is in danger of going away. Now is a critical time to act.”

The push to rescind public broadcasting funds is part of a cycle of political attacks often fueled by accusations of liberal bias at national stations like NPR and PBS. But station leaders say these culture-war arguments obscure the actual role played by public radio stations on the local level, where they are often the only trusted sources of nonpartisan news. “The people who complain about NPR bias rarely cite specific examples—and I’m not convinced they’re actually listeners,” said Mitch Teich, the station manager of North Country Public Radio in northern New York. “Meanwhile, our audience here in the North Country tells us every day how much they value what we do.”

The cuts are also unlikely to do the most damage to the networks they are aimed at. The vast majority of federal public broadcasting dollars don’t go directly to national outlets like PBS or NPR. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is legally required to distribute nearly 70 percent of government funds directly to local stations, and each station retains full editorial control. Although some of those stations use that money to purchase NPR memberships, there is no requirement that they do so—and many don’t. Local stations rely on the federal government for as much as 50 percent of their annual budgets.

In recent years, a number of public radio stations have started preparing for possible cutbacks—and combating the economic reality confronting all local media—by joining together into collective alliances to share resources. In New York, the thirteen-station New York Public News Network collaborates on story leads through a collective Slack channel and jointly funds a statehouse reporter in Albany. In Colorado, the twenty-member Rocky Mountain Community Radio coalition shares editors, engineers, and advocacy efforts. “This is community organizing 101,” said Breeze Richardson, the executive director of Aspen Public Radio and a member of the coalition. “We’re taking turns leading joint initiatives, writing to Congress, and preparing to act.”

In the Four Corners region of the American Southwest, KSUT houses two signals under one organizational roof: Four Corners Public Radio, the regional NPR affiliate, and KSUT Tribal Radio, which focuses on Indigenous news, music, and cultural programming. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the stations were particularly essential, since many listeners lacked internet or cell service. 

“We live in a literal news desert,” said KSUT executive director Tami Graham. “In some places, we were the only connection people had to what was happening.”

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