In the wake of defunding public media, rural radio holds steadfast

Tami Graham knows if emergency broadcasts don’t reach her community, people face real risk.

“That’s all they have for information and news,” said Graham, executive director of KSUT Public Radio.

In Ignacio, Colorado, KSUT serves rural and tribal communities, covering the Four Corners region, where cell service is unreliable and commercial news is scarce. The station broadcasts to the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribal nations, providing an organized hub of news, music, and critical, life-saving emergency alerts. 

But programming could be changing as the station faces about an $330,000 annual loss from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). And for KSUT, this also meant the abrupt halt of a $537,288 FEMA-funded grant intended to repair aging tower sites.

The board of the CPB voted to dissolve the organization on Jan. 5, attributing the decision to lack of funding and “sustained political attacks.” The decision marks the end of a nearly 60-year legacy. In 1967, through the Public Broadcasting Act, the CPB was established to support public broadcasting stations and programs that serve public interest. 

CPB has supported stations not only with direct funding but also by backing infrastructure for emergency alert systems and other distribution means, particularly to underserved communities. 

But since Congress voted in July to cut $9 billion federally allocated for public media, rural and tribal-serving stations have been bracing for CPB’s closure and pushing back against the decision. 

“When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,” said Patricia Harrison, CEO and president of CPB in the press release.

Ultimately, Graham said, “Part of the narrative is that this isn’t about NPR. This is about impact to local and rural stations and their ability to serve their regions apart from NPR programming.”

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Related: Republicans push to defund free news, children’s programming

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Grappling with broader impact

Stations serving tribal and rural communities are among the most exposed. Some, like KSHI in New Mexico, relied on federal support for more than 90% of their budgets before the cuts, according to data from Semipublic, a data-based publication about the U.S. public media system.

As for WYSO in Ohio, the station faces an 8% annual loss, about $300,000. Like many other stations, WYSO aims to raise that same amount to replace previous CPB support.

But WYSO has always navigated a careful balance, said WYSO Music Director Juliet Fromholt. From her days as a volunteer in 2006 to the station’s independence in 2019, Fromholt mentioned the station’s existence has been at risk before, but they’ve always “come back from the brink.” 

The station broadcasts across 14 urban and rural counties from Yellow Springs in southwestern Ohio.

“I’ve got to witness the evolution of WYSO, but also the evolution of public media,” Fromholt said. “It’s weird because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has always been there. Even as that little kid watching Sesame Street, I can remember ‘Viewers like you, listeners like you.’ … I think it’s gonna take us a while to fully figure out what that means as a public media system.”

Despite the current situation, WYSO continues to launch new services, including Novaphonic.FM, a 24/7 all-music channel.

“From where I sit as the music director, people need music right now, you know, people need to dance, they need to laugh,” she said. “They need that song that makes them ugly cry for a little bit and get all their feelings out.” 

Kenya Young has spent decades in the public media industry, including time as a leader at NPR and New York Public Radio. Now the president and CEO of Louisville Public Media, she said the conversation of finding sustainable business models and ways of supporting public media has been ongoing since the Recession Act vote in July.

“I can tell you there’s summits almost every week right now about the path forward, and as devastating as the loss is, it’s not a depressing conversation,” she said. “It’s an ‘OK, we have a moment and what are we gonna do with it?'”

Like Fromholt and others in public media, she sees possibilities. This pragmatic optimism might seem surprising given the circumstances, but Young thinks the approach forward means a “build back better” mentality. 

“The worst thing that we can think about is ‘Who’s gonna be the new CPB?’” she said. 

For KSUT, “building back better” has looked like the Next 50 Endowment. Launched in anticipation for the station’s 50th anniversary, its goal is to generate about $225,000 annually — roughly equivalent to the portion of the station’s budget formerly provided by CPB Community Service Grants.

In recent months, the cause saw $100,000 from community members, according to Graham.

“I think there’s the potential for there to be public funding again,” Graham said. “It’s just surviving this moment in time.”

Public media persists

In May 2025, KSUT became part of a coalition including NPR, Aspen Public Radio, and Colorado Public Radio that filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the funding cuts. 

The lawsuit alleges the administration’s executive order — which labeled public media a “liberal disinformation machine” — constituted unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and retaliatory action in violation of the First Amendment.

The defunding of CPB represents one front in broader actions from the Trump administration targeting media and diversity programs across the country. Also last year, the administration pulled credentials from multiple news organizations and ordered the temporary removal of Jimmy Kimmel from air.  

CPB has long prioritized funding for stations serving rural areas and minority communities— a mandate dating to the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. 

“It’s not just public media that’s under threat. It’s democracy, it’s the First Amendment,” said a spokesperson from Public Media for All. 

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Related: Q&A: When will public media be public media for all?

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The loss is more than just the money, Young from Louisville Public Radio said, adding that CPB’s commitment to diversity wasn’t from the federal funding, but the internal culture the organization funded of its own volition. 

“They were very much about representation, and they funded that themselves,” she said. “That wasn’t through federal funding. I think that’s something that is actually missed in this conversation and will be grossly missed with CPB being gone.” 

Without CPB’s coordinating role, the absence is already being felt unevenly. As larger urban stations pivot toward self-sufficiency, smaller and rural outlets face a steeper climb. 

“What is lost when we lose a tiny station?” said the spokesperson for Public Media for All. “I would argue that it does impact those big stations, maybe not immediately or directly, but long-term. I think some big stations are thinking about preserving service.” 

That reality is playing out in different ways. In December 2025, Arkansas TV — formerly Arkansas PBS — announced plans to drop its PBS affiliation. Meanwhile, Penn State’s public media station was sold to WHYY in Philadelphia, a merger that raises questions about local coverage and student opportunities.  

For now, stations operate in what the Public Media for All spokesperson described as a “reconstruction era,” where survival and reinvention coexist. 

“Public media is still on the air now. They’re still providing services right now.”

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Amelia Wu is a California-based journalist focused on public service reporting, with work appearing in The Dallas Morning News, The Sacramento Bee and CalMatters.

This piece was edited by James Salanga. Copy edits by Marlee Baldridge.