Community Radio

Alaska Community Radio Trouble

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Article in Poynter by Liam Scott, 1028/25

Headline:  “An Alaska station connects communities across hundreds of miles. Now it’s fighting to survive.”

Subhead:  “Federal funding cuts have left KOTZ, the only local news source for much of northwest Alaska, on the brink of closure”

“In the remote Arctic town of Kotzebue, Alaska, some residents still talk about the Dairy Queen that closed several years ago. They also talk about what’s at risk of closing next: the region’s lone radio station.

“Since 1973, KOTZ has delivered the news to Kotzebue, population 3,102, and several other small, sparse villages that collectively are home to about the same number of people. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/alaska-radio-station-kotz-faces-funding-crisis/

 

Community Radio Our Last Hope?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Luch Shiller, 10/7/25

Headline:  “Too Small to Mess With”

Subhead:  “Against the precipitous backdrop of funding cuts to public media, low-power radio emerges as a lesser-known source of inspiration.”

“Years ago, in Louisville, “people just didn’t understand this concept of having a radio station where people could just walk in and play what was interesting to them, or talk about what was on their mind,” Sharon Scott told me. ‘This was just totally radical.’ Scott started ART-FM, otherwise known as WXOX 97.1 FM, in 2011, out of her family’s living room. Her husband, Sean Selby, a carpenter, helped put it together. She served as the general manager. . .”

More at https://www.kkfistory.org/ Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/public-media-funding-cut-low-power-radio-lessons-community-broadcasting.php

Community Radio – Last Hope For News

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Partager, 9/17/25

Headline:  “RSF releases new documentary on community radio stations, the last bastions of reliable news in the Sahel”

“As several Sahel countries face growing insecurity and their media are heavily pressured, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is screening ‘Community radios: the fight to keep the Sahel informed,’ its new documentary dedicated to community radio stations, in Dakar. The film delves into the daily lives of three journalists from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, essential workers in the news industry.

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/rsf-releases-new-documentary-community-radio-stations-last-bastions-reliable-news-sahel

Closing the Window to the World

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Article in The Hill bySarah Fortinsky, 9/14/25

Headline:  “TV Academy chair scolds Congress for shuttering Corporation for Public Broadcasting”

“Television Academy Chairman Cris Abrego criticized Congress for voting to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), in a speech paying tribute to the organization at the Emmy Awards on Sunday evening.

“ ‘For more than 50 years, CPB has been the backbone of American Public Media, bringing us everything from ‘Sesame Street’ to ‘Mr. Rogers Neighborhood’ to ‘Finding Your Roots’ and keeping free local stations alive across the nation,’ Abrego said in his speech.

“ ‘And in many small towns, those stations weren’t just a cultural lifeline, they were the only emergency alert system families could count on,’ he continued. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5503327-corporation-public-broadcasting-emmys-congress/

Wounded Public Stations

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Public media is NOT state-controlled media

Article in The New York Times, 9/13/25 by Benjamin Mullin, et. al., 9/13/25

Headline:  “After Trump’s Cuts, ‘Crippled’ NPR and PBS Stations Must Transform”

Subhead:  “Radio and television stations, facing enormous budget holes, are pleading with NPR and PBS to lower their fees as they examine whether to drop national programming altogether.”

“On the windswept prairie of South Dakota, a tribal public radio station is selling off its old records to pay the bills. In Warm Springs, Ore., the NPR affiliate is considering dropping ‘All Things Considered” ‘o focus on tribal issues. . .”

“Some stations are beginning to go off the air, as Congress was warned before it went ahead and eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the taxpayer-backed company that supports public media, ultimately shutting it down. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/us/politics/public-broadcasting-cuts.html

Community Radio Paying the Price

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Article in Indian Country Today by South Dakota Searchlight, 9/12/25

Headline:  “high cost for public media and rural America”

Subhead:  “Republican Mike Rounds’ vote was critical in cancellation of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds”

“. . .as with many interactions with Trump, it was more transactional than genuinely moral or fairly reciprocal. A deal, in other words. But a very bad deal for rural Americans, it turns out.

“For the president’s end of the deal, he wanted Rounds to vote “yes” in the Senate on a bill to cut $9 billion in previously congressionally approved funding that included $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/opinion/trump-endorsement-of-south-dakota-senator-comes-at-a-high-cost-for-public-media-and-rural-america/

Democracy Now! Documentary

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Article in Democracy Now! by Nermeen Haikh, 8/29/25

Headline:  ” ‘Steal This Story, Please!’: Documentary on Democracy Now! Premieres at Telluride Film Festival”

“A new documentary, Steal This Story, Please!, which tells the personal story of Amy Goodman and her decadeslong career as an independent journalist, is premiering this Sunday at the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado. The film highlights some of the monumental stories Democracy Now! has covered throughout the years and the importance of independent journalism. . .”

Read this article at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/29/steal_this_story_please

Available on Hulu

Tribal Radio Stations Need Funding

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Article in Indian Country Today by Jenifer Shutt, 8/29/25

Headline:  “Tribal radio stations wait on $9M pledged in congressional handshake deal”

Subhead:  “South Dakota Republican Sen. Rounds is trusting the Trump administration to move $9.4 million in funding from an undisclosed account to more than two dozen tribal radio stations in rural areas”

“Tribal radio stations that are supposed to receive millions to fill the hole created when Congress eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting haven’t heard anything from the Trump administration about when it will send the money or how much in grants they’ll receive.

“Unlike most government spending deals, the handshake agreement South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds negotiated with the White House budget director in exchange for Rounds’ vote on the rescissions bill wasn’t placed in the legislation, so it never became law. . .”

https://ictnews.org/news/tribal-radio-stations-wait-on-9m-pledged-in-congressional-handshake-deal/

Grassroots Radio in Trouble?

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Article in The Washington Post by Maddy Butcher, 8/25/25

Headline:  “A reality check for NPR stations in Trump country”

Subhead:  “Will rural affiliates see through the politicization and adopt a more all-embracing approach?”

“. . .People in Montezuma County [Colorado] voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. And yet KSJD — an affiliate of NPR, that longtime target of Republican ire — has grown from an entirely volunteer operation running out of a trailer a few decades ago to a staff with four full-timers, an adjunct performing arts venue and a $580,000 budget. It is the only independently operated radio station or media outlet in the county, and it is one of hundreds of rural radio stations whose budgets will be slashed by the recent White House-requested congressional rescission of $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/25/npr-defunded-rural-stations-fundraising/

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Article in AP by Gabriela Aoun Angueira, 8/25/25

Headline: “After Trump and Congress spending cuts, public media stations wait on money for emergency alerts”

“Warning: This may be an actual emergency — as far as emergencies about emergencies go, at least.

“The recently defunded nonprofit corporation that distributed federal money to public media stations across the United States is warning of another casualty when it shuts down next month: the resilience of the nation’s emergency alert systems.

“In 2022, Congress created the Next Generation Warning System grant program, meant to help stations in rural, tribal and otherwise underserved communities repair and improve the warning systems that tell people about evacuation orders, Amber alerts, tornado warnings, and more. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-fema-cpb-npr-public-radio-emergency-alerts-warning-systems-99a5a37b6a62e0e01b9ee99b39cfe457

Some Support for Indigenous Media

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Article in Indian Country Today by Loris Taylor, 8/19/25

Headline:  “Gratitude in crisis: a spark for sustainable Indigenous media resilience”

“On August 4, 2025, Native Public Media and the Public Media Company made an appeal to foundations in support of vulnerable public media stations following the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by Congress. On August 19, 2025, the Knight Foundation, Pivotal, MacArthur, Ford, Schmidt Family, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations stepped forward in a powerful display of solidarity, announcing an infusion of $36.5 million in emergency funding to safeguard public media stations, especially those serving rural, Indigenous, and underserved communities, from imminent closure after steep federal cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.. .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/opinion/gratitude-in-crisis-a-spark-for-sustainable-indigenous-media-resilience/