Community Radio

A Trail of Radio Tears

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Article in Indian Country Today by Lyric Aquino, 8/8/25

Headline:  Tribal radio stations hit hard by federal broadcasting cuts”

Subhead:  “KWSO in Warm Springs is set to lose 40 percent of its budget, while other rural tribal stations across the U.S., which play essential roles in disseminating information such as emergency alerts and natural disaster updates, are facing similarly large shortfalls”

“More than $1 billion in cuts to previously allocated federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has left the fate of 59 tribal radio stations nationwide in question, including in the Pacific Northwest.

“Station managers note the integral role that tribal radio plays in the communities they serve, which are often rural, including delivering essential information such as emergency alerts during natural
disasters. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/news/tribal-radio-stations-hit-hard-by-federal-broadcasting-cuts/

No News Media for Rural Areas?

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Public Media are NOT state-controlled media

Article in Common Cause by Staff, 8/6/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Funding Cuts Are Already Gutting Rural Public Media Stations Across the Country”

Subhead:  “Trump signed a bill cutting $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, putting local NPR and PBS stations at risk, especially in rural areas.”

“Trump just signed a bill to cancel $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in a move that jeopardizes local NPR and PBS stations across the country, especially in rural areas.

“In their latest attack on public media, Donald Trump and his allies in Congress have cancelled over a billion dollars in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which finances NPR and PBS.

“While federal funding makes up 2% of NPR’s annual budget and 15% of PBS’s, some stations will be hit much harder by these cuts. Member stations in rural areas disproportionately rely on federal funding, since they have fewer donors and sponsors that can contribute to their operating budgets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commoncause.org/articles/trumps-funding-cuts-are-already-gutting-rural-public-media-stations-across-the-country/

Impact on Native Americans

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Article in Indian Country Today by Kevin Abourezk, 8/2/25

Headline:  “Radio silence? Public media braces for impact of federal budget cuts” 

Subhead:  “Tribal communities will be impacted by $1.1 billion in federal budgets cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to dozens of tribal community radio stations, plus funding cuts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency “

Article ins waves of snow battered the Rosebud Indian Reservation in December 2022, John Miller went to work alerting his community about closed roads, closed tribal programs and places where people could take shelter. Residents learned about the storm’s extent from the radio, which broadcast National Weather Service alerts, from people they knew and trusted.

Many residents of the South Dakota reservation lived in remote places that had become cut off by impassable roads, and some were cut off for as long as two weeks and ran out of propane to heat their homes. Miller, station manager for KOYA 88.1 FM, answered phone calls from people seeking help and directed them toward programs that could help. . .”

“Even though there were other ways people learned about the storm and where they could find help, many still relied on their local radio station, KOYA 88.1 FM, to provide them with constantly changing weather information and resources. . .”

“ ‘People may see media such as radio as something that is very dated, but it’s absolutely not,’ Edsitty said. ‘They are the first and foremost for these communities providing news and community updates, cultural programming, emergency alerts given circumstances that a lot of Indigenous communities experience’. . .”

” ‘Most of our stations are going to lose most of their funding’ he said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/news/radio-silence-public-media-braces-for-impact-of-federal-budget-cuts/

Losing Public Media

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Public media are not state-controlled media

Article in Daily Kos by Eclift, 8/4/25

Headline:  “Mourning the Loss of Public Service Media”

“. . .Following PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was established in an act of Congress. Its mission, along with that of PBS, was to provide quality programming often overlooked by commercial broadcasters. It focused on education, history, culture, nature, science, public affairs, and children’s content. PBS has been going strong all these years, and the thought of losing it is painful. . .”

“In July the Trump administration declared that it was ending funding for CPB, which funds PBS and NPR. The Senate passed the measure supporting that goal immediately. Followers of public broadcasting, editors, and journalists were stunned, and deeply troubled, at the thought that over a billion dollars, which had been appropriated by Congress for two years, would disappear. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/4/2336835/-Mourning-the-Loss-of-Public-Service-Media?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Radio Lifeline Disappearing

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Article in The Washington Post by Staff, 7/22/25

Headline:  “Congress cut public media funding. Now what?

Subhead:  “What one rural community in Alaska could be losing now that Congress has defunded public media. And why this became a priority for President Donald Trump.”

“KYUK is the oldest Native American-owned radio station in the country. It broadcasts morning newscasts in both English and Yup’ik, the local Indigenous language, to 56 remote communities in Southwest Alaska. When there’s a weather emergency or even just a local basketball game, these communities turn to KYUK for information. But soon, that could all change.

“Late last week, Congress passed a rescissions bill that claws back the money set aside for public broadcasting for the next two years. For KYUK, this money represents close to 70 percent of its entire budget. Without it, the station could go dark. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/congress-cut-public-media-funding-now-what/

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Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 7/22/25

Headline:  “NPR’s editor-in-chief to step down days after Congress cuts $1.1bn in funding”

Subhead:  “Edith Chapin’s announcement comes after Congress approves Trump bill to cancel all federal funding for public broadcasters”

“The editor-in-chief of the US public radio network NPR has told colleagues that she is stepping down later this year.

“Edith Chapin’s announcement comes just days after federal lawmakers voted in support of Donald Trump’s plan to claw back $1.1bn from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the umbrella organization that funds both NPR and the non-commercial TV network PBS. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jul/22/npr-editor-in-chief-to-step-down

Native American Media in Jeopardy

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Article in Indian Country Today by AP & Kevin Abourezk, 7/18/25

Headline:  “Native public media reels after federal budget cuts”

Subhead:  “Congress approves Trump’s $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid”

Francene Blythe-Lewis spent Friday morning crying at her desk, trying to assess how the loss of nearly half of her organization’s $2.8 million annual budget would impact its ability to support public media by and about Native people.

“ ‘It’s been very stressful,’ she said. ‘I don’t know 100 percent how it’s going to affect us. It’s not going to close Vision Maker Media.’

“Vision Maker Media’s woes were realized early Friday when the U.S. House approved President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid . . .”

“The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure. . .”

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years. . .”

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/news/native-public-media-reels-after-federal-budget-cuts/

Opposing Defunding Public Media

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Public media is not state-controlled media

Article in Free Press by Staff, 6/25/25

Headline: “Republican and Democratic Senators Denounce Trump’s Move to Silence Public-Broadcasting Stations Essential to Many Rural States”

Subhead:  “A Senate Appropriations Committee hearing reveals growing concerns over a Trump scheme to end federal funding for popular NPR and PBS programming.”

“WASHINGTON — During a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, both Republican and Democratic senators expressed deep reservations about President Donald Trump’s plans to claw back more than a billion dollars in already-approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Many GOP lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), said the cuts would harm programming that is important to them and their constituents . . . McConnell said the president’s entire rescission process was ‘unnecessarily chaotic’ and ‘counter-productive.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/republican-and-democratic-senators-denounce-trumps-move-rescind-public-media-funding

Grassroots Radio Conference 2011

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Friends of Community Media hosted a grassroots radio conference in 2011 at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Kansas City. Kansas City’s community radio station, KKFI, was a sponsor with other local activist groups.

Some photos from the event.

December 1 Event

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                  Contact:  Tom Crane

                                                                                                                                       816-561-6288

NOTED JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR TO VISIT KANSAS CITY

Kansas City, Mo. , 11/14/17  – David Barsamian author of a new book with Noam Chomsky – Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy, will present his views on the state of the world on December 1, 7:00 PM at St. Garabed Church, 4400 Wyoming in Kansas City.

One of America’s most tireless and wide-ranging journalists, Barsamian is an integral part of the independent media landscape both with his weekly radio show, “Alternative Radio” in its 32nd year – and his books with Noam Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmad, Howard Zinn, Tariq Ali, Arundhati Roy, and Richard Wolff.

The show airs locally on KKFI FM 90.1 on Wednesdays at 9 AM.  An interview with him will air on Tuesday, 11/14 on the station at 6:00 PM on the Radioactive Magazine Show.

David is the recipient of many awards including the Media Education Award, the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair award, and Friends of Community Media’s Media Excellence Award.

Admission at the door will be $20, $10 for students, low-income people, and seniors.  A reception to meet Mr. Barsamian is at 6:00 PM for a fee of $30 (includes an event ticket and refreshments).  Autographed books and CDs will be available for purchase.  Ticket  proceeds will benefit Friends of Community Media, a non-profit 501(c)3 group.  Tickets in advance are $15.00 and may be ordered at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3178201

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