Community Radio

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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Ascertainment at KKFI

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KKFI ascertainment forum on Thursday, 10/26 at 6:00 PM sponsored by the United Minority Media Association. KKFI Annex room at 39th and Main. Friends of Community Medias a co-sponsor and will have information about net neutrality and other activities coming up. M.C. Richardson is the coordinator.
 
All are welcome to bring diversity to the airways.

Saturday Event

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This Saturday, October 21, 2017, 2-3:30 PM, Friends of Community 
Media (FCM) Forum will feature a videoconference / webinar with Lewis 
Friedland, professor of journalism at the University of 
Wisconsin-Madison, and author and editor of multiple works in this area 
including "The Communication Crisis in America, And How to Fix It"  
(2016) (Palgrave).


Venue:


KKFI Annex
3901 Main St.
Kansas City, MO  (rear door, second floor)


Title:  Communication’s Challenge to Democracy


      This is the October 2017 episode of the FCM Forum, which hopes to 
catalyze improvements to media and in the greater Kansas City area.


      Hope to see you.
      Spencer Graves, Secretary
      Friends of Community Media
ph:  408-655-4567

https://journalism.wisc.edu/staff/lewis-a-friedland/

Read more

Media Awareness Webinar Coming Up!

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FCM Forum this Saturday, Sept. 16, 4-5:30 PM KKFI Annex Room, 39th & Main Rear Door.  Spencer Graves has set up an agenda which will include two items:  

1.  Reports back from people’s efforts to contact their representatives in the US House and Senate regarding net neutrality.

2.  Planning for a monthly webinar series on media and democracy to be cosponsored by the Friends of Community Media (FCM) and the United Minority Media Association (UMMA).  Per the draft minutes of an UMMA meeting earlier today (below), UMMA may meet on the third Saturdays at 10 AM in the KKFI Annex.  This webinar / Forum series might be scheduled to begin after that, e.g. at noon or 11 AM or 11:30 AM.  In July and August, we met later in the day.  These webinars could be live streamed on Facebook and subsequently offered on WorkingJournalistPress.com, broadcasted on KKFI and offered to the Pacifica network of ~200 listener-sponsored radio stations.  With luck, we may be able to get FreePress.net and other groups concerned with media reform to co-sponsor later episodes of the webinar series.  We have expressions of interest from the following three, who could do webinars for us Oct. 21, Nov. 18, and Dec. 16, not necessarily in this order:

2.1.  Lewis Friedland, professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin and author of important publications on media and democracy (https://journalism.wisc.edu/sjmc_profile/lewis-a-friedland/).

2.2.  Rev. Timothy Hayes, Jr., the Interim President of the United Minority Media Association (UMMA), who is 25 years old and has built a church on social media and can likely help us replicate that success in improving media and democracy here in the greater Kansas City area — and the world.

2.3. David Barsamian, founder and director of Alternative Radio, a Boulder, Colorado-based syndicated weekly public affairs program heard on some 250 radio stations worldwide. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Barsamian).

For more on Spencer Graves’ thoughts on the webinar series, see “https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Webinars_on_media_and_democracy”.  For more on my thoughts regarding the afflictions that humanity inflicts upon itself, see“https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Net_neutrality_and_%27Restoring_Internet_freedom%27” and “https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Winning_the_War_on_Terror”.