The end of federal funding for NPR stations cuts deep in Trump country
It’s beyond bizarre that the federal funding cuts are going to devastate stations in places that put Trump back in office.
By Jeff Nesbit
In the winding mountain roads of Pocahontas County, W.Va., a reliable cell signal is a myth and broadband internet is a distant promise. Here, the radio isn’t for background noise; it’s a lifeline.
For decades, Allegheny Mountain Radio has been the connective tissue for this sprawling, isolated community. It’s where you hear about a water main break, a missing pet, or the funeral time for a neighbor you didn’t know had died. It’s the sound of home.
As Jay Garber, the mayor of Monterey, Va., told NPR, which has covered the threat to local NPR stations in Trump country, “We have a newspaper that’s printed once a week, so without the radio station, we’re kind of in the blind here, locally.”
On Oct. 1, that essential service and hundreds like it across the nation faced an existential threat. The elimination of all federal funding for public broadcasting, a policy championed by President Donald Trump, officially went into effect.
It’s beyond bizarre that Trump’s fanatical zeal to end federal funding for NPR is going to devastate local rural radio stations that are a lifeline in Trump country. But here we are.
Why did Trump and the GOP end federal funding for NPR? It’s liberal propaganda, Trump and GOP members of Congress said repeatedly.
The reality is a cruel irony: The policy’s most devastating impact is not being felt in the coastal cities of its political caricature but in the small towns and rural counties of Trump’s own heartland. It is a self-inflicted wound on the some of the communities that delivered him the presidency.
The justification for this fiscal guillotine has always been the accusation of political bias. Yet this narrative collapses under the slightest scrutiny when you look at the stations now on the chopping block. NPR has written story after story about how the federal cuts will devastate rural stations in Trump country. Those stories have fallen on deaf ears in the Trump White House.
Allegheny Mountain Radio, for example, is not an NPR member station. It airs NPR’s daily newscast for a mere 40 minutes a day. The rest of its programming is a mix of local news, gospel, country, and blues shows.
Still, its general manager, Scott Smith, recounted an old friend telling him the station “deserved to die” simply for that brief association.
This is not an isolated incident; it is a national pattern. The policy has endangered tribal stations like KIYE on the Nez Perce land in Idaho and KGHR in the Navajo Nation. In Corpus Christi, Tex., KEDT saw 39% of its budget evaporate overnight.
These are not bastions of coastal elitism. They are vital local institutions providing essential services to communities that are often overlooked. The broadsword meant for NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., has instead fallen on the local post office, the volunteer fire department, and the town crier all rolled into one.
What is being lost is far more than a frequency on the dial. In areas where the geography itself creates barriers, these stations are often the primary conduits for emergency alerts, from flash floods to road closures. They are the threads that stitch together the social fabric of a community.
Jean Hiner, a 79-year-old retired sheep farmer, told a reporter how she and her husband would listen to the radio for obituaries, allowing them to rush to the funeral home to pay respects to a neighbor. That shared sense of community, that simple act of showing up for one another, is now at risk.
The financial fallout is already stark. WNIN in Evansville, Ind., cut five staff positions after losing both state and federal funding. WITF in Harrisburg, Pa., is grappling with a $1.3 million shortfall.
Across the country, dedicated local journalists and community members are losing their jobs, and listeners are losing access to the information that keeps them safe and connected.
As Danny Cardwell, a coordinator at Allegheny Mountain Radio, aptly stated, “Getting rid of these local stations is throwing away the baby with the bath water.”
To advance a culture war against a perceived enemy, the Trump White House has silenced the friends, neighbors, and trusted voices of its own supporters.
The policy isn’t a political victory. It simply created an information vacuum in Trump country, with Trump voters.
For millions of Americans in the towns and valleys that dot our nation’s landscape, the promise of a triumphant new era has been replaced by the crackle and hiss of an empty channel. It’s just static now.
Jeff Nesbit was the public affairs chief for five Cabinet departments or agencies under four presidents.
Bottom line: why would ANYONE in their right mind think that 2 billionaires such as Trump and Musk, together with their shameful minions, would have ANY idea what NPR would provide to small communities that do not have consistent, good, or any wi-fi service? These are very monied and self-aggrandizing people who live in their own bubble of existence; no idea of how the rest of the world and its people live, work, raise their children, save and spend their money, etc etc etc. And they never have had any idea. They have lived extraordinarily privileged lives, so of course, wifi is instant, groceries are bought for you, clothes are ironed for you, toilets are cleaned for you, again, etc etc etc. The people currently in the WH do not have any remote relationship or knowledge of the common American, except to fire them, arrest and deport them, and further their general hardship in life, as long as THEY continue to make their grifting billions.
An "old friend" willing to close down a local radio station that the community relies on and is managed by someone he knows. Where's the loyalty to community? Where's the common sense?
Great reporting, thanks.