Four Corners radio stations are bracing for budget cuts after the federal government clawed back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting early Friday.
Though the cuts were not surprising to the directors of KDUR, KSUT and KSJD, they were a significant disappointment and have cast uncertainty on the future of the stations.
“It’s an extremely disappointing day for KSUT, our listenership in our region and nationally, and for 1,500 public TV and radio stations that have received federal funding and bipartisan support for almost 50 years,” said KSUT Executive Director Tami Graham.
On Friday, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in approving $9 billion in cuts to social programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to NPR, PBS and about 1,500 small radio and television stations across the country.
The bill narrowly cleared both chambers of Congress with party-line votes and was headed to President Donald Trump for his signature.
KDUR, a college radio station; KSUT, a tribal and regional station; and KSJD, based in Cortez, broadcast news and programming to dozens of communities throughout the Four Corners. Combined, the three stations cover news in southern Colorado and Utah; northern Arizona and New Mexico; and the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Navajo reservations.
KSJD Executive Director Tom Yoder said stations like his provide vital information across the region that might otherwise be inaccessible.
“We’re serving Indigenous peoples, rural peoples, people without good broadband access,” he said.
Graham said the loss of funding is a blow to hyperlocal news coverage and ends half a century of bipartisan support for these outlets.
She said her station will begin its next fiscal year with a $330,000 shortfall because of the cuts. The cuts threaten to strip her station’s listeners of a vital lifeline to local and national news coverage, she said.
“Our stories mostly focus on issues affecting our Native American communities. Also federal and state legislation affecting public lands, Medicaid – things like that,” Graham said. “We say, ‘OK, this is happening nationally, but how does this impact us right here in this very rural area?’”
Without federal funding, it will be harder for KSUT to do the reporting necessary to provide context, Graham said. That could potentially leave listeners in the dark about key political, social and environmental issues.
KDUR Station Manager Bryant Liggett said his station, located on the Fort Lewis College campus, received 20% of its budget from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – about $120,000 to $140,000 annually.
KDUR has been on the air for more than 50 years and during that time has allowed thousands of people – students and community members – to learn media and communication skills, access local and national news, and share music. The station has created a sense of place through local storytelling, he said.
“CPB support helps cover salaries for key staff, upgrades to equipment, and access to high-quality programming that KDUR listeners rely on,” Liggett wrote in an email to the The Durango Herald. “It also creates opportunities for Fort Lewis College students to work in a professional facility, preparing them for media, communications, and public service careers. Without CPB funding, those learning and career-building experiences would be harder to sustain.”
Yoder said one of the main reasons the Trump administration pushed for the cuts was because the president believed that taxpayer dollars were being used to fund biased reporting by NPR and PBS. The so-called biased content – whether accurate or not – was paid for by a fraction of the funding; the majority supported journalists providing local news coverage, he said.
“I was secretly hoping that someone would have the wherewithal to say, ‘OK, we don’t agree with NPR and PBS, but let’s not punish these small, rural radio stations,’” Yoder said. “Taking away CPB funding is not just punishing NPR and PBS, it’s punishing all of these small stations.”
It’s easy to conflate local radio and TV stations with NPR and PBS. However, local stations air that content and then report on local news independently of those organizations, he said.
He said Congress missed a chance to continue funding vital news outlets – with the condition that taxpayer dollars not be used to air NPR or PBS programming. Because of the broad cuts, Yoder said, KSJD is down $165,000 – a third of its operating budget.
“They sort of threw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said.
All three radio stations are now facing the question of how to pay the bills without Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding.
Yoder said that in addition to cutting some programming to save costs, KSJD will be increasing its fundraising efforts. He urged people who care about or rely on local journalism to consider donating to stations like his.
That opens a new opportunity for local radio, he said. With more money coming directly from listeners instead of the government, stations like KSJD have the chance to become more independent and better reflect the communities they serve.
“Without those increased dollars from our listenership, we are going to have to make deeper cuts to our programming, so we may not be able to give people as much local news,” Yoder said. “So it’s really just a matter of people stepping up right now.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
