Trump cuts the public radio financing. Here is the reason that will strike rural societies hard star-news.press/wp

Every morning, Join Johnson, a resident of the small community of Apalashian in Jakhur, Kentucky, wakes up to the voices and voices of its favorite public radio station.

Johnson, 67, listens to FM for breakfast while she is ready to work, while driving in her car and throughout the day.

“Through the high levels of my life, it has always been a real comfort for me-when you can only turn the radio and may get a human voice,” said the professional radio programmer who is not profitable. “A lot of happiness has been added in dark times.”

Johnson’s preferences is the WEKU 88.7 and NPR radio station. But now, among the stations that will lose decisive financial support as the administration of President Donald Trump is canceling the financing of Congress to the public media.

Trump argues discounts It will save The United States government is billions of dollars annually in waste spending.

However, the decline will have a serious impact on rural societies, where the general radio is a bleeding of news and entertainment, and the artery of life during public emergency and natural disasters, according to residents, media interests and others who spoke to CBC News.

Johnson believes that public spending may need to be “inhibited” in certain areas.

“But this is a very annoying area,” she said. “I am very worried.”

She added that she is concerned about whether this step violates freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

“I feel that one of our freedoms, our first modification rights, is supported with the radio station.”

“It is very overwhelming.”

The federal funding of the Public Broadcasting Company (CPB) is part of the $ 9.1 million cuts in the rescue operations law, eliminating the funding approved by the Congress allocated to public broadcasters and external first aid.

Congress approved the discounts on Friday morning, Send the package To Trump’s office for his final signature.

CPB, a private company, publishes about $ 1.1 billion to NPR, PBS, TV and local radio stations throughout the country every year, with the largest part of Operating budget Allocate direct grants to local public radio stations.

Senator Mike Roins said last week that he had obtained more than ten of the original American radio stations where they receive funding from the Ministry of Interior. But it is not clear whether it has been approved or How much it will help.

Indeed, some community radio stations are looking at different financing forms and revenue flows to make up for the cutting of discounts. One of them is the Kentucky station mentioned above, WMMT 88.7.

Its headquarters is in the heart of the country of coal, and it has worked for nearly 40 years. Outside Kentucky, its reference extends to Virginia, Western Virginia, parts of the East Tennessee and a few southeast Ohio, reaching 18,000 people per week, according to Nilsen survey data at the station.

“It is difficult to imagine. WMMT is the main radio station.

“I mean, I look at it through the lens of our community radio station, and when I retract and try to imagine what this looks for all other stations, it is very overwhelming.”

About a third of the station’s financing comes from CPB, and Clawback will significantly affect these funds over its operations over the next two financial years, according to the month of May. She currently has a full -time employee and depends on a network of local horsemen to run its programs.

The station development team is looking for ways to the source of the money from another place. She has long been supported by support from within the community – some small companies, including the Johnson bakery, as insurance companies for the station.

“It is not a political issue. It is a community service issue, which will be affected by everyone who relies on community radio stations and public radio in the country,” May said.

“We are just one example of many in the country of rural areas that really depend on something simple like a community radio. It’s really a vital key on how to share information.”

Emergency service

When the large -scale floods in East Kentucky were hit three years ago, WMMT – after it was briefly exposed to non -communication – a way to publish public service ads, news and “a slice of normal life” as people recovered from the disaster.

When Hurricane Helen had a decline in the United States last year and destructive parts of North Carolina, another community radio station shared a continuous set of updates and emergency directions from the government.

“We hear stories about stories about people telling us, well, well, we got a Karnak radio or we had Radio Kurk, and we knew that you will be on that,” said Elie Elis, CEO and Director General of Blidge, Public Radio in Atel -Carolina.

Some were raising the sound level and putting the radio on a mailbox, and the neighbors would gather to listen, as the story says, while the station was reported on the water distribution sites – the water system was stopped in Atell. “This is what they had to do to get information that would help them live,” Elis said.

Blue Ridge covers more than ten provinces in the western part of the state, reaching about 90,000 listeners on a weekly basis.

She said: “We have hit every valley and every mountain in the 14 -year -old provinces. Therefore, there are people who will not get any other public radio if we have no.”

The station will lose about six percent of its budget, or $ 330,000 per year, due to the cuts. Ellis said that this may lead to losses in jobs or signal in societies, as it is strange that the signals of the signals work.

The United States uses an emergency alert system that exceeds the AM and FM channels for radio, which goes beyond other programming to provide important information during a national emergency. But the safety of this system is at risk without public funding, critics of the rescue law argued.

Elis said: “If there is a Tornado watch, Tornado warning, flood watch, flood warning, snowstorm, anything that the mother nature can come out – people can know it is coming.”

She added that this would change without funding, and if people do not notice an immediate change, they may not understand the role that the public radio plays in a society.

“But they do not think about what is happening in eight months, when one of our towers fail for a somewhat possible reason, that we will have to make a decision on whether we want to spend the money on this tower.”

Trump’s battle with the public media

In May, Trump signed a separate executive order calling CPB To stop financing To NPR and PBS, though the organization Argue It is not a federal agency under Trump’s authority.

President NPR and PBS frequently criticized what he described as a left -wing bias, which framing the financing cuts as “to” “to”Support the taxpayer From the biased media.

NPR CEO has argued that the cuts would be a threat to public safety, and Representative Lisa Morkovsky – a Republican in the House of Representatives to vote against the rescue law – argued that the public broadcast saves lives.

The press secretary did not agree to the White House Caroline Levit, saying: “I am not sure how NPR helps our country’s public safety, but I know, unfortunately, it has really become just a vote for a left.”

The general radio plays a vital role in small societies where these discounts reach the maximum, both in the emergency scenarios, both in emergency scenarios, Laura Lee, a former product and editor -in -chief of NC Local, a media scenario at a level The state in North Carolina.

“We are talking about the societies in which local news means have been closed, as there is no access to quality, independent and independent information that people need about their school council, their city council, and the agriculture industry in their societies.”

While the 2023 Pew search paper Show Public radio fans have decreased steadily in previous years, and found that the fifth American adults obtain local news from radio.

“The word” news “has become somewhat politicized, but people need information, and these outlets are awareness channels for this information,” he added, noting that many journalists and editors who submit a report on these societies also live and understand their needs.

“The Trump administration was an audio in its explicit criticism of the media, and it watched as somewhat local journalists, they put it aside and continued to work in the community on the information they needed. Thus, I feel comfortable with this care.”