Rural Radio Hit By CPB Cuts

Public radio and TV stations across the country are reeling from the loss of $1.1 billion that had been allocated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service, and their respective member stations.

As of July 19, at the request of President Trump, most Republicans in Congress passed the Rescissions Act of 2025 — a unique budgetary measure that rescinded around $9 billion in federal funding for foreign aid and public media for 2026 and 2027. Following the passage, the bill was sent to the White House for the President's signature.

In addition to stations in cities, the impact of the federal funding cuts will be devastating to smaller rural stations across the country.

North Country Public Radio is an NPR member station that serves the northernmost region in New York State. It's one of 161 rural stations that receives CPB funding.

NCPR general manager Mitch Teich said that the CPB provides $300,000 of the station’s roughly $2.5 million yearly budget. The abrupt change poses programming and financial challenges for the station, especially as they serve a remote region.

“There are also a lot of little towns and villages in places like the Adirondacks and in remote parts of farm country where there's not really reliable broadband or cellular service,” Teich said. “We are still the only public radio station, and in some cases the only radio station of any kind that people can receive.”

Radio Catskill is another small station upstate that broadcasts to Northeast Pennsylvania. Station manager Tim Bruno said CPB funding accounts for 25% of their budget.

“We might have to make some tough decisions about programming, but any choices we make will be mindful and guided by community input,” Bruno said. “Listener support has kept us going for 35 years, so we're not going anywhere.”

According to Rodney Benson, a media studies professor at New York University, stations like NCPR and Radio Catskill provide an essential public service as more local news outlets implement paywalls.

“We're getting news deserts across the U.S. where people literally do not have access to reliable, trustworthy, quality news media and that's where public funding and public media really come to the fore," he explained. "How many major media are publicly accessible for free?”

[Correction: A previous version of this article said Radio Catskill is an NPR affiliate. It is not.}

Adithi Vimalanathan reported on the public broadcasting cuts on the What’s What podcast from WFUV News on July 10 and July 17.