Cuts to public media will smash budgets of some local radio stations [View all]

Source: NPR

July 20, 2025 12:01 AM ET


DUNMORE, West Virginia — When President Trump pushed to slash federal funding for public media, he said a key reason was because he thinks PBS and NPR are politically biased. But some of those hardest hit by Congress' decision last week to clawback $1.1 billion in federal funds are small radio operations that provide local news and information to rural communities.

One is Allegheny Mountain Radio, a cooperative of three stations which cover Pocahontas County, West Virginia as well as Bath and Highland counties in Virginia. Allegheny Mountain is not an NPR member station, but it does run NPR's daily newscast, a quick run down of top stories.

Allegheny Mountain's mix of programming includes local news and information as well as gospel, country and blues shows. A recent episode of the Noon Hour Magazine reported on a $5,000 signing bonus to attract new teachers and how the energy demands from data centers could eventually affect this remote region where people sometimes have to drive 60 miles to reach the nearest shopping center.


Allegheny Mountain Radio's WVLS, which sits in the picturesque mountain town of Monterey, Va., provides local government news, funeral notices and information on missing pets to listeners in areas where it can be hard to access cell phone signals and the internet.
Kristian Thacker for NPR

The show also featured a regular segment on missing pets, in this case a dilute calico with a stripe down its nose. "I have read a lost and found pet report for an emu that was wandering around the county," recalls Scott Smith, Allegheny Mountain's general manager. Allegheny Mountain relies on funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for up to 65 percent of its annual budget of about half a million dollars. Smith says his stations do have financial reserves, but the hole in their budget could become existential.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/07/20/nx-s1-5469908/trump-npr-public-community-radio-corporation-broadcasting-federal-funding-cuts