NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico’s public radio and television stations are bracing for impact with the feds clawing back more than a billion dollars in funding nationally.
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KANW is an NPR-affiliated station in Albuquerque broadcasting across central and northern New Mexico. They’re facing a $240,000 budget cut, but unlike other stations, they said they will be able to keep operating. “The citizens of New Mexico and our listeners all throughout the world, because we have listeners that listen to us streaming, they’ve really stepped up and they’ve really come to the aid of public radio stations,” said Development Director at KANW Heidi Brown.
KANW said the cuts are 29% of their overall budget, helping pay for local news and election coverage, NPR programming, and equipment.
It comes after President Trump signed a bill rescinding public broadcasting funds, arguing national public media outlets are biased and not a necessary expense. For decades, Congress has funded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is now expected to lay off most of its staff in September.
Much of the corporation’s money went directly to PBS and NPR stations across the country, running educational programming and other content.
Brown said she is worried about the stations in rural America, which she added provide notifications to the public about storms, floods, and fires. “There are parts of New Mexico that are very rural that, without KANW, undeserved, minority, rural populations wouldn’t hear those announcements because they don’t have cell service,” said Brown.
Another public radio station serving much of northern and central New Mexico, KUNM, is also dealing with cuts representing about 12% of its budget. They said it may delay plans to expand local news gathering.
Leaders at KANW and KUNM said the federal funding cuts will not have an impact on local staffing.
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