Public media cuts hit some rural areas that voted for Trump : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3003+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff7%2F30%2Fc8dd69c54011b9fccf5c752713ca%2Fkst-20250718-8778.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3003+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff7%2F30%2Fc8dd69c54011b9fccf5c752713ca%2Fkst-20250718-8778.jpg" class="img" alt="Abby DuFour, WCHG News Reporter and afternoon host of DuFour Du Jour, cues up the next song in her broadcast at station WCHG 107.1 FM, in Hot Springs, Virginia, on Friday, July 18th, 2025. Credit: Kristian Thacker for NPR" fetchpriority="high"/> Abby DuFour, WCHG information reporter and afternoon host of the present DuFour Du Jour, cues up the subsequent track in her broadcast on the station in Sizzling Springs, Va. Kristian Thacker for NPR conceal caption

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Kristian Thacker for NPR DUNMORE, West Virginia — When President Trump pushed to slash federal funding for public media, he mentioned a key motive was as a result of he thinks PBS and NPR are politically biased. However a few of these hardest hit by Congress' determination final week to clawback $1.1 billion in federal funds are small radio operations that present native information and data to rural communities.

One is Allegheny Mountain Radio, a cooperative of three stations which cowl Pocahontas County, West Virginia in addition to Bathtub and Highland counties in Virginia. Allegheny Mountain is just not an NPR member station, but it surely does run NPR's each day newscast, a fast run down of prime tales.

Allegheny Mountain's mixture of programming consists of native information and data in addition to gospel, nation and blues reveals. A current episode of the Midday Hour Journal reported on a $5,000 signing bonus to draw new lecturers and the way the vitality calls for from information facilities might finally have an effect on this distant area the place individuals typically should drive 60 miles to achieve the closest procuring heart.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3003+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9b%2Fd1%2F084478ba4b6c9e8e4e114c9a7d5b%2Fkst-20250718-8641.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3003+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9b%2Fd1%2F084478ba4b6c9e8e4e114c9a7d5b%2Fkst-20250718-8641.jpg" class="img" alt="Station WVLS 89.7 in Monterey, Virginia, on Friday, July 18th, 2025. All of the Allegheny Mountain Radio stations provide community information in addition to their general programming, which includes country, gospel and rock music. Credit: Kristian Thacker for NPR" loading="lazy"/> Allegheny Mountain Radio's WVLS, which sits within the picturesque mountain city of Monterey, Va., offers native authorities information, funeral notices and data on lacking pets to listeners in areas the place it may be arduous to entry cellular phone indicators and the web. Kristian Thacker for NPR conceal caption

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Kristian Thacker for NPR The present additionally featured an everyday phase on lacking pets, on this case a dilute calico with a stripe down its nostril.

"I've learn a misplaced and located pet report for an emu that was wandering across the county," recollects Scott Smith, Allegheny Mountain's basic supervisor.

Allegheny Mountain depends on funding from the Company for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for as much as 65 p.c of its annual price range of about half one million {dollars}. Smith says his stations do have monetary reserves, however the gap of their price range might grow to be existential.

"There may be solely so lengthy that you could live on if you end up working within the purple," says Smith, who has a protracted grey beard that stretches almost to his belt buckle. "Sooner or later that nicely runs dry."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x4500+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F48%2Fa0%2Fecde43fc48bc95522e3745a01c61%2Fkst-20250718-0111.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x4500+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F48%2Fa0%2Fecde43fc48bc95522e3745a01c61%2Fkst-20250718-0111.jpg" class="img" alt="Scott Smith, Allegheny Mountain Radio's general manager, sits in the main broadcasting studio at station WVLS in Monterey, Va. Smith says Congress' decision last week to slash public media funding could wipe out up to 65 percent of his budget. " loading="lazy"/> Scott Smith, Allegheny Mountain Radio's basic supervisor, sits in the primary broadcasting studio at station WVLS in Monterey, Va. Smith says Congress' determination final week to slash public media funding might wipe out as much as 65 p.c of his price range. Kristian Thacker for NPR conceal caption

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Kristian Thacker for NPR Smith hopes to lift extra money to attempt to fill among the hole, however he worries that finally he might have to chop employees and even shut a station. Allegheny Mountain is amongst almost 70 small radio stations in states akin to Alaska, Kentucky, Texas and Mississippi which have relied on the CPB for a minimum of 30 p.c of their annual budgets.

Smith says the radio cooperative helps knit collectively a area the place it is not straightforward to attach due to the mountains and the spotty entry to cellphone and web. A lot of its protection space lies contained in the Monongahela and George Washington and Jefferson Nationwide forests. Throughout an almost 75-mile drive from an interstate to WVMR, which sits in Dunmore, W. Va., an NPR reporter had no web connection.

Some individuals right here say they actually worth the information and neighborhood info Allegheny Mountain offers. Jay Garber, mayor of the city of Monterey, Va., says the radio stays the quickest strategy to let residents find out about every thing from water important breaks to highway closures.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0d%2F97%2Fe5d7a5c941e18ac353211f9ae0ee%2Fkst-20250718-0341.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0d%2F97%2Fe5d7a5c941e18ac353211f9ae0ee%2Fkst-20250718-0341.jpg" class="img" alt="Monterey, Virginia Mayor Jay Garber poses for a portrait at the Monterey City Building on Friday, July 18th, 2025. Mayor Garber often relies on Allegheny Mountain Radio's WVLS 89.7 FM to relay important information to the community about everything from water main breaks to road closures. Credit: Kristian Thacker for NPR" loading="lazy"/> Jay Garber, mayor of Monterey, says the neighborhood depends on the radio for each day, native information and data. "With out the radio station, we're type of within the blind right here, domestically," he says. Kristian Thacker for NPR conceal caption

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Kristian Thacker for NPR "It is our solely supply of native, each day info," says Garber, sitting in his workplace alongside Important Road. "We've got a newspaper that is printed as soon as per week, so with out the radio station, we're type of within the blind right here, domestically."

Simply down the block from the mayor's workplace, Jean Hiner is ending up her french fries at Highs Restaurant, the place clients are inspired to ring a bell on the way in which out in the event that they just like the meals. Hiner, 79, who used to lift sheep, says Allegheny Mountain additionally offers important details about the individuals right here.

"My husband and I might sit and hearken to the radio after which an obituary would come on and we did not know that that particular person had died," Hiner recollects. "Then we would prepare actual fast and we would go to the funeral residence for the night when the household was assembly."

Not everybody loves Allegheny Mountain's protection. Danny Cardwell. a station coordinator and reporter, recollects that somebody grew to become so indignant with reporting on contentious county supervisors' conferences again within the mid-2010s that they dumped manure in entrance of the radio station — not as soon as, however twice.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa3%2Feb%2Fb15e207044768f342e7aa13f437c%2Fkst-20250718-0671.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa3%2Feb%2Fb15e207044768f342e7aa13f437c%2Fkst-20250718-0671.jpg" class="img" alt="Danny Cardwell, Allegheny Mountain Radio's Social Media Coordinator and Station Coordinator for WCHG 107.1 FM, poses for a portrait at the station in Hot Springs, Virginia, on Friday, July 18th, 2025. Credit: Kristian Thacker for NPR" loading="lazy"/> Danny Cardwell, Allegheny Mountain Radio's social media coordinator and station coordinator for WCHG in Sizzling Springs, says killing public media funding is an enormous mistake. "Eliminating these native stations is throwing away the infant with the bathtub water," he says. Kristian Thacker for NPR conceal caption

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Kristian Thacker for NPR Smith says he is had disagreeable exchanges with listeners who took challenge with Allegheny Mountain just because it performs NPR's newscast, which accounts for simply 40 minutes of the radio stations' each day choices. One particular person wrote on Smith's Fb web page that Allegheny Mountain deserved to lose federal funding on that foundation alone.

"I actually had an outdated good friend inform me that Allegheny Mountain Radio deserved to die as a result of we performed 'liberal propaganda,'" says Smith.

NPR executives deny accusations of political bias and have defended the community's reporting. Smith provides that elements of Central Appalachia are extra numerous than some outsiders notice and that many right here like NPR. The truth is, he says, one listener reached out final week and provided to personally pay for the newscast.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fad%2Fcf%2F66d3ba6d410eb166ea46a59d7038%2Fkst-20250718-9985.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fad%2Fcf%2F66d3ba6d410eb166ea46a59d7038%2Fkst-20250718-9985.jpg" class="img" alt="A sign for Allegheny Mountain Radio's WVLS 89.7 FM stands along U.S. Route 250 in Hightown, Virginia, a small town situated in a valley to the west from Monterey, Virginia, on Friday, July 18th, 2025. Credit: Kristian Thacker for NPR" loading="lazy"/> An indication for Allegheny Mountain Radio's WVLS station stands alongside U.S. Route 250 in Hightown, Va. Kristian Thacker for NPR conceal caption

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Kristian Thacker for NPR Folks within the three counties Allegheny Mountain Radio covers voted for President Trump by a margin of almost three to 1 final 12 months. Cardwell says in an try to punish NPR, Trump is simply hurting a few of those that have supported him.

"Eliminating these native stations is throwing away the infant with the bathtub water," says Cardwell.

Cardwell sees the focusing on of public media as a part of a broader assault on info that features the defunding of universities in an try to regulate the nation's political narrative.

"These stations and all of the establishments that produce information and data, these are the establishments below assault," he says.

Allegheny Mountain Radio employees say they do not blame NPR for his or her lack of federal funding, however they do say they've grow to be a casualty of America's polarized politics.

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Nationwide Correspondent Frank Langfitt. It was edited by Managing Editors Vickie Walton-James and Gerry Holmes. Beneath NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no company official or information government reviewed this story earlier than it was posted publicly.