Since 1967, our country has funded public media with the goal of ensuring all Americans have access to high-quality information and educational programming. For generations, public media has helped children learn to count and read, served as a critical lifeline in times of emergency and produced some of the country's most enduring programs, from "This American Life" to Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series. But this 58-year tradition is over.
Until recently, it cost Americans roughly $1.60 per person per year to support public media — about 0.01% of the federal budget. But public media has entered a new era without federal support. In July 2025, Congress passed the White House's rescission package, clawing back federal funding already allocated to public media for the next two years. These cuts will likely be permanent.
For KUER, the loss of federal funding means we're facing an annual shortfall of $500,000, about 8% of our operating budget. We would have received the 2025 grant on Oct. 1, but now we must make do without it. Thankfully, the outpouring of support from our emergency fund drive, together with our reserves, will give us time to make thoughtful decisions about how we navigate our financial future.
But make no mistake: KUER isn't going anywhere. We will continue to be here for you tomorrow, next year and for decades to come. But like public media stations across the country, we will need to be creative to figure out how to continue our mission without government support.
What's happened with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting?
The CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The CPB’s mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services. The CPB is distinct from NPR and PBS and does not produce programming or own, operate or manage any public media stations. Prior to these recent cuts, the CPB was in charge of allocating federal funding to public media stations — including KUER — and other projects in line with the public media ethos.
But the CPB announced that it will wind down its operation by Oct. 2025. This comes in the wake of Congress passing the White House’s rescission package and the proposed draft budget for the next fiscal year eliminating all funding for the CPB. There was hope that the Senate Appropriations Committee would restore some funding, but they declined to do that. These changes mean that the infrastructure for distributing public media funding will be gone.
What happens now that the CPB is gone?
KUER will continue to broadcast, but some of the services we provide, such as local reporting through KUER's newsroom, in-depth conversations on "RadioWest," legislative coverage through "State Street" and emergency alerts, might be impacted. We are working hard to raise additional support from our community — business sponsors, foundation supporters and listeners — and we’ve had a great outpouring of support in these weeks immediately following federal funding cuts, but we have a lot of ground to make up to remain sustainable in the future.
How would the national networks like NPR be affected?
Many smaller, rural stations rely even more heavily on CPB funding and will be more significantly impacted by cuts. Many of those broadcasters also tend to be the only station in their respective communities. If stations in smaller communities shut down, NPR and PBS will receive less money in member dues to fund program production and the work of journalists embedded around the world. It would, in turn, be more difficult for NPR and PBS to cover stories from smaller communities with a reduced network of stations to provide local perspectives.
What can you do?
Many of you have contacted us to ask what you can do to support KUER. Here are a few ways to make your voice heard.
- Make a personal gift and urge others to support KUER and other local public radio and TV stations — your financial support is so important.
- Becoming a monthly sustainer to KUER is particularly helpful in that it gives KUER a reliable source of funding that allows us to plan into the future.