Public radio outlets across the country spent the weekend in emergency mode following Congress’s passage of a $1.1 billion clawback of federal funding, and as leaders react, listeners are stepping up to help close sudden funding gaps at their community stations.
The Rescissions Act of 2025 cut $9 billion in previously approved federal spending, including funds allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for Fiscal Years 2026 and 2027. The move delivered a political victory for the Trump administration, which has framed NPR and its affiliates as partisan and fiscally wasteful, but for local stations across the country, it has triggered an immediate financial and operational crisis.
“This is a truly existential threat,” said Cincinnati Public Radio President, General Manager and CEO Richard Eiswerth in an early-morning message to staff on July 18. “Over the next weeks and months, we shall see some devastating impacts to individual stations across this country – especially those serving rural, minority, and Native American populations.”
In a statement, NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher called the vote “an unwarranted dismantling of beloved local civic institutions, and an act of Congress that disregards the public will.” While many critics of public broadcasting focus on NPR and PBS headquarters, Maher emphasized that rural and tribal stations are among the hardest hit, many of which receive more than 50% of their budgets from CPB.
In Boston, GBH President and CEO Susan Goldberg reported the station expects to lose $18 million in federal support – roughly 8% of its budget. “GBH is going to survive,” she said, “but I’m not saying that it’s going to be exactly the way it is now.”
“This is such a seismic event that we really need to consider everything – what we’re making, how we’re making it, how frequently we’re making it, and what platforms we’re making it for,” Goldberg added. GBH has already laid off 85 workers over the past two years. Additional cuts may follow.
5,000 miles away, Hawai’i Public Radio President and CEO Meredith Artley announced the group is one of the many launching emergency fundraising campaigns. HPR expects to lose over $900,000 in CPB support and infrastructure costs, and while it will initially rely on cash reserves, Artley warned that the well is not bottomless.
“This rescission is an attempt to weaken and destroy local public media across the nation,” Artley said. “But here in Hawai’i, you can choose instead to strengthen a trusted source.”
In Seattle, KUOW has seen significant success from its own emergency appeal, raising nearly $1.5 million in just 12 hours on Friday. With $700,000 in matching funds already pledged, listeners responded quickly to fill the gap. “We were not expecting that we would meet our goal so early today,” KUOW Chief Marketing Officer Annette Promes told the Seattle Times.
CPB contributes 5% of KUOW’s annual budget. For other Washington stations like KDNA in the Yakima Valley, CPB makes up as much as 40% of their revenue. Promes says KUOW is now working to identify and support smaller stations statewide that may be on the brink.
“Public radio is a lifeline,” NPR’s Maher wrote. “Our network’s service to the nation suffered a tremendous setback. Together, and with support from listeners and readers in communities around the nation, we will work to rebuild.”
