Philanthropy: Hoopa Valley Tribe station fears ax in federal funds

Thursday, March 10, 2011  

"As the NPR video controversy grabs headlines in Washington, public radio stations in local markets across the country are particularly worried that they will be the ones most hurt by the fallout.

Some Republican lawmakers have seized on the controversy to renew their call for an end to federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides grants to public radio and television broadcasters.

For NPR, which relies on federal money for only 2 percent of its revenue, the loss of federal money would not necessarily be devastating. But it would be for small stations like KIDE 91.3, a public radio station owned and operated by the Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe in rural Northern California. The station relies on federal money for 47 percent of its budget—a sum that totals $129,000 over two years.

Joseph Orozco, KIDE’s station manager, said a loss of federal money would mean that he would have to cut the station’s staff from four to three, and his station would probably go from broadcasting 24 hours a day to 12.

“It’s going to affect us greatly,” said Mr. Orozco, who notes that KIDE, which runs on solar power during the day, is the only radio station that provides local news and information in its region. “It could mean that we lose our electricity—all our operations feeds come out of the CPB grant. The station wouldn’t be able to be broadcast at night, and that’s when we do a lot of our live remote broadcasts of community activities.”"

Get the Story:
Local Stations Fear for the Worst in the Wake of NPR Controversy (The Chronicle of Philanthropy 3/9)