We became aware this summer, when the Trump administration announced cuts to public broadcasting, that rural areas would be hit especially hard. This is because rural stations are more reliant on federal funding. Rural areas also tend to have fewer media outlets, which means that those supported by public dollars are less easily replaced by the private sector--including in the reporting on weather and natural disasters.
This week, Reveal reported on the closure of a public radio station, KYUK, in the Bethel/Kuskoswim Delta region of Alaska. Here's an excerpt:
When a typhoon hit Alaska, public radio station KYUK was on the air, broadcasting critical information about conditions, evacuations, and search and rescue operations. An estimated 1,600 people were displaced, and many were saved in the biggest airlift operation in state history.
“The work that we do in terms of public safety communication literally does save lives,” said Sage Smiley, KYUK’s news director.
KYUK is small, scrappy, and bilingual. It broadcasts in English and Yugtun, the language of an Indigenous population that lives in villages along two massive rivers. The station airs NPR content, but also high school basketball games, local call-in talk shows, and even a show hosted by the volunteer search and rescue team, answering listeners’ questions about ice conditions and safety. The station is a lifeline for this unique region.
KYUK covers an area the size of the state of Oregon, but after Congress passed the Rescissions Act over the summer, it lost 70 percent of its operating budget. Republicans have targeted public media since its inception in the late 1960s. But this is the first time they have successfully ended the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, wiping out more than $1 billion in funding for public media.
For more on that typhoon in mid-October, see NPR's coverage here.
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