Federal funding cut could silence tribal, rural radio stations many in Minnesota consider vital

Margaret Rousu is doing everything she can to keep Niijii Radio on the air.

But the station on the White Earth Reservation relies on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for half of its funding.

A bill that narrowly passed the U.S. House earlier this month threatens to cut $1.1 billion from the CPB — and could force Niijii Radio and other rural Minnesota stations to shut down.

These small radio stations are often not just local entertainment but one of few or even only sources of essential information in an emergency.

“They’re hurting a community that has constantly struggled to overcome the trauma that has been placed on us,” said Rousu, the station’s general manager.

That $1.1 billion cut to the CPB is part of $9.4 billion in wide-ranging cuts to federal agencies by the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly run by Elon Musk, that congressional Republicans are trying to make permanent.

It’s part of President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize government in his second term.

Independent, nonprofit radio stations have received public dollars from the CPB since President Lyndon Johnson established it in 1967. In Minnesota, nearly two dozen radio and TV stations received CPB funding last year, totaling $17.2 million.

Most Americans think of PBS’ Big Bird and talk news stations, such as MPR and its national counterpart, National Public Radio, as targets for the cuts. The White House labels NPR and PBS as producers of “woke propaganda,” while House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said, “We’re in a different era now” for media funding.

Over two years, PBS and NPR could lose more than $1 billion. But the cuts to small and short-staffed community radio stations like the ones that dot Minnesota will hit harder, station staff say.

“Cutting off federal funding to public media will not only damage local stations,” Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the CPB, said in a statement. “It will be disruptive for millions of Americans who rely on it for news and information that helps them make decisions about their lives and participate in their communities.”

For Niijii Radio, whose call letters are KKWE, CPB support is critical.

“We have a lot of elders who rely on the radio to keep them informed as to what our government is doing,” Rousu said.

Niijii said it is the only Anishinaabe radio station in northern Minnesota that operates independently of tribal government. It broadcasts tribal executive committee meetings for the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and covers tribal and local government.

White Earth Nation’s newspaper, Anishinaabeg Today, only prints once a month. So when breaking news occur, residents turn to Niijii Radio.

“If we lose the ability to broadcast this, many people are going to lose the ability to follow along with the tribal government and stuff that’s going on there,” she said.

Other small stations across Minnesota, especially those in rural areas, are in similar straits.

At music station Pioneer 90.1 in Thief River Falls, CPB funding accounts for 40% of the budget.

To survive the cut, general manager Mark Johnson said, the station serving rural northwest Minnesota would likely need to switch to an entirely volunteer staff.

“We’re sort of the collateral damage of this war that’s going on, not just in public media, but across all the media,” Johnson said.

Rousu, too, is searching for other ways to keep Niijii Radio on air, including through nonprofit and foundation grants. The station also might have to rely on volunteers if it can’t pay its three full-time staff members.

Up in Grand Rapids at the offices of KAXE Radio, which hosts a local morning show, music, news and local cooking and trivia programs, general manager Sarah Bignall said CPB funding accounts for a little over $200,000, or roughly 13% of the station’s budget.

It’s a small but mighty operation run by 17 employees. The towers’ signal pulses over the pine trees of northern Minnesota, stretching from Hermantown down to Brainerd and up northwest of Bagley.

And with the cuts to local newspapers across this vast region, KAXE is often the main source for local news. During the spring’s forest fires, listeners tuned in to find out about road closures and impending danger.

“We were providing these updates and life-saving resources,” Bignall said. “Within the first couple of hours, we had 15,000 people viewing that information.”

But it has gotten more expensive. Bignall said she pays thousands of dollars each month for electricity for the radio towers alone.

In Grand Marais, WTIP North Shore Community Radio’s signal reaches from Two Harbors to the Thunder Bay area along the North Shore of Lake Superior, as well as to the Gunflint Trail and across Lake Superior to northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

It’s the only radio broadcast in Grand Marais.

“We’re the fastest way to get the information out, whether that be structure fire or forest fire, weather, ice storms, snow storms, wind storms,” Executive Director Matthew Brown said.

Brown said the station receives $238,000 from the CPB, which makes up 25% percent of the radio station’s budget.

While the station, which has nine full-time and two part-time staff, won’t have to shut its doors if it loses CPB funding, Brown said they will have to “tighten our belt.”

In the meantime, Brown and his staff have been reaching out to foundations, major donors and even individual listeners to raise more funds.

“This will be a massive loss for rural America,” Bignall, at KAXE, said.

Some of the small stations in the Twin Cities will be hit as well.

Stations receiving CPB funding include mainstays like Jazz88, KFAI and North Minneapolis’ KMOJ, which plays hip-hop, R&B and soul classics.

Last year, KMOJ, with six full-time employees, received a grant from the CPB for over $188,000. Freddie Bell, the station’s general manager, doesn’t know where the cuts will come from if the bill passes.

“The whole idea of KMOJ’s inception in the mid-1970s was to keep the people informed and uplift the Black experience,” Bell said. He doesn’t know how much thinner his budget can get.

Across town at headquarters for Jazz88, a station employing a dozen people, interim manager Johnny Lee Walker ticked off a list of programs — from broadcasts of the Minneapolis Public Schools concerts to a spotlight on local music legends — that are funded by the CPB.

“We’re the only jazz station in Minnesota,” said Walker. “It’s not like it’s controversial stuff.”

Most of the small stations are members of the Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations (AMPERS).

Joel Glaser, AMPERS’ president and CEO, estimates that two to three AMPERS stations would shutter entirely if CPB funding is eliminated. The ripple effects could also cut off state funding, which many small stations depend on to survive.

“One thing that a lot of people don’t understand is how funding can be interconnected,” Glaser said. “And what I mean by that is that there’s a compounding effect. The federal cuts could result in the elimination of state funding as well.”

On Capitol Hill, the cuts have yet to pass the U.S. Senate. On Wednesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee questioned Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought on the rescissions package.

“There is no longer any excuse for tax dollars to subsidize these radical far-left networks,” he told the committee.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., opened his questioning by asking Vought if he could find a way to preserve funding for Native-run radio stations.

“It’s not a large amount of money‚” Rounds said, noting the state’s emergency notifications run on tribal radio. “They will not continue to exist.”

Vought didn’t answer specifically but said that “other funds in other agencies” could help “with this particular need.”

In a social media post, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said she hopes to peel off four Republicans to vote against the measure, killing it in the Senate. She called it offensive that “the president thought he could just come in and take away the money that, wait a minute, Congress had already appropriated.”

Under state law, stations must meet certain criteria, including employing at least two full-time staff members, to qualify for Minnesota’s public broadcasting grants.

Pioneer 90.1 typically employs two full-time and one part-time staffer, alongside 15 volunteers. But right now, Johnson is the only full-time employee, and he’s scrambling to hire a second.

“If we were to lose CPB and then no longer qualify for the state grants, it is hard for me to see a path for the station to continue to be locally operated,” Johnson said.