Local news to take major hit in rural Arizona once Trump takes office

Members of the incoming Trump administration have pledged to cut federal funding for public media, a decision that would endanger dozens of rural radio stations across Arizona.

Prominent political figures like American oligarch Elon Musk and US Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Tucson, have pledged to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a non-profit that distributes federal grants to local radio and television stations. While the face of these stations is the national outlets PBS and NPR, the news outlets that would be hit hardest by these cuts would be small, locally-run radio stations in rural parts of the country.

Small investment, big returns

Dave Riek, general manager for KAWC and KOFA in Yuma, said the funding these stations receive is an investment in rural areas. Riek’s stations are run out of Arizona Western College, and provide not only a valuable news service to the community but invaluable job training to students interested in broadcasting as well.

“The amount of money that the federal government put into CPB, I think, last year was $500 million. The value of those stations and the content that we are generating, the service we provide to communities, is worth probably ten times that,” said Riek. “It is just such a smart investment.”

Riek’s station—like many rural outlets—brings in listeners with programming from NPR and BBC, then uses the revenue from that grant money from the CPB, and funding the college to hire local reporters and staff and cover broadcasting costs. Since he came to the station in 2006, KAWC has expanded to a full-time staff and around a dozen part-time student workers.

Federal grants account for about 25% of the station’s total budget. Riek believes they would survive if the Trump administration cut their grants, but they would have to scale down considerably. And even though every Republican president since the CPB was established in 1967 has called to cut its funding —including Donald Trump during his first term—public broadcast employees feel there’s more weight to the threat this time around.

“There’s a lot of concern. A lot of people are very concerned that this is going to be different from the past,” said Riek. “It’s going to be a sad day for us, and going to be some tough choices to be made.”

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Providing space for culture to cultivate

For the more prominent local stations that are awarded CPB grants, like Arizona PBS and KJZZ/KBAQ—the Valley’s primary NPR affiliate—the budget hits would be minimal, offset by donations from private individuals. KJZZ, for example, derives less than 1% of its revenue from public grants, while private contributions account for over 40%. At KAWC, private gifts only cover 10% of the station’s income.

The reliance on public grants over private money grows the smaller the region the station serves. KGHR, managed by Greyhill High School in Tuba City, relies on CPB grants for 72% of its funding. The station has less than $500,000 in annual expenses—compared to twice that at KAWC and $14 million to run KJZZ—but provides crucial services like the Emergency Broadcast System to the Navajo Nation and offers broadcasting training to high school students that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Several radio stations reliant on CPB grants provide similar services for Tribal nations across the state. Three outlets provide news and emergency information to rural residents of the Tonoho O’odham Nation and the Hopi, Apache, and Colorado River Tribes.

Many of these outlets, like KNNB in Whiteriver, also provide a cultural service by broadcasting journalist’s stories and music from local artists in their native language. KNNB is the only station in the country to broadcast in the Western Apache language. Should they lose funding, it would put a strain on the Tribe’s efforts to preserve a language that was nearly eradicated by Western colonialism.

Could the state step in?

Democratic Rep. Mariana Sandoval represents Arizona’s 23rd Legislative District, which includes Yuma, the Tonoho O’odham Nation, and several other Tribes, said the closure of these stations would be disastrous for parts of her district where other forms of news aren’t accessible. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reserves lower frequency stations—like KAWC’s 88.9 FM—for noncommercial education stations, as they travel farther and can reach areas where television or internet may not be available.

“It absolutely would be detrimental. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen,” Sandoval told The Copper Courier. “In rural communities where they don’t have internet, or access or choppy internet, for them to get reliable information out to those communities, it’s vital.”

Should federal funding be cut by the Trump administration, Sandoval said there is potential for the state to step in and fill the gap. Since many of the stations are already funded partially through public schools, additional education funding could be earmarked in the state budget, or a state-based broadcasting grant could be created.

But that would require Republicans, who hold a majority in the state House and Senate, to give such funding a green light. Arizona Republicans, who have historically been opposed to any changes to the education budget that doesn’t involve the use of public funds for private school, are unlikely to approve such a proposal.

Republican legislators who represent Yuma along with Sandoval — Reps. Tim Dunn and Michele Peña—did not respond to requests to comment on this story.

Sandoval said the threats to public media seem to be part of a larger attack on journalism and free speech in general. Trump, Musk, and members of the incoming executive branch have repeatedly attacked news outlets that fact-check lies promoted by the president-elect and his allies, and have pledged to buyout or pull licensing from publishers they deem unfavorable.

“He is trying to scare the mainstream media away from tough coverage of his administration and the things that they’re doing,” said Sandoval. “As Democrats, we’re going to continue to defend the First Amendment. We’re going to be opposing these attacks on all the media organizations simply because they publish stories that Trump doesn’t like.”

Controlling the narrative

Project 2025, a conservative outline for how Trump could consolidate immense power under the executive branch, details how the incoming administration could dismantle public broadcasting and move control of news outlets that receive government funding to the White House. This would allow the executive branch to replace critical reporting with programming biased to favor whoever controls the executive branch.

Alternately, local stations could opt to play ball: agree to what is outlined in Project 2025 and take programming directives from the White House. Such an agreement would allow stations to maintain local control without losing funding or their broadcasting licenses.

But for longtime journalists like Riek, who have operated independently for decades under Republican and Democratic administrations, government-directed programming is a nonstarter.

“That doesn’t sound like something we would be interested in,” said Riek. “I don’t think we would ever get involved with somebody who was making demands like that. That doesn’t make sense.”

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