Trump wants to cut funding for PBS, NPR. How could it impact Central Valley stations?
Valley Public Radio and Valley PBS are at risk of losing more than $1 million in federal funding.
On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and all executive departments and agencies to cease federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. Trump has repeatedly called the public media outlets “biased.”
It’s unclear whether Trump has the authority to order the cuts.
“There’s still a lot of questions about exactly what this means for stations, if it holds up legally,” said Joe Moore, president and general manager of KVPR / Valley Public Radio. Federal grant funding makes up about 7% of the station’s annual budget, he said.
“If this executive order moves forward, it will significantly impact Valley PBS,” said President and CEO Robert Mollison. Federal funding makes up about 20% of the station’s budget.
National public media executives pushed back against the order Friday morning, calling it unlawful and “an affront to the First Amendment rights.”
NPR’s President and CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement that it would challenge the executive order “using all means available.”
Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB said in a statement that “CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority.”
“In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors,’” Harrison said, citing federal law on federal interference in telecommunications.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced that it planned to ask Congress to rescind $1.1 billion, or about two years of funding from CBP, according to PBS.
CPB is a private nonprofit that was created by Congress in 1967 to support non-commercial, high-quality independent public broadcasting so that Americans can have access to public media.
How much of KVPR’s budget comes from federal grants?
Founded in 1975, Valley Public Radio is the NPR station of the San Joaquin Valley serving residents of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mariposa and Tulare counties. Valley Public Radio operates two stations: KVPR, which features news/talk programming and KVPR Classical, which broadcasts classical music, 24/7.
About 7% of KVPR’s funding comes from a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, though the exact amount fluctuates from year to year, Moore said.
Next year’s CPB grant for KVPR would be around $175,000.
“It’s a small, but important part of our overall funding mix,” Moore said.
Moore stressed that even if the federal funding is eliminated, “KVPR 89.3 and 89.1 would NOT go off-the-air.”
But the station could face “significant cuts” to local programming, national programming, news and music services unless it raises funds to offset the federal grant.
“It’s a very challenging time to be in public media,” Moore said. “(But) we’re not going anywhere.”
KVPR is hosting its biggest fundraising event of the year on Sunday May 4 at 3:30 p.m. in Fresno.
The event will feature wine and beer tasting along the San Joaquin River, live music, a silent auction and a raffle to win either $1,500 or a 2-night stay at the coast. Tickets are available here.
“It’s even more important now,” Moore said.
What about Valley PBS?
Valley PBS could also be facing the loss of $900,000 a year in grant funding.
The television station got its start in 1977 and provides a combination of educational and entertaining programming to homes from Merced to Bakersfield. It’s the Central Valley’s only community licensed public television station, according to its website.
Mollison said Valley PBS raises most of its funding locally but the federal grant is a “substantial” portion of its operation budget, or about 20%.
“We are currently in the process of rebuilding after the Bear Mountain fire destroyed our transmitter last year. It has been a long, challenging, and costly journey. To now face the potential loss of federal support makes our situation even more difficult,” Mollison said.
In a statement Friday morning, PBS CEO Paula Kerger said the station was “exploring all options” to allow PBS to continue to serve its member stations.
“The President’s blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years,” Kerger said.
In 2023, Valley PBS was forced to pay back $300,000 in federal funding following an audit conducted by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting discovered the station overstated its revenue and failed to complete required financial and employment reports.
Trump’s attack on media
Trump has long targeted the media since he was first elected to office, calling it the “enemy of the American people.”
He said in Thursday’s executive order that neither PBS nor NPR presents accurate or unbiased reporting and previously said they spread “radical, woke propaganda.”
Katherine Jacobsen, program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement on X Friday morning that the accusations of bias were “unsupported” and undermine First Amendment rights.
Local media leaders say their goal is to democratize access to information.
“Valley PBS is not here to promote any specific agenda,” Mollison said. “Public media was founded on the principle that everyone deserves access to education and information, regardless of their location or financial situation.”
This story was originally published May 3, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
