It started with bagpipes.
John Goff, a volunteer programmer with KMUN, wandered Exchange Street between 14th and 15th streets, pipes under his arm, to open the community radio station’s block party on Saturday.
Along the block, nonprofits set up tents and tables and were prepared to talk to all-comers about their organization and engage them in activities from poetry prompts to bedazzling roller skates. The smell of curry and coffee was in the air. Local musicians prepared their instruments. It seemed like everywhere you turned, you ran into someone you knew.
But looming in the background was the recent decision by Congress to claw back funding for public media.
The rescission bill passed near the end of the day on July 17, barely two days before the block party. The bill rolled back $9 billion in previously allocated funds for public media funding and foreign aid. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, lost over $1 billion in funds meant to stretch over the next two years.
KMUN and hundreds of other stations and media outlets including NPR and PBS receive important funding through CPB. The cuts are expected to hit smaller stations and stations that broadcast in rural areas and to underserved communities especially hard.
For KMUN, it means the loss of 17% of the station’s annual funding. KMUN will have to figure out how to close that gap into the longterm.
Station Manager Susan Peterson said the station will need to make some tough decisions about what programming it continues to pay to access. She expects to have to cut NPR, a particularly expensive suite of programming, from the lineup. The station currently pays for six weekly programs from NPR.
KMUN has several months before contracts with organizations like NPR end, Peterson said.
“So we have two months to really do a lot of work and get some holes filled because otherwise there’s dead air and that’s not good for any radio station,” she added.
Still, she said she sees opportunities to collaborate more with stations all over the country.
And, she added, the good news is that KMUN is on solid financial footing otherwise, with a contingency fund built up and strong support in the community.
“This station was started by people,” Peterson said. “It’s supported by people… I’ve had so many people come up to me (at the block party) and say really heartfelt things about how much they love the station and how much they want to see it work.”
There are no plans to cut staff. KMUN employs seven people total, including Peterson. She said this manpower will be necessary as the station looks to weather the major changes tied to the federal cuts and provide more and different programming without federal funding.
The rescission bill and other policies by the Trump administration that impact public and news media were on the minds of many people at the KMUN block party, including longtime volunteer Carol Newman.
Newman has been involved with KMUN since before it went on the air and hosts several shows including “ARTS – Live and Local!” On Saturday, she was focusing on the positives. She held a plate of curry in one hand and was attending the block party with her granddaughter, Lenna.
“KMUN has been not just the background, but the lifeblood of my life for 42 years and I don’t know what I’d do without it,” Newman said. “And so I would like to support it in any way. But the truth is, today? It’s party time!”