Listeners to KMUN in Astoria will soon have to change stations to hear Terry Gross, Korva Coleman, Peter Sagal and other names associated with NPR programs.
The station is set to lose almost a quarter of its budget due to the end of federal funding for public radio and television stations. And in order to deal with those cuts, it will end its use of NPR shows in favor of locally produced music, talk and public affairs programs.
“We’ve carried NPR programming since 1987, that’s almost our whole life. We started broadcasting in 1983. At the time, there was no other broadcast of national/international news like that,” said Station Manager Susan Peterson.
KMUN is phasing out NPR shows, with the goal of saving money to make up for what it lost when the federal government ceased support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
She said that number is usually around 20%, or the equivalent of 1.5 staff members.
“The decision was pretty easy when we looked at our mission to serve our community,” she said of choosing between staff and NPR programs.
The station will continue to produce its own news, talk and public affairs content while also airing local music shows and some national shows.
Peterson said many former program hosts have offered to return in recent weeks to help fill the 30 hours a week that KMUN will need to fill.
It has also come up with new programs that highlight local events and other points of interest in the area to fill the hole left by NPR’s hourly newscasts.
She said the station has found programs to fill all but one gap, the Saturday morning slot occupied by Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. The station ultimately hopes to fill its entire program calendar with locally-produced content.
The area will not be without NPR programming. OPB leases space on the radio tower owned by The Tillicum Foundation, which is the non-profit organization that operates KMUN and classical music station KCPB.
