Local radio station set to lose 8% of its budget after federal government cuts funding for NPR

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - WHQR is set to lose more than $150,000 in funding from the federal government. That makes up about 8.5% of its annual budget.

Station Manager Kevin Crane said it’s disappointing, but not surprising.

“This is about journalism,” Crane said. “The president has made clear that it’s journalism that he’s targeting.”

The cuts come after Congress passed the Trump administration’s rescissions package. The package cuts funding for foreign aid, but also for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). CPB helps fund NPR, PBS and their member stations.

WHQR is one of those member stations, but Crane said he believes the community will step up to help them make up the loss in funding.

If that isn’t the case, then Crane says they’ll likely have to change their services and reevaluate how they’re spending their money.

“I’m happy that I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about that this year,” Crane said.

However, he says several other rural member stations sometimes rely on CPB funding for up to 50% of their budget. He worries about how stations in smaller communities will be able to handle the funding loss, and how those communities will subsequently be able to handle the loss of local news and emergency alerting.

“Many of those stations are not going to be able to keep their doors open,” Crane said. “And I feel bad for those communities that are going to do without it because in many of those communities, that’s the only source of local information they have.”

Crane said the long-term effects of this funding cut could also wind up impacting WHQR later down the road. If more rural stations have to close their doors, they’ll no longer pay fees to NPR. NPR could in turn raise its prices.

There are other perks that he says will likely go away, leaving stations to foot the bill to compensate.

“NPR has paid for the satellite interconnection that we all use for program distribution and that’s going to fall to the stations,” Crane said. “Music rights are another thing that NPR and CPB have taken care of, negotiated for us and pay for that’s going to fall to the station. So, it’s really difficult, long term, to say exactly what the impact is going to be.”

To New Hanover County GOP Chair John Hinnant, these cuts are signs that the government is cutting back on “wasteful spending.”

“These are promises made, promises kept,” Hinnant said. “There’s an effort to cut unnecessary spending where appropriate and when appropriate. The government can save taxpayer dollars, especially when the news is sometimes perceived as slanted one way or another.”

Hinnant said many Americans are already turning to nontraditional sources of media, and these cuts are reflective of that shift.

“I think we’ve got a lot of independent journalists who found a way to get their news out through publications like X or Substack, and these platforms are going to continue to grow and continue to prosper,” Hinnant said. “It may turn our traditional media sources to find ways to improve.”

However, Crane views this way of thinking as a slippery slope.

“Morley Safer said, ‘I trust a citizen journalist the way I would trust a citizen surgeon.’” Crane said. “There are trained people who know how to do it, and those are the people that you really should trust instead of people who just have an opinion and want to put it forth on the internet. So, I appreciate and understand that there are many, many sources, but they can’t all be trusted, and they’re not always giving you the full story.”

WHQR will be hosting a pledge drive next Wednesday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day to make up for the shortfall. To volunteer, Crane said people can email feedback@whqr.org. To donate, people can call the pledge line or pledge online at this link.

WHQR plans to host other pledge drives throughout the year.