The WVMR studio in Dunmore, W.VA. (Courtesy photo)
A radio cooperative that serves Pocahontas County in West Virginia and two neighbors Virginia communities Congress passed A bill that calls 1.1 billion US dollars Previously approved for the public broadcasting company.
Allegheny Mountain Radio includes WVMR in Dunmore, West Virginia, WVLs in Monterey, Virginia, and WCHG in Hot Springs, Virginia. The stations offer hyperlocal programs, including news and entertainment, funeral and lost pets, weather, school closures and emergency warnings, said station manager Scott Smith.
The cooperative was usually based on federal financing for 60 to 65% of its annual budget on federal financing, said Smith. They employ six full-time and five part-time employees.
Smith said that the cooperative will not do any drastic cuts such as layoffs or locking stations immediately. For the time being, you will rely on reserve funds and look for ways to reduce the costs. You will also try to improve support from underwriting, private donations and other financing options, he said.
“This will be a kind of transition year if you want where we see how things work without our federal money,” said Smith. “We will try to find other sources of income and we will try to find sources where we can save money. But that is also related to the continuation of our way of how we are and what we are doing.”
While the company was financed for public broadcasting About 1% of the budget of NPR and 16% of the PBS -Budget, Allegheny Mountain Radio is one of hundreds of miniature stations across the country that have rely more on federal financing. Invented CPB financing 19% of the budget of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Executive Director Eddie Isom told West Virginia Metronews at the beginning of this month it was too early to say what the funding for West Virginia Public Broadcasting would mean.
Trump and other Republicans have criticizes NPR and PBS Shipments because they are politically biased and they called “Waste of money.”
West Virginia The entire delegation of the congress, all Republicans, voted in favor of lifting the money. In separate statements after the vote, Senator Jim Justice described the legislation Commonsense and said: “The days of waste of money regardless of the taxpayer are over.” Senator Shelley Moore Capito said that the invoice “eliminates wasteful expenses”. The Democrats of Virginia voted against the lifting of the money, while the Republicans voted for the support of the law.
Smith said he had several talks with congress leaders who represented both Virginia and West Virginia, which explain the importance of the ward for their communities and the need for federal financing.
“The needle didn’t really seem to move if you like, for the Republican side of the representatives I spoke to,” he said.
When the legislation came on Smith’s radar, he began to raise awareness, he said. Since passing the law, he has conducted interviews with national media Political To NBCS Meet the press And Npr.
“When the Senate passed this on Thursday, the manuscript was on the wall,” said Smith. “And we quickly became a figurehead for the collateral damage of this thing. And several people have cleared out.”
The attention of the media collected the station From Tuesday morning more than 120 private donations from all over the country, he said. The majority of the donors had never heard of the station two weeks ago.
“But they heard our story, they examined us, they said:” Absolutely, they should all continue to exist. They are all critical. And here are some of our own strenuous -earned money so that this continues to happen. “This moves and validated in a way that you cannot really put into words.”
Smith asked Smith to explain the value of a miniature radio station in 2025 when many people receive their news and entertainment from other sources. The stations are high in the Appalachian Mountains, where the cell service is not available, he said that the people they serve are older.
“We are still here and offer all the things that I have told for people who may not necessarily turn to their smartphones to be able to search for their morning messages or music or whatever. They prefer and still use traditional media forms like us.”
The radio stations are particularly critical after storm events as in 2012 when A Right Switched off electricity, telephone lines and other infrastructures for a vast part of the state for days. The radio station still transferred everyone with a car or a battery -operated radio, he said.
“We were still in the air that belonged to us, which could hear us about where cooling stations where they could get water where they could get supplies if their supply companies could come back – just the entire situation,” he said. “So in today’s world there is definitely a place for the radio.”
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