Two months after Congress voted to strip federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), two Fresno public media stations are grappling with the loss.

The cuts were part of the Rescissions Act of 2025, which canceled almost $9 billion in previously approved funding, including $1.1 billion for CPB. 

According to Joe Moore, president and general manager of KVPR, Central Valley stations like his lost 7% of their funding. Still, he said the cuts will not diminish the station’s commitment to serving the San Joaquin Valley.

“We may have been underfunded, but we have not been defeated,” Moore said. “Losing 7% of our funding overnight is a big challenge, but we developed a plan.”

That plan, he explained, relies on community and philanthropic support while pausing full-time hiring. With Oct. 1 marking a new fiscal year, Moore said the funds promised by CPB will not “show up” due to the Senate’s dissolution of the agency. Though the station raised “incredible” support in July and August, he is unsure if it can be repeated.

Moore is confident KVPR will not reduce staff, though he cannot rule out future changes. The sudden loss of funds also raises concerns about costs for the satellite system, digital content management and music licensing fees that CPB currently covers for local stations. With CPB’s possible closure, Moore is uncertain how much the station will owe, as they have never received a direct bill.

“It may go away if we all of a sudden find out that it’s going to be this huge bill,” Moore said.

That same concern of future costs tied to music rights and satellite systems also affects Radio Bilingüe, a Spanish-language public radio network serving low-income, undocumented and farmworker communities across the Central Valley and beyond. 

According to José Martínez-Saldaña, co-executive director of Radio Bilingüe, the station had been preparing for a $1.1 million CPB grant to upgrade outdated equipment—funding it will never receive now. Radio Bilingüe also relies on about $280,000 annually in CPB grants for operations.

CPB owns the satellite system that gives Radio Bilingüe a free channel to broadcast in areas with limited or no internet access. CPB also covers annual royalties to music publishing organizations such as Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). 

“With CPB being eliminated, then the question is: what is that going to cost us?” Martínez-Saldaña said. “We don’t know that yet.”

To justify the cut, the Trump administration defended canceling federal funding for NPR, PBS and their member stations as a way to stop “left-wing propaganda.” They argued that CPB has no “constitutional right” to use Americans’ tax dollars unfairly and claimed the administration has the authority to determine financial support for such organizations.

Jim Boren, a lecturer at Fresno State and member of the California Press Foundation, said that no public broadcasting station is perfect. Still, he claims there is no evidence that these stations deliver biased coverage, only factual news.

To prove his point during the interview, Boren opened KVPR’s digital news site and read headlines aloud: “A local cook opening a backyard restaurant,” “Gov. Gavin Newsom warming up to big oil” and “Cal State’s plans to add more housing.”

“These are just basic news stories that don’t really have a left and a right,” Boren said. “If you look at what they do, it would be hard to show a political bias on public radio and television.”

Boren believes the Trump administration’s claims that CPB funds “purely liberal” news is an attempt to undermine the media’s watchdog role in holding institutions like the White House accountable. Without CPB, many stations will struggle to cover operating costs, and a vital news source could disappear — making it easier for government institutions to act without scrutiny.

Though the future of Oct. 1 remains uncertain for both KVPR and Radio Bilingüe, the loss of CPB threatens the sustainability of local public media in Fresno. Still, these stations say it will not stop them from serving their communities.

“We’re not shying away from this challenge,” Martínez-Saldaña said. “We see it as a direct threat to our existence — and our community needs Radio Bilingüe just as much as we need them.”