Public media cuts hit some rural areas that voted for Trump : NPR

Abby Dufour, WCHG News journalist and afternoon host of the show Dufour of the dayIndicates the following song of its broadcast at Hot Springs station, in Virginia.

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Dunmore, Virginie -Western – When President Trump pushed federal funding for public media, he said that a key reason was because he thinks that the PBS and the NPR are politically biased. But some of the hardest affected by the Congress decision last week to accelerate $ 1.1 billion in federal funds are small radio operations that provide news and local information to rural communities.

One is Allegheny mountain radioA cooperative of three stations covering the county of Pocahontas, Virginia-Western as well as the counties of Bath and Highland in Virginia. Algheny Mountain is not a resort of NPR members, but she manages the NPR television news, a quick descent of the best stories.

Allegheny Mountain’s programming mixture includes news and local information as well as gospel, country and blues emissions. A recent episode of MIDI MAGAZINE Reported to a signature bonus of $ 5,000 to attract new teachers and how the energy requirements of data centers could possibly affect this distant region where people sometimes have to travel 60 miles to reach the nearest shopping center.

The WVLS of Allegheny Mountain Radio, which is in the picturesque mountain city of Monterey, Virginia, provides news from local government, funeral opinions and information on missing pets to the listeners in areas where it can be difficult to access the signals of the mobile phone and the Internet.

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The show also included a regular segment on the missing pets, in this case a calico diluted with a nose band.

“I read a lost report and found for an emu who wandered in the county,“” reminder Scott Smith, Managing Director of Allegheny Mountain.

Allegheny Mountain depends on the financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) up to 65% of its annual budget of about half a million dollars. Smith says that his stations have financial reserves, but the hole in their budget could become existential.

“It is only so long that you can continue to exist when you operate in the red,” explains Smith, who has a long gray beard that extends almost to his belt loop. “At one point, it works well.”

Scott Smith, Managing Director of Allegheny Mountain Radio, is in the Main radio station in WVLS station in Monterey, Virginia. Smith.

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Smith hopes to collect more money to try to fill part of the gap, but he fears that he can finally cut the staff or even close a station. Allegheny Mountain is part of nearly 70 small radio stations in states such as Alaska, Kentucky, Texas and Mississippi who relied on the CPB for at least 30% of their annual budgets.

Smith says that the radio cooperative helps knitting a region where it is not easy to connect due to the mountains and unequal access to the phone and the Internet. A large part of its coverage area is located inside the national forests of Monongahela and George Washington and Jefferson. During a around 75 miles of an interstate in WVMR, which is in Dunmore, W. VA., An NPR journalist had no internet connection.

Some people here say they really appreciate the news and community information provided by Algheny Mountain. Jay Garber, mayor of the city of Monterey, Virginia, said that radio remains the fastest way to make citizens known, main pauses with road closings.

Jay Garber, mayor of Monterey, says that the community is based on radio for daily news and information. “Without the radio station, we are in a way in the blind here, locally,” he said.

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“This is our only source of local daily information,” explains Garber, sitting in his office along Main Street. “We have a newspaper printed once a week, so without the radio station, we are in a way in the blind here, locally.”

Just at the bottom of the mayor’s office block, Jean Hiner ends his fries at the Highs restaurant, where customers are encouraged to ring a bell when they love food. Hiner, 79, who raised sheep, says that Allegheny Mountain also provides essential information about people here.

“My husband and I were sitting and listening to the radio, then a necrology would come and we did not know that this person was dead,” recalls Hiner. “Then we prepare very quickly and we went to the funeral show for the evening when the family met.”

Not everyone likes the cover of Allegheny Mountain. Danny Cardwell. A coordinator of the station and journalist, recalls that someone got so angry with the reports of the county supervisors’ meetings, in the mid -2010s, that they threw manure in front of the radio station – not once, but twice.

Danny Cardwell, Algheny Mountain Radio social media coordinator and station coordinator for WCHG in Hot Springs, says that the death of public media financing is a big mistake. “Getting rid of these local stations is throwing the baby with the bath water,” he said.

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Smith says he had unpleasant exchanges with the listeners who challenged the Allegheny Mountain simply because he plays the NPR television newspaper, which represents only 40 minutes of the daily offers of radio stations. A person wrote on Smith’s Facebook page that Allegheny Mountain deserved to lose federal funding on this basis.

“I literally had an old friend told me that Allegheny Mountain Radio deserved to die because we played” liberal propaganda “,” explains Smith.

NPR leaders deny accusations of political prejudice and defended network reports. Smith adds that certain parts of the central appearances are more diverse than some foreigners think so and that many here as NPR. In fact, he said, an auditor contacted last week and proposed to pay personally the television news.

A panel for the WVLS station of Allegheny Mountain Radio is located along the American road 250 in Hightown, Virginia.

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Residents of the three counties of Allegheny Mountain Radio voted for President Trump by a margin of almost three to one last year. Cardwell says in order to punish the NPR, Trump only hurts some of those who supported him.

“Getting rid of these local stations is throwing the baby with the bath water,” said Cardwell.

Cardwell sees the targeting of public media as part of a broader attack on facts which includes the financing of universities in order to control the political narrative of the nation.

“These stations and all the institutions that produce data and information are the attacked institutions,” he said.

The staff of Allegheny Mountain Radio say that he does not blame NPR for their loss of federal funding, but they say that they have become a victim of the polarized policy of America.

Disclosure: This story has been reported and written by the National Correspondent of NPR, Frank Langfitt. It was published by the management of Vickie Walton-James and Gerry Holmes publishers. As part of the NPR protocol to account for himself, no manager of the company or the director of the news examined this story before its publication publicly.