public radio stations no longer with NPR

[ted chittenden]

Here is a brief list of formerly NPR-affiliated stations that no longer carry NPR programs, specifically the network's news programs:

KHCC (plus KHCD and KHCT) licensed to Hutchinson, KS--Dropped NPR news with its June 23, 2025 schedule. While two of the stations are in towns/cities with alternatives readily available, the station licensed to Salina does not yet have an alternative source for this programming.
WLRH--Huntsville, AL. The new schedule without the NPR programming began on October 1, 2025, with the demise of the CPB. There is a mostly R&B station in town that carries an hour of "Morning Edition," but nobody else carries "All Things Considered."

Mississippi Public radio is scheduled to discontinue carrying all NPR programming in January of 2026, and South Carolina Public Radio is scheduled to roll back its NPR programming around the same date (although the latter has said in the past that it will keep "Morning Edition," and "All Things Considered.")

With the removal of CPB funding, I believe there will be others, particularly after January of 2026 so I'm hoping this thread will remain open for anybody else to share if other NPR stations are dropping their NPR news programming.

 

[TheBigA]

As we said in previous threads on the subject, the main stations affected will be small stations in red states. There was no need to completely destroy funding to everyone. The stations in those markets could have dropped NPR News at any time. There was no requirement to carry NPR in order to receive CPB funding. They're not really critical to the survival of NPR. This was a made up issue to end funding to something a small group of conservatives don't like.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

How much of this will an Out of Market NPR affiliate have to put a translator outside their designated market area to cover parts of the state that does not have a local NPR affiliate or the local station lost their NPR affiliation.

89.5 FM in San Diego, 97.7 FM in Calexico and 90.5 FM in Borrego Springs

KPBS-FM, part of KPBS Public Media, is a non-commercial public radio station licensed to San Diego State University, broadcasting in San Diego on 89.5 FM, on 97.7 FM in Calexico, Imperial County and as KRAM on 90.5 FM in Borrego Springs.

www.kpbs.org

KQVO FM 97.7 MHz in Calexico, California

Where News Matters. Radio Station information for KQVO at 97.7 MHz MHz on your FM dial.

radiostation.info

Example KPBS San Diego (owned by California State University) main signal is at 89.5 FM for San Diego County and it’s part of the San Diego MSA but Imperial County, CA is in a different MSA but it has a translator in Calexico to reach areas without a local NPR station.

This is like on the TV side where there are local PBS affiliates that also cover not just their local DMA’s but also in some cases other DMA’s that do not have a local PBS station. Examples are PBS member station KOCE Los Angeles they have to not just cover the LA TV Market but they have to cover Santa Barbara and Palm Springs TV markets because those two DMA’s do not have a local PBS station.

 

[ted chittenden]

How much of this will an Out of Market NPR affiliate have to put a translator outside their designated market area to cover parts of the state that does not have a local NPR affiliate or the local station lost their NPR affiliation.

89.5 FM in San Diego, 97.7 FM in Calexico and 90.5 FM in Borrego Springs

KPBS-FM, part of KPBS Public Media, is a non-commercial public radio station licensed to San Diego State University, broadcasting in San Diego on 89.5 FM, on 97.7 FM in Calexico, Imperial County and as KRAM on 90.5 FM in Borrego Springs.

www.kpbs.org

KQVO FM 97.7 MHz in Calexico, California

Where News Matters. Radio Station information for KQVO at 97.7 MHz MHz on your FM dial.

radiostation.info

Example KPBS San Diego (owned by California State University) main signal is at 89.5 FM for San Diego County and it’s part of the San Diego MSA but Imperial County, CA is in a different MSA but it has a translator in Calexico to reach areas without a local NPR station.

This is like on the TV side where there are local PBS affiliates that also cover not just their local DMA’s but also in some cases other DMA’s that do not have a local PBS station. Examples are PBS member station KOCE Los Angeles they have to not just cover the LA TV Market but they have to cover Santa Barbara and Palm Springs TV markets because those two DMA’s do not have a local PBS station.

First, as I think K.M. Richards would point out, KQVO-FM is not a translator; it's a full-power satellite station for KPBS-FM that serves the Imperial Valley. And KQVO-FM has been a satellite of KPBS-FM for quite some time (I believe since around 2007 but I'm too lazy to verify right now). I really don't think that either KPBS or KQVO are in trouble right now--in fact, if memory serves, KPBS-FM is one of the stronger stations in the NPR fold.

That said, there are some I worry about. The stations in Chico, and Eureka, CA, immediately come to mind in the state of California. There is a thread on site about what happened to both of them and how they lost the assistance they were getting from Sacramento's Capital Public Radio just as the recision was taking place. Both of these stations have at least one satellite station serving an otherwise NPR-free area. In addition, KHSR, the Eureka-based station (it's actually licensed to Arcata), has two full-time subservices that it is running on separate outlets in the area: one is all BBC and the other carries the Spanish public radio network headed by KFSR in Fresno. Whether either of these stations will survive long term is anybody's guess.

And I can say the same thing about several other public radio outlets, mostly in small towns (some of which I've discussed in other threads), but, suffice it to say, outside of large city outlets, some of the small and medium-sized public radio stations will either have to fold or become part- or full-time satellite outlets for big-city NPR outlets.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

How much of this will an Out of Market NPR affiliate have to put a translator outside their designated market area to cover parts of the state that does not have a local NPR affiliate or the local station lost their NPR affiliation.

89.5 FM in San Diego, 97.7 FM in Calexico and 90.5 FM in Borrego Springs

KPBS-FM, part of KPBS Public Media, is a non-commercial public radio station licensed to San Diego State University, broadcasting in San Diego on 89.5 FM, on 97.7 FM in Calexico, Imperial County and as KRAM on 90.5 FM in Borrego Springs.

www.kpbs.org

KQVO FM 97.7 MHz in Calexico, California

Where News Matters. Radio Station information for KQVO at 97.7 MHz MHz on your FM dial.

radiostation.info

Example KPBS San Diego (owned by California State University) main signal is at 89.5 FM for San Diego County and it’s part of the San Diego MSA but Imperial County, CA is in a different MSA but it has a translator in Calexico to reach areas without a local NPR station.

This is like on the TV side where there are local PBS affiliates that also cover not just their local DMA’s but also in some cases other DMA’s that do not have a local PBS station. Examples are PBS member station KOCE Los Angeles they have to not just cover the LA TV Market but they have to cover Santa Barbara and Palm Springs TV markets because those two DMA’s do not have a local PBS station.

rolls eyes.

If a station lost their NPR Affiliation and shuts down or sells off, its not likely someones going to stick a translator or other station there as just a repeater of an out of market station.

Where do you get these overly wordy ideas from?

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

rolls eyes.

If a station lost their NPR Affiliation and shuts down or sells off, its not likely someones going to stick a translator or other station there as just a repeater of an out of market station.

Where do you get these overly wordy ideas from?

True all were anecdotes from parts of the country where that was the case that an out of market NPR station did in fact covered parts of the country where there was no local public media station. True the examples I used won't work everywhere just in places where that was the case.

 

[ted chittenden]

rolls eyes.

If a station lost their NPR Affiliation and shuts down or sells off, its not likely someones going to stick a translator or other station there as just a repeater of an out of market station.

Where do you get these overly wordy ideas from?

Actually, there are cases from the past where smaller NPR affiliates that were in trouble were taken over by larger stations. KWMU in St. Louis, MO, took over the operations of both WQUB (Quincy, IL) and KMST (Rolla, MO) prior to 2010; and both WNYC and WHYY became involved in the operations of former New Jersey public radio affiliates when that state stopped funding its public radio and television system. Currently, as noted on another thread on this Board, WHYY is involved in purchasing both WPSU and WPSX to continue public radio services in the area around State College, PA. The only thing I haven't heard of (and you would appear to be correct here) is big city NPR outlets replacing a discontinued full power public satellite with a translator--but there's always a first time.

 

[fybush]

West Palm Beach has entered the chat...

(When the former WXEL 90.7 went to K-Love, that's when WLRN put its translator on.)

 

[ksradiogeek]

KHCC (plus KHCD and KHCT) licensed to Hutchinson, KS--Dropped NPR news with its June 23, 2025 schedule. While two of the stations are in towns/cities with alternatives readily available, the station licensed to Salina does not yet have an alternative source for this programming.

Not exactly correct. KPR, based in Lawrence, has a repeater that targets Manhattan/eastern areas of KHCD’s signal that overlap. Salina itself gets decent reception from that repeater - KANV - but areas west and north of there may have some trouble (lest they get fringe reception from either the High Plains or Nebraska networks).

 

[K.M. Richards]

There are two NPR stations in Los Angeles. KPCC (licensed to Pasadena City College but operated by Southern California Public Radio as "LAist") also has three full-power satellites in Redlands, Coachella, and Ojai, plus translators in Palm Springs and Santa Barbara and three on-channel boosters in West Los Angeles and Santa Clarita. KCRW, licensed to Santa Monica City College, has five full-power satellites in Indio, Los Osos, Mojave, Oxnard and Santa Barbara, plus translators in Beaumont, Borrego Springs, Fillmore, Gorman, Ojai, Twentynine Palms, Goleta, Lemon Grove and China Lake.

Between the two of them, NPR is well represented all the way from the Central Coast down to KPBS' coverage area.

 

[Intheairnevada]

Here are 120k people in rural Nevada. Nevada PBS has to do a lot to provide coverage to areas outside Vegas, & Reno area…including into AZ. How many people listen on net anyway?

 

[K.M. Richards]

How many people listen on net anyway?

More than one would think. A very high percentage of spoken word listening is now online, and public radio is likely even higher than commercial talk or news stations.

I don't think you can use PBS as an example when talking about NPR's audience.

 

[Mark Roberts]

It's time for Mark to bloviate about Missouri and Colorado.

Actually I'm looking at a new angle here, too: where a larger station manages a smaller operation but doesn't actually own it. In Missouri, Columbia's KBIA, owned by the University of Missouri, manages KKTR in Kirksville, though KKTR is owned by Truman State University (the former Northeast Missouri State). Truman State originally had a translator for KBIA on the channel but was able to upgrade it to a full-service station. In Colorado, Colorado Public Radio manages the network of KRCC in Colorado Springs, but Colorado College retains the licenses.

CPR has also done a large outright merger, with KPRN in Grand Junction back in 1991. About 20 years ago, CPR attempted to acquire KUNC in Greeley from the University of Northern Colorado, but after significant local opposition, KUNC was sold to a local community group which still operates it and KJAC (music service "The Colorado Sound"). There's some overlap in coverage between KUNC and CPR. Some of CPR's non-talk networks also operate in parts of KUNC's coverage area.

Going way back in time, I recall that KLUM (now KJLU) at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., was an NPR member station in the 1970s, carrying "All Things Considered" (as did KBIA in nearby Columbia, of course). At some point in the first half of the 1980s (I don't remember exactly when), KLUM dropped that affiliation to focus on jazz and urban-contemporary music.

 

[Gregg.]

This says something about our country under Trump. Conservative parties in other English speaking countries have consistently attacked the state-owned broadcasting company. BBC in the U.K., CBC in Canada, ABC in Australia. There are always right-wing politicians who say the government shouldn't own a broadcasting service. Some of those politicians likely have donors who'd love to get their hands on the national networks for a discounted price. But in all those places, the BBC, CBC, ABC, etc. continues.

However, in the U.S. the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have succeeded. While NPR and PBS were never exactly like the BBC or CBC, they functioned as a source of quality news and enlightened programming. We shouldn't get into a political debate here about government ownership. But this move was not just about cutting costs. In a multi-trillion dollar budget, the CPB was a minor expenditure. The main goal was to attack a broadcasting service that people on the right don't like.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

This says something about our country under Trump. Conservative parties in other English speaking countries have consistently attacked the state-owned broadcasting company. BBC in the U.K., CBC in Canada, ABC in Australia. There are always right-wing politicians who say the government shouldn't own a broadcasting service. Some of those politicians likely have donors who'd love to get their hands on the national networks for a discounted price. But in all those places, the BBC, CBC, ABC, etc. continues.

However, in the U.S. the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have succeeded. While NPR and PBS were never exactly like the BBC or CBC, they functioned as a source of quality news and enlightened programming. We shouldn't get into a political debate here about government ownership. But this move was not just about cutting costs. In a multi-trillion dollar budget, the CPB was a minor expenditure. The main goal was to attack a broadcasting service that people on the right don't like.

True we can go down every detail about public broadcasting but it does not matter with this group.

 

[ted chittenden]

There are two NPR stations in Los Angeles. KPCC (licensed to Pasadena City College but operated by Southern California Public Radio as "LAist") also has three full-power satellites in Redlands, Coachella, and Ojai, plus translators in Palm Springs and Santa Barbara and three on-channel boosters in West Los Angeles and Santa Clarita. KCRW, licensed to Santa Monica City College, has five full-power satellites in Indio, Los Osos, Mojave, Oxnard and Santa Barbara, plus translators in Beaumont, Borrego Springs, Fillmore, Gorman, Ojai, Twentynine Palms, Goleta, Lemon Grove and China Lake.

Between the two of them, NPR is well represented all the way from the Central Coast down to KPBS' coverage area.

It should be noted here that @fybush got it right. @SomeRadioGuy had argued that full power public radio stations that went under didn't get taken over by other full-power stations or translators. I showed the opposite occurring by citing some examples of larger full power public radio stations taking over smaller stations and making them part of their networks. @fybush reminded me (and I had forgotten about it) that when K-Love had taken over the public outlet at 90.7 mHz in West Palm Beach, the Miami NPR outlet got EMF to have it placed as both one of its HD channels and to have a translator inside the commercial sector of the FM band to carry the station's signal.

It is possible that this may happen less often in the future as the now-defunct CPB is no longer providing funds to assist mergers of this type. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[TheBigA]

There are always right-wing politicians who say the government shouldn't own a broadcasting service.

As we've said, the federal govt doesn't own any domestic broadcasting service. However a number of conservative states own radio & TV stations.

 

[RuralFred]

Here is a brief list of formerly NPR-affiliated stations that no longer carry NPR programs, specifically the network's news programs:

KHCC (plus KHCD and KHCT) licensed to Hutchinson, KS--Dropped NPR news with its June 23, 2025 schedule. While two of the stations are in towns/cities with alternatives readily available, the station licensed to Salina does not yet have an alternative source for this programming.
WLRH--Huntsville, AL. The new schedule without the NPR programming began on October 1, 2025, with the demise of the CPB. There is a mostly R&B station in town that carries an hour of "Morning Edition," but nobody else carries "All Things Considered."

Mississippi Public radio is scheduled to discontinue carrying all NPR programming in January of 2026, and South Carolina Public Radio is scheduled to roll back its NPR programming around the same date (although the latter has said in the past that it will keep "Morning Edition," and "All Things Considered.")

With the removal of CPB funding, I believe there will be others, particularly after January of 2026 so I'm hoping this thread will remain open for anybody else to share if other NPR stations are dropping their NPR news programming.

Radio Kansas, aka KHCC left NPR way before the claw back.

In 2022, changes in NPR's pricing scheme[3] led Radio Kansas to leave NPR, substituting BBC and APM news shows in the same dayparts. via Wikipedia and I live nearby.

 

[RuralFred]

Here is a brief list of formerly NPR-affiliated stations that no longer carry NPR programs, specifically the network's news programs:

KHCC (plus KHCD and KHCT) licensed to Hutchinson, KS--Dropped NPR news with its June 23, 2025 schedule. While two of the stations are in towns/cities with alternatives readily available, the station licensed to Salina does not yet have an alternative source for this programming.
WLRH--Huntsville, AL. The new schedule without the NPR programming began on October 1, 2025, with the demise of the CPB. There is a mostly R&B station in town that carries an hour of "Morning Edition," but nobody else carries "All Things Considered."

Mississippi Public radio is scheduled to discontinue carrying all NPR programming in January of 2026, and South Carolina Public Radio is scheduled to roll back its NPR programming around the same date (although the latter has said in the past that it will keep "Morning Edition," and "All Things Considered.")

With the removal of CPB funding, I believe there will be others, particularly after January of 2026 so I'm hoping this thread will remain open for anybody else to share if other NPR stations are dropping their NPR news programming.

In 2022, changes in NPR's pricing scheme[3] led Radio Kansas to leave NPR, substituting BBC and APM news shows in the same dayparts.

Radio Kansas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

KHCC leaving NPR had nothing to do with the claw back.

 

[ted chittenden]

Radio Kansas, aka KHCC left NPR way before the claw back.

In 2022, changes in NPR's pricing scheme[3] led Radio Kansas to leave NPR, substituting BBC and APM news shows in the same dayparts. via Wikipedia and I live nearby.

Thank you for the correction. I had been checking the station on and off and using the program schedules provided by Kevin A. Kelley at

PublicRadioFan.com

Directory of public radio stations with streaming audio, featuring a program schedule database for hundreds of public radio stations.

www.publicradiofan.com

as a guide for what the KHCC stations were doing. But (as Kevin notes himself), his own list is not always up-to-date. So, thank you again for the correction.