Warning: This could be a real emergency – at least as far as emergency situations are concerned.
A recently repaid nonprofit that distributed federal funds to US public media stations is warning another victim when it closes next month.
In 2022, Congress created the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program. It aims to support stations in rural, tribal and other underserved communities and improve warning systems that tell people about evacuation orders, amber alerts, tornado warnings and more.
It approved $136 million over three years for the program. However, CPB, which manages grants, Closed on September 30th After Congress and President Donald Trump I got a refund in July.
It could leave millions of untouched millions with grants awarded but not yet paid to the station. Dozens of projects It meant saving lives in an emergency. In July, floods in Texas killed at least 136 people, tragically revealing the need for a robust, redundant warning system in many areas. Uneven mobile phone reception and There is no siren system.
Public media is often at the forefront of emergency communications and can reach areas with unreliable cell acceptance or broadband connections.
“We’re excited to be able to offer a great deal of support for our customers,” said Tami Graham, executive director of KSUT-FM in Ignacio, Colorado. This has reached around 300,000 people in four tribes and five counties in the four corner regions of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. The area is prone to wildfires and flash flooding.
“If they can’t get an emergency alert on their phones, they don’t have good cell service because they don’t have good cell service,” Graham said, “Then the radio is really that.”
“One Two Punch” for Stations
Money for the Next Generation Warning Systems Program will be handled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nearly 60 years of entities leaking federal dollars to 1,500 public television and radio stations Nationwide.
Refund Style Grants can be used to upgrade equipment, expand alerts, or receive training. The station was in great need of improvements. Nearly 270 were applied in the first round, with 44 awards totaling $21.6 million. The second round of $48 million pulled out 175 applications.
In February, KSUT was awarded a grant of $537,288, improving seven of its failed decades-old tower sites. “It’s a kind of duct tape and adhesive, and a lot of the equipment on these tower sites,” Graham said.
Money covers the additional generators, solar panels and batteries, leaving them broadcast during power outages. Also, there are remote management systems to repair sites from afar in harsh winters, if some are only reachable by Snowmobile.
A few days after signing the grant agreement, KSUT received the order that was stopped later FEMA has stopped spendingwhich of CPB failed Not frozen. In April, they were told that the station could be reopened, but in May another suspension order was received.
Now shuttering the CPB, the company told the station they don’t know how the work will be refunded. Graham said the council was being wiped out. Public media is $1.1 billionLosing money due to the warning system felt like a “one-two punch.”
“It’s really frustrating because there’s nothing partisan about emergency warnings in rural areas,” she said. “It’s just a basic need.”
Vulnerability to climate dangers
One reason why public media stations sought NGWS grants was to improve the infrastructure of diseases that were not designed for more extreme climates.
KVPR-FM in Fresno, California has been aired twice over the past five years as extreme weather and wildfires knocked out power to the transmitter. The generator at the site ran out of fuel and the crew couldn’t reach it to fill it up.
“These are the exact kind of events that listeners need to receive emergency alerts, but they are events that make our site vulnerable and prevent them from sending out alerts.”
KVPR won a $38,000 grant to install a backup transmitter that it already owns, but a suspension order was placed just before it placed its bid. The results extend beyond the listening area of KVPR. This is one of two lead stations that alert other broadcasters in the six-county area of the San Joaquin Valley.
The project is put on hold, and Moore said he hopes that wildfires will not damage the site this season. “We’ll be airing for months.”
I’m waiting for a response from FEMA
Grant Program Disruption occurs Experts have been warned for several months Cuts in staff and funding at FEMA have undermined the country’s disaster resilience. Since January, FEMA has lost staff, cut programs and slowed spending, experts say It undermines disaster preparedness and recovery preparedness.
CPB refused to be interviewed for this story. but In last week’s statementit called on FEMA to “consider liability for payment of funds; otherwise, most of everything from FY22 and FY23 and FY24 will not be diversified.”
This month FEMA opened its 2025 NGWS application in states and tribes in place of CPB. The application was It’s only open for 9 days He said only five winners, each receiving up to $8 million, will be selected.
FEMA did not answer questions about whether to distribute the funding itself that has already been awarded. Stations like Wyoming PBS, which won a $2.26 million grant to replace 39 equipment, have not put initial work at risk, according to CEO Joanna Kail.
Colorado’s KSUT hopes to pay it back for the $13,000 that someone has already spent on a transmitter that they just need to replace. However, the rest of the project is pending.
“We crossed something like duct tape, glue and fingers crossed, and the tower’s site remains resilient,” Graham said. “Even though it’s aged devices.”
