NPR CEO Katherine Maher Discusses Possible Impact Of Lost Federal Funding.

The CEO of National Public Radio said this week that a loss of federal funding would have the greatest effect on the NPR network, which includes 246 member stations and collectively receives about $100 million of the $121 million to $122 million that goes to public radio each year.

“So, the big impact would be on rural stations, stations in geographies that are quite large or complex in order to be able to receive broadcast or infrastructure,” Maher said Wednesday on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” “Costs are very high. You could see some of those stations really having to cut back services or potentially going away altogether.”

Maher told interviewer and host Mary Louise Kelly that the potential absence of government funding doesn’t make the question one of survival. “I think the question is ‘Would we be able to thrive as a national network?’ That is what I am focused on, is we get so much value as public media by being part of a 50-state network that covers 99.7% of the American population,” Maher said. “If federal funding goes away, that network is absolutely at risk, the quality of service, the ability to cover everyone, people who live in what would otherwise be news deserts,” adding that NPR would then be unable to “pull from that richness of our national coverage” if those local newsrooms are lost.

Maher was also challenged with a line of inquiry that’s frequently employed by opponents of public media: Why should tax money support public broadcasting when there are plenty of other news organizations around?

“I think it’s very easy to say that there’s universal coverage because there’s so much content being produced,” Maher explained. “But the reality is there are many places in this country that do not have that kind of access to either cell phone service or high-speed broadband, where radio may be the only way to reach communities with regular access to news… About 20% of Americans live in an area without any other local news coverage other than their local public radio station,” calling it “tremendously important as a public service.”

Earlier this week, the Trump administration took a step toward ending federal funding of NPR and PBS — drafting a memo outlining plans for key members of Congress to eliminate “all” such spending while codifying foreign aid cuts identified by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the New York Post reports.

The administration’s memo accuses both networks of spreading “radical, woke propaganda, disguised as ‘news.’”

The administration says it intends to send the memo to Congress when it reconvenes from recess on April 28. That would open a 45-day window, during which the House and Senate could approve the rescission or allow the money to be restored.