Senate Dems Unveil Spot Criticizing GOP Over Rural Radio Funding Cuts.

The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is set to release a new radio ad today that takes aim at Republicans over significant funding cuts to rural radio stations, according to a report by The Hill.

The ad highlights the GOP’s decision to slash more than $1 billion from public broadcasting as part of their recent rescissions package.

“Thank you for listening to your local radio station. But stations like these might not be around for long,” a narrator says in the 30-second ad. “Last month in D.C., Republican Senators cut radio funding, voting to end weather alerts, community news and our way to stay connected,” the narrator continued. “Rural America relies on radio. But Republican politicians left us behind.”

They added, “We can’t trust them to fight for us.”

The ads are airing in recognition of National Radio Day, and they’re expected to run in rural stations in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Senate Democrats see potential pick-up opportunities in those states next year.

“Rural communities rely on local radio to stay connected on everything from local news to lifesaving alerts about severe weather — but Republican Senators left them behind,” Maeve Coyle, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), said in a statement.

“Republican senators will be forced to explain to their constituents why they’re robbing the programs that support their communities in order to pay for a giveaway to billionaires,” she added. 

Last month, President Trump signed a rescissions package that rolls back roughly $9 billion in funding previously approved by Congress. The cuts target programs including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which supports NPR, PBS, and their affiliates, as well as international aid initiatives. CPB alone is facing more than $1 billion in reductions.

While federal funding represents a smaller share of NPR and PBS’s overall budgets, rural stations have raised concerns that the cuts will hit them especially hard, as they rely more heavily on federal support to operate.

Contending with the cuts, the CPB announced it would begin to shut down.