Coast Community Radio is among the most valued organizations in the Lower Columbia region. Especially through its flagship KMUN station, it plays important roles in bringing local people together. We must work to ensure it continues to do so.
As we reported in February, along with other public radio outlets, it faces the threat of losing federal funding, as well as a threat to its Federal Communications Commission license.
What was then a somewhat hypothetical concern about funding has crystallized in recent days as the Trump administration plans to ask “Congress [to] rescind $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the taxpayer-backed company that funds public media organizations,” according to the Washington Post. Most of this funding goes to help local stations finance news gathering and pay for programming.
Taking this money back wouldn’t be a death knell for KMUN, but it would hurt. Coast Community Radio receives a hefty 24% of its yearly budget from a community service grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the single largest source of funds for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.
NPR and PBS have been threatened with loss of federal support in previous presidential terms, but never with the same degree of hostility. Calling on congressional Republicans to defund them, President Donald Trump referred to NPR and PBS as “radical left monsters.” We all filter reality through our own personal prisms, but “monsters” is laying it on pretty thick.
If anything, the worst KMUN could be accused of is being local to such an extent that news junkies turn to Oregon Public Broadcasting or radio streaming options for constant national and international coverage. OPB is a better fit for Trump’s nightmare of progressive programming bias — but even so, it is a fairly accurate reflection of Portland’s overall political leanings.
Should taxpayers have to contribute some minuscule portion of our taxes to support news reporting that doesn’t fit our ideology? A faction in Congress has answered “no” for decades, only to have some Republicans join Democrats to reject defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, seeing it as well-intentioned and useful, even if sometimes left-leaning. That may again be the outcome this time.
But never in modern history has a president insisted on such toe-the-line loyalty from lawmakers. This could be when taxpayers stop helping pay for public media. A briefing document prepared for station directors last fall likened the immediate elimination of funding to “an asteroid striking without warning,” going on to say, “It is the highest risk scenario especially in a time in which the media ecosystem is rapidly changing.”
Media expert Mike Blinder of E&P magazine predicts that broadcast news as we know it today, including public radio and television, will have largely ceased to exist within five years.
Coast Community Radio can be the exception. While it buys six weekly NPR programs, KMUN is about as detached as any station can be from any real or perceived bias on the part of the national organization. It also has been careful to avoid any mistakes that could endanger its broadcasting license.
Much of 2025’s federal funding has already been distributed, providing a cushion for stations to economize and raise local funds for 2026 and beyond. A report prepared for a 2011 funding threat predicted “it would galvanize public radio supporters, leading to a sudden surge in donations to stations.”
We should all begin ramping up our financial and political support for KMUN, a station well grounded in our communities, one that comes through in good times and during disasters.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The late, honey-voiced Wayne Downing, who was among the Chinook Observer’s most popular columnists, was one of many Pacific County residents who have contributed to KMUN’s community spirit over the decades.