A ‘bridge fund’ buys time for public media — but it may not be enough | CNN Business

Gerald Rodriguez, the general manager of an NPR affiliate in rural Colorado, expected federal funding for public media to shrink. He didn’t expect it to disappear almost overnight. “What we thought would happen is that they would just cut the funding a little bit,” Rodriguez told CNN. “But, no, they totally gutted it out completely. We didn’t expect that.” His station, KRZA, is the only public radio station in Colorado’s San Luis Valley; the next closest station is in Colorado Springs, nearly three hours away. With a staff of just two people — Rodriguez and one other colleague — the station provides local news and weather to residents across the rural region, including many who lack reliable internet access. During disasters, he added, the station often becomes a primary source of information. That mission became much harder in July, when federal lawmakers clawed back funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating roughly half of KRZA’s budget. “It basically hurt all these little stations like us,” Rodriguez said. “We’re two people doing 100 jobs.” Across the country, dozens of small public stations faced similarly steep cuts. Within