Chattanooga’s public radio station is looking to make up an approximately $89,000 shortfall or it will have to potentially consider cutting programming or other services, according to station leadership.
This comes more than a year after the Trump administration announced major federal cuts to public media and just days after WUTC’s fall fund drive ended, raising $86,000 — or 49% — of its $175,000 goal.
“I would say funding is what keeps me up at night,” general manager Susan Lazenby said Thursday. “I think we have a lot of positive things going on at the station, but without the federal support, it makes it really complicated to pay bills.”
The financial pressures date to July 2025, when Congress approved President Donald Trump’s request to cut $1.1 billion in previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributed federal funds to public radio and broadcasting stations nationwide. Trump signed the measure into law July 24 of that year.
For the local affiliate, this amounts to approximately $126,000 in annual revenue that is gone, Lazenby said, and it’s not clear if or when it’s coming back. That equates to 20% of the organization’s total annual budget, she said.