Senate Democrats launch radio ad attacking GOP over cuts to rural radio funding

The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is launching a new radio ad Wednesday attacking Republicans for slashing funding for rural radio stations as a part of more than $1 billion Republicans made in cuts to public broadcasting in their recissions 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, which was first shared with The Hill.  

“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 being aired in recognition of National Radio Day, and they’re expected to run in rural stations in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, all of which Senate Democrats are eyeing as potential pick-up opportunities 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. 

President Trump signed a recissions package last month, which rescinds around $9 billion Congress had previously approved for funding for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB), which helps fund NPR and PBS and its affiliates, and global aid programs. CPB is contending with more than $1 billion in cuts alone.  

Federal funding makes up a smaller percentage of the money NPR and PBS rely on, but rural stations have already warned it will impact them more severely since it makes up a higher proportion of their overall funding. 

Republicans have attacked NPR and PBS, arguing they’re liberally biased and their programs push “radical left positions,” which its leaders have pushed back on. 

Contending with the cuts, the CPB announced it would begin to shut down, with its president Patricia Harrison saying in a statement “we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations.”