Before the sun comes up in Shreveport, Louisiana, Jeff Ferrell arrives at the city’s National Public Radio station and turns on the lights.
Ferrell is the news director of Red River Radio and its only full-time news employee. He’s also the on-air host, field reporter, writer and sound editor. Everything that happens in KDAQ’s control room, he does it solo.
From the time he wakes up at 4 a.m., Ferrell spends 15-hour days covering the news in three states. The radio station is part of a network that serves East Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Recently, the House approved President Trump’s request to cut funding to NPR.
CBS News 
NPR stations like KDAQ are some of the few sources of news left in the rural region. Often referred to as “news deserts” because of the lack of local news organizations, they would suffer the brunt of the Trump administration’s planned federal funding cuts to public television and radio.
“There are a couple of parishes in Louisiana that have nothing, not even any kind of newspapers,” Ferrell told CBS News. “They’re empty completely. And it’s just like a food desert in an urban area where people can’t get fresh fruit — with us, they can’t get the news.”
Ferrell and Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith say these cuts could have a vital impact on rural communities, especially during the hurricane season when residents rely on public radio broadcasts for life-saving information.
About 19% of Louisiana residents live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census, and 15% don’t have access to the internet. Ferrell said public radio is how many Shreveport residents stay connected to the world. If his station’s funding is cut, there will be less local news service in their area.
“You can’t afford satellite TV, you can’t buy cable, and they’re alone. And so it is a lifeline. And what’s great about this is that they feel connected,” Ferrell said. “Public radio saves lives. The Emergency Broadcast System, without it, people would die.”
Red River Radio General Manager Kermit Poling said the network gets about $160,000 each year from the government. It’s about 15% of their $1 million budget.
“It’s kind of like any nonprofit. You’re always in one form or another asking for donations,” Poling said.
The federal money that Red River Radio receives is part of the $1.1 billion total in proposed cuts for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds to NPR and PBS. NPR and three local stations have joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration over these cuts. A rescissions package to claw back funding for NPR, PBS and international aid approved by the House earlier this month is now headed to the Senate.
The cuts to public broadcasting have been touted by the Trump administration and Republicans as an effort to slash taxpayer funding for news media outlets they accuse of being “liberal” or politically biased in their content. But according to a congressional report obtained by CBS News from Senate Democrats, approximately 60% of the hundreds of radio and television stations that could suffer funding cuts are in Trump-won states.
Rural broadcasters have a harder time raising private funds, and it makes them more vulnerable to the proposed federal funding cuts, the co-chairs of the Public Broadcasting Caucus said earlier this month.
“Public broadcasting represents less than 0.01% of the federal budget, yet its impact reaches every congressional district,” Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei and New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman said in a joint statement. “Cutting this funding will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, but it will dismantle a trusted source of information for millions of Americans.”
