support them. Yeah. >> All right. Lily Wagner,
thanks very much. >> Thank you.
>> In northern Wisconsin, the only tribal radio
station in the state won't see federal funding from
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting after this
week. Following the cuts, 88.9 FM says it will
explore unconventional ways air in collaboration with
Ikt, formerly Indian Country Today. Here and now
reporter Erika Ayisi visited Woodland Community
Radio in Hayward to learn more. We should mention
Wisconsin Public Media also lost CPB funding. Here's
Erika's report. >> And we're going to miss
that greatly. 40% plus now between 40 and 45% of our
funding. That's a bunch of money is going away.
>> Jeffrey Jones, host of the afternoon show, wants
listeners to know how much federal funding would be
lost due to the vote to defund the Corporation for
>> Now, more than ever, we need our listeners. So
again. drive asking listeners to
hear his he'd for donations. >> We have an extra week of
of coming to you, our listeners, to ask for your
support to expand. >> Kaardal Houdek, general
manager of Woodland Community Radio, says the
station needs generous support to keep Wisconsin's
only tribal radio station on the airwaves.
>> For next year, we're going to have to look for
approximately $230,000 to to maintain what we have
going. >> Received funding
distributed by CPB. It was defunded in July as part of
President Donald Trump's Rescission Act of 2025. The
administration took back $1.1 billion in
Pre-allocated CPB funds, threatening the operation
of 57 tribal stations across the country. Like
88.9 FM in Hayward. >> It kind of breaks my
heart to see it, but that's what's going on in this
world today. And we're we get the repercussions of
that. >> Houdek says. W.o.j. B
self generates funds through listener donations,
underwriting and leasing their radio towers.
>> We actually made over $250,000 last year on our
own. >> But Harbeck says the
rural radio station needs more.
>> We're not going to be able to make it with
listener donors and underwriting together.
Still not enough. >> JB is on the Lac Courte
Oreilles Ojibwe Nation Reservation. Houdek says
they went on the air in 1982 out of activism
amongst the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe tribal
members. >> The creators of the
station were concerned about not having a voice
and not being heard. >> Boat landings were
spears or fishing are packed with protesters,
cops and reporters. >> In the late 80s, Harbeck
says Ojb educated listeners about tribal sovereignty
and ceded territory during the Walleye Wars.
Spearfishing controversy. >> You're going to take
everything that's allowed to anybody else, and that's
not right. >> A lot of people
misunderstood or didn't care to understand the the
treaty, the hunting and fishing rights of the
Ojibwe people in, in northern Wisconsin.
>> Welcome. Welcome to Ojb. >> Thank you. And today,
Horlbeck says listeners, tune in from the Northwoods
and beyond. Operating at 100,000W, reaching nearly
100 miles in every direction.
>> We just barely get up to superior. But if you get up
on the hill in Duluth, we reach that far. We'll reach
down, you know, maybe as far as Amory, as far east
as easily Park Falls. >> Hubbard says he's
hopeful that his conversations with Native
Public Media, a Native American based public
broadcasting organization, will help generate funds.
>> I think they could come up with something
significant. >> As he waits for South
Dakota Senator Mike rounds to make good on his promise
with the Trump administration to take $9.4
million of unused climate change money and reallocate
it to certain tribal stations.
>> I think it included the most needy tribes I know.
We made the list. >> A list hasn't been made
public, but Harbeck says the staff and volunteers at
Ojb are up to the challenge. >> I'm Jeff and it's the
afternoon here on reserve. >> And Opportunity.
>> We're broadcasting from Lac Courte Oreilles.
>> To keep their community programing on the airwaves.
>> So we're going to have to do something above and
beyond to generate the funds that we need that are
unconventional to what we're used to doing.
>> Music from Perfume Genius here on B, from the
new one called. >> Reporting from the Lac