State funding cuts could have big impact on rural radio in Va.

Newsleader.com takes a look at how state funding cuts would affect a community radio network in rural Virginia, where in some areas the stations provide the only daily source of news for residents. “If we get a big funding cut, there’re just so many things that we wouldn’t be able to offer,” says Diane Buzzard, g.m. of the Allegheny Mountain Radio Network. “We wouldn’t be able to stay on the air every day. We’d probably have to limit our news feed, we’d probably have to eliminate our part-time news reporters and maybe our full-time news reporter. It would be devastating.” Virginia Gov. Robert McConnell has proposed zeroing out state funding for public broadcasting, but Democrats in the state Senate are trying to thwart his request.