University of Missouri splits with NPR stations. Will other universities follow suit?

Early radio stations were often run by college engineering professors, but nearly a century later, some schools are finding public radio no longer aligns with their mission.

Two schools in the University of Missouri System announced Monday they will begin the process of transferring the licenses of their National Public Radio-affiliated stations to nonprofits.

KCUR and Classical KC, managed by the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), and radio stations affiliated with Saint Louis Public Radio (STLPR), hosted by University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), say their transition to independent, nonprofit status could take up to three years.

UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal says the move “will allow the University of Missouri System to focus on its highest priorities of education and research while giving the community-based radio stations the flexibility to better navigate an increasingly dynamic and competitive media landscape,” according to a school press release.

The move enables the radio stations to focus on their own missions, added UMSL Chancellor Kristin Sobolik: “The move to independence allows STLPR to chart its own course while staying true to its mission of providing high-quality journalism and community service.”

A precedented move 

It’s not the first time a university has elected to part ways with public radio.

KCUR General Manager Sarah Morris noted Iowa Public Radio (IPR), which partners with KCUR, transitioned away from the University of Iowa in 2022. 

IPR Executive Director Myrna Johnson said at the time, “The universities are looking to focus on their core mission but they also have a goal, as we do, to ensure the network that they created lives on and continues to thrive.” 

The university had ended funding for the station two years earlier, which amounted to nearly $875,000 in 2020. Pandemic-induced budget constraints were cited as the main reason. 

For the University of Missouri, one station, based at the main Columbia campus, will remain, since it is connected to the journalism program.

“Its mission is directly tied to education as the training ground for students in the MU School of Journalism,” said a UMKC press release.

Why do colleges have NPR stations in the first place? 

Over half of NPR’s more than 1,000 member stations are “licensed to, or are affiliated with, colleges or universities,” according to the organization. 

A survey by The Lion reveals that 9 of the 11 Missouri-based NPR stations are affiliated with universities.

The institutional connection is in large part because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the parent entity of NPR and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), was essentially formed out of an organization of college broadcasters that began in 1925, during the infancy of radio.

At that time, radio broadcasting was largely the work of engineering professors, and few Americans had radio receivers.

Is public radio worth it? 

Missouri’s move coincides with renewed nationwide scrutiny of the value and neutrality of public broadcasting. 

Last year, NPR CEO Katherine Maher faced backlash for calling “truth” a distraction in a resurfaced video from a 2021 TED Talk, given a few months after she left her role as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation.

“Perhaps for our most tricky disagreements, seeking the truth and seeking to convince others of the truth might not be the right place to start,” she said. “In fact, our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.

“That is not to say that the truth doesn’t exist or to say that the truth isn’t important. Clearly the search for the truth has led us to do great things … [but] one reason we have such glorious chronicles to the human experience and all forms of culture is because we acknowledge there are many different truths.” 

Her comments have become the rallying cry of Elon Musk to defund public broadcasting. Musk leads President Donald Trump’s effort to cut government waste, dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“Defund NPR. It should survive on its own,” Musk posted to X on Feb. 4, sharing the offending video clip of Maher’s talk. 

Musk’s post came the day after the chair of the House DOGE Subcommittee, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, announced a March hearing to investigate “systemically biased content” from NPR and PBS. 

In a letter, Greene asks Maher to testify at the hearing about “why federal funds should be used for public radio – particularly the sort of content produced by NPR.”