COMMENTARY:
I spent the earliest years of my life in New Mexico’s Bootheel, about as far south and west as you can go without entering Mexico or Arizona. To say it was isolated is an understatement. The nearest tiny town, Rodeo, was a short drive by car, but for a kid, it was much farther.
For my brother and me, our only glimpse of the world beyond our remote patch of desert came in the form of books, magazines and the family TV, powered by an over-the-airwaves antenna. It was the ‘80s, after all. Our TV received only four signals – ABC, NBC, CBS and KUAT – a PBS affiliate out of Tucson. We’d cycle through all of them, but we’d routinely land on this public media station as our channel of choice. Its programming conveyed an oh-so-special magic. “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Sesame Street” felt like safe places in a world that often felt confusing. “Reading Rainbow,” hosted by the illustrious Levar Burton, helped develop and encourage my growing love for reading. These shows struck a wonderful balance between education and entertainment. And they taught not only classroom-like lessons but concepts that are just as important, like kindness and compassion.
We’d rush through the front door every day after school to tune in to “Mathnet,” which turned one of my least favorite subjects into a mystery. And who can forget “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?,” the game show whose sensational, globetrotting main character stole famous landmarks while teaching history and geography? A locally produced program taught us about the ecology of the Sonoran Desert.
When I moved to Las Cruces in the 2000s to attend New Mexico State University, KRWG became the public media station I tuned into for news. I recall listening in during some of the defining moments of the decade. The 9/11 attacks. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The onset of the Great Recession.
For a summer job during college, I lived in Mayhill, a tiny community in the mountains east of Cloudcroft. This place, like so many others across New Mexico, was incredibly remote. The mobile home I temporarily called home received exactly one radio station: KENW-FM out of Portales. The signal reached me from a repeater station in Maljamar. Though I often worked solo, tuning in somehow made the long summer feel less lonely.
I doubt I’ll fully be able to quantify the positive impact public media had on me as a child. Early childhood researchers have come to realize just how crucial our youngest years are to healthy brain development. And public media offered a curious kid like me – despite being an hour’s drive from the nearest small city – a wealth of programming that was age-appropriate and educational. While the shows have changed, these public media stations remain dedicated to their unique mission. Broadband internet can sometimes fill gaps, by offering alternative ways to access similar content, but we have an access crisis in New Mexico’s rural areas, where infrastructure lags. Even when the internet is available, it’s often not affordable to families in poverty.
Public media has a mission that is decidedly different from that of commercial enterprises. A key focus is to serve rural, tribal and low-income communities, places commercial stations often ignore because they don’t equate to profits.
This summer, Congress and President Trump decimated the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds substantial portions of the public media stations I’ve mentioned above. Rural stations serve communities that are already lacking in infrastructure and public investment. These cuts add insult to injury. Some stations may go dark.
I’m incredibly disappointed in the federal government’s lack of foresight. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has called a special session for Oct. 1 to include consideration of financial support for public media. I hope lawmakers will genuinely work across party lines to support these stations, especially for the benefit of rural and tribal New Mexicans.
Diana Alba Soular is a project coordinator for the New Mexico Local News Fund, a nonprofit supporting access to local news statewide. Alba Soular's opinions are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.