Universities Should Get Out of the Radio Business

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | October 22, 2026 | David B. McGarry

[karpov]

Hardly anybody thinks better of themselves than journalists—their foremost competition being, perhaps, academics. The cacophony of self-congratulation reaches a peak in state-funded journalism; the fact of the venture’s unprofitability seems to testify to its virtue. When Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)—the financier of the likes of NPR and PBS—in 2025, the kind of person who considers it nobler to rip money from the wallets of taxpayers than to get it by providing a valuable good or service was made livid. (Another kind of person will be unsurprised to learn that, with the defunding of CPB, the industry has self-adjusted and private donors, newly needed in the absence of federal funds, have contributed funds to save what they believe to be valuable journalism.)

Public media organizations have not, however, been severed completely from the state: according to a 2025 report from the University of Vermont, “50 percent of all public media organizations [NPR and/or PBS affiliates] are licensed to a college or university.” I must confess that I find the entanglement of press and state disquieting—in principle, categorically, in any form or degree, large or small. In this I consider myself a quintessential, inveterate American.

That “[t]he liberty of the press is essential to the security of the state” was a premise written as self-evident into the Massachusetts constitution of 1780, a blueprint for American constitution-making, by John Adams. The essence of that liberty cannot but become alloyed, polluted, weakened by the public grain dole. The press and the government have distinct roles in the American Experiment. Copulation between the two—even minor bouts—produces a rash of institutional distraction, turning the thoughts of journalists from their journalism toward other, extrinsic concerns and interests. Force is one mechanism of state control; funding, a spoonful or more of sugar, is another.

---

TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college; radio

[frank ballenger]

One exception. The Hillsdale College radio station led by the guest host for Steve Gruber’s conservative talk show. Scot Bertram. Although he has a National Review podcast he is 100% Trumper and investigates Leftist stories they wish wouldn’t come to light.

https://www.hillsdale.edu/faculty/scot-bertram/

[Steely Tom]

In the mid-80s (1985, I think) when the Reagan administration tried to zero out PBS, the local NPR stations (there were many of them in Philadelphia, as in most places) all went anti-Reagan 24/7. The news shows, All Things Considered, and Morning Edition, which had already been anti-Reagan, carrying Iran Contra stories in a manner reminiscent of Watergate 12 years before. That is to say, at least one story in every segment, and at least one story at at the top and bottom of hour news digest.

Even my home town had at least two NPR stations audible, from the local public broadcasting facility, and from SUNY Oswego.

If their funding is threatened, they will go into full survival propaganda mode, 24-7.

[chajin]

Way back in the early 70s when I was at Penn State, I was one of the classical music DJs at the university NPR station. NPR was leftist then and it’s leftist now, but I made sure the music was good, for my semester at the microphone.

[kawhill]

NPR and PBS. I liked Roy Underhill and the The Woodwright’s Shop.

[EnderWiggin1970]

But Hillsdale is famously against taxpayer funding, so that is an exception to the whole point the article is making.

Education is not governing, and funding it is a violation of the 9th and 10th amendments at the Federal level. So we need to be pressing forward with cutting all financial support including loans and subsidies, from educational institutions. It's another area of widespread corruption and profligacy and is funding literal insanity in too many cases.

[frank ballenger]

You’re right. I was wrong.

[Brian Griffin]

“Education is not governing, and funding it is a violation of the 9th and 10th amendments at the Federal level”

The armies and navies that Congress can raise under Article I, Section 8 need weapons and C3 systems.

Weapons and military grade communications systems quite often need to be designed by engineers. Their education can be funded under the “necessary and proper” provision.

Brian Griffin, BSEE, NDSL recipient

[HIDEK6]

Educrats are basically lazy.

[EnderWiggin1970]

That makes no sense. The Founding Fathers and the first elected officials of the new US needed to be able to write in order to govern, but that doesn’t mean they created government-funded schools to ensure civil servants were literate.

[EnderWiggin1970]

Their education can be funded under the “necessary and proper” provision.

Keep in mind you are relying on the doctrinaire Leftist "interpretation" of the Constitution. Under this reading anything up to and including genociding entire populations of undesirables can be rationalized as "necessary and proper." The Soviet Union and every other leftist state has had constitutional boilerplate about religious freedom and so forth, that has been absolutely denied in practice because of this rationalization that any actions their leaders deem as 'proper' is thus constitutional.

The reality is that clauses like this in the constitution do NOT create new, open-ended powers, they only refer back to the powers expressly delegated to the government by the people.

[TBP]

WRFH! The Hillsdale College station. My alma mater.

Unfortunately, WRFH does not presently stream, though I’m told they’re working on it (I asked because I wanted to stream the football games.)

[TBP]

WRFH! The Hillsdale College station. My alma mater.

Unfortunately, WRFH does not presently stream, though I’m told they’re working on it (I asked because I wanted to stream the football games.)

[TBP]

Their education can be funded under the “necessary and proper” provision.

No, it can't. Federal education funding is neither necessary nor proper.