Detroit's WDET loses $300,000 federal grant and adds local music shows

Detroit public radio station WDET lost a federal grant worth nearly $300,000 a year, added local music shows, expanded a weekday program, and started a fundraising drive.

The station launched its Fall On-Air Fundraiser on September 10 and scheduled the drive to run through Sunday, September 20. WDET says the federal grant, worth about $300,000 a year, was its largest single grant and made up about 6% of the station's budget.

The money disappeared after President Donald Trump pushed to cut federal support for public broadcasting. On May 1, 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to stop funding NPR and PBS. Congress later approved Trump's request to take back money that had already been appropriated for the corporation, and Trump signed the Rescissions Act on July 24, 2025.

With those appropriations gone, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board voted in January to dissolve the organization after nearly six decades.

For WDET, the cut meant losing direct federal cash support. The station says remaining corporation funds will continue to cover shared costs such as music licensing and the satellite network used to distribute national programming through December 2027, but the annual grant is no longer available.

WDET Development Director Peter Cohen said the station had planned around that money.

"We had budgeted it," Cohen said. "They rescinded money that had already been allocated. Congress took it back. It was not money we were hoping for. It was money that we had been promised."

Station officials responded by trimming expenses rather than cutting programs. General Manager Mary Zatina said WDET left staff positions unfilled instead of laying off employees.

"We trimmed our budget," Zatina said. "So we have a lot of staff positions not filled."

Associate Director of Revenue Derek Donnellon said the station expects its fiscal 2027 budget to be about $4.9 million. Zatina said that is about $1 million smaller than the previous year.

WDET estimated this spring that it would cost nearly $5.9 million to operate the station this year. Without the federal grant, the station expected to bring in about $5.3 million in cash and revenue during the fiscal year, including more than $3.2 million from listeners. WDET says nearly three-quarters of its spending goes toward personnel costs.

WDET Program Director Adam Fox said the station has not reduced local service and has increased its event programming.

"There really are no guarantees that we'll be able to maintain the level of service without continued investment from the community," Fox said.

The station says about 80% of its programming is produced locally. Its recent schedule changes focus on Detroit music and culture.

Last month, Detroit Public Radio 101.9 FM added two locally hosted weekend music shows. Detroit hip-hop artist Ronnie Euro, known as Phat Kat, began hosting "The Carte Blanche Show" on Saturday nights. Broadcaster and record collector Ralph Valdez returned to the air on Sundays with "Segues."

That same weekend, lifelong Detroiter Kim Hunter took over "This Island Earth," the station's long-running world-music program. Hunter succeeds Ismael Ahmed, who died earlier this year.

WDET also expanded Ryan Patrick Hooper's weekday music show "In the Groove" by one hour during the fundraiser. The station moved the start of its evening music lineup from 8 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Hooper's show mixes new Detroit music with independent and lesser-known artists from outside the city.

WDET produces a two-hour weekday local news and culture show. It also presents concerts and comedy shows, organizes dinners for listeners, offers paid internships to young journalists, and runs the Detroit Radio Information Service. That program reads newspapers, magazines, grocery ads, and books aloud for people who are blind or cannot read standard print.

After the September 20 drive ends, station managers will compare the listener support that came in with the amount the federal grant would have added to the budget.