In The NoCo

The U.S. Senate appears ready to vote on federal funding for public media. Sen. John Hickenlooper has some thoughts

By In The NoCo,

Published July 15, 2025 at 10:15 AM MDT

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Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper, wearing a light-blue patterned button-down shirt and a dark blue-black blazer, gestures with both hands as he speaks in a restaurant

The U.S. Senate this week will likely vote on whether to rescind about $1.1 billion earmarked to support the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the next two years. That money ultimately funds local stations like KUNC and The Colorado Sound, along with NPR and PBS.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives has already voted to kill the funding. President Trump has backed the cuts and threatened to pull his support from any Republicans who oppose them. Republicans occupy 53 out of 100 seats in the Senate.

Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, spoke with Erin O’Toole Tuesday morning about why he supports continued federal funding for public broadcasting at a moment when Republicans want to end it.

By the way: If you’re curious how these cuts would affect KUNC News, we talked about it recently with Michael Arnold, the chief content and audience officer for KUNC and The Colorado Sound.

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS Newshour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC’s new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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