The University of Texas at El Paso is in conversations with the El Paso Community Foundation about the future of KTEP-FM (88.5), the 100,000-watt radio station that provides the community with a combination of news, talk and an eclectic assortment of music.
It is unclear how a possible transfer of management would affect station personnel, programming or the station’s studio location in the university’s Cotton Memorial Building. KTEP received its license Sept. 14, 1950, and became El Paso’s first FM station.
A station employee who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution said that they were aware of discussions about the station’s future, but were frustrated by the lack of transparency.
“We don’t know if we’ll have jobs on Sept. 1,” the employee said in reference to the start of the new fiscal year.
Longtime KTEP listener and supporter Keith Pannell has hosted “Science Studio” for nearly 40 years. He said that he has heard about a possible change of management for years. While initially leery of a takeover, he said his perspective changed as he spoke to more people close to the discussions.
“I began to realize that everybody involved in (a possible change) wants the station to thrive,” said Pannell, a retired UTEP professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “That’s the bottom line.”
A change in the operational agreement would need to go to the University of Texas System Board of Regents, who hold KTEP’s broadcast license and will have their regular quarterly meeting Aug. 12-13 in Austin. A UT System spokesman directed questions to UTEP.
Lucas Roebuck, the university’s vice president for marketing and communications, and Eric Pearson, president and CEO of the community foundation, did not respond to emailed questions about the potential transfer of management, but acknowledged both sides were talking.
Roebuck said there were ongoing discussions about potential opportunities but had no further comment. Pearson said that both sides have conducted “intermittent conversations” for years.
“When the time is right, we are open to having a conversation with (El Paso Matters), but there is nothing to discuss at this point,” Pearson said in an email.
The reasons for a change are unclear, but the station’s financial situation became more difficult last year after Congress passed the Rescissions Act of 2025, which canceled $1.1 billion in federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
That decision led to the end of the CPB and its Community Service Grants. The lack of funds forced public radio and television stations across the country to reduce staff, slash programming and rely more on donors and underwriting, which is a way groups, people and companies can commercially help a public broadcasting company in exchange for a fleeting on-air recognition.
More than half of the public radio stations in National Public Radio’s network are operated by or affiliated with colleges and universities, NPR has said.
According to Semipublic, a nonprofit website that uses independent data and analysis to follow the public media industry, 550 public media employees across the country lost their jobs from July 18, 2025, through May 27, 2026. KTEP didn’t report any reductions to its staff, most of whom are paid through university funds.
KTEP’s 2024 annual financial report, the most recent one available, said the CPB awarded $178,300 to the station, or about 23% of that year’s budget. Also in 2024, the station earned about $131,500 in fundraising, and $55,000 in business underwriting and grants.
From 2022 through 2024, UTEP provided an average of $401,000 in direct and indirect support. Indirect support could include funds for building operations, utilities, maintenance and grant management.
Over the years, support from UTEP and CPB accounted for two-thirds or more of KTEP’s funding.
Richard Pineda, former chair of UTEP’s Department of Communication, said that the station’s financial situation probably hastened the talks between the university and the community foundation.
“I think the federal cuts to the CPB really threw a wrench in public media everywhere and it sounds like that was no different in El Paso,” said Pineda, who left UTEP a year ago. Today, he directs the Liza and Jack Lewis Center of the Americas at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.
He and Pannell hoped that part of the agreement would stipulate a continued relationship between the academic department, its students, and the radio station. KTEP was long under the Department of Communication, an academic department, but in 2024 it officially moved under the direction of UTEP’s Division of Marketing and Communications, which is an administrative function.
The loss of federal funding was largely driven by longstanding Republican complaints that public media has a liberal bias, an accusation that the public radio and television officials long denied. All nine members of the UT System Board of Regents were appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican.
UT Austin last month fired Debbie Hiott, general manager of KUT Public Media after a conflict about the planning of an inaugural community festival in May. Hiott, a respected journalist with strong community ties, was let go after she publicly challenged the university’s allegations of safety concerns.
Some supporters of the station, which operates inside the university, have said they are concerned about whether KUT’s journalists can operate independently of the UT System and have asked regents to consider transferring the broadcast license to another organization.
Katherine Jewell, a professor of history at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts, said the way public radio and public higher education are funded are under a greater strain due to political scrutiny, less public funding, and changes to technology and demographics.
“It’s hard for institutions that serve the public to make ends meet, so we see a lot of churn at the local level as institutions adapt,” said Jewell, whose research interests include college radio stations.
She said stations such as KTEP, an NPR affiliate since 1971, were operated at universities as a public service with student involvement.
“The impetus really was to keep educational informational radio going,” Jewell said.
“It doesn’t surprise me that there’s a very strong relationship with a community foundation” as a possible future home of a university-based public radio station, she said.
KTEP’s 100,000-watt station’s signal can reach audiences within a 100-mile radius. Among its more popular shows are National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” It also offers listeners an eclectic mix of music genres and news/talk shows purchased from NPR, American Public Media and Public Radio International, as well as some produced at KTEP.
Jewell said this new collaboration could lead to different programming partnerships, event opportunities and enhanced donor lists. She said programming depends on the markets and their needs. The Fitchburg professor said a lot could depend on the community foundation’s mission in KTEP’s case.
The community foundation was founded in 1977. Its mission statement includes providing leadership and resources that will address local challenges and opportunities.
Jewell said one concern could be the loss of news, especially local news, under new management, but she did not think that would be the case with the EPCF because of its mission. Pearson spent more than 15 years in broadcast journalism and public relations before he joined the community foundation in 2004.
“I see that as something potentially positive,” she said.
Jewell does not know if this agreement would lead to a license transfer. The license holder is legally responsible for the station’s upkeep and for meeting FCC requirements. She said the UT Regents may feel that the community foundation will meet whatever obligations are in the agreement such as paperwork, lawyers’ fees and technical requirements.
The Fitchburg professor said some universities with FCC licenses outsource the management of the radio stations to entities without any student affiliation.
Non-commercial educational licenses are set aside to FM frequencies from 88.1 to 91.9. There are specific requirements for content, such as some kind of community or educational public service material, and they cannot sell commercial advertising.
According to the FCC, Texas entities that want to renew their broadcast radio licenses must apply by April 2, 2029. Those licenses will expire Aug. 1, 2029.
Disclosure: El Paso Community Foundation has been a financial supporter of El Paso Matters, which for several years operated as a supporting organization to the foundation. El Paso Matters has been independent of the foundation since Jan. 1, 2025.
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