New Mexico’s largest nonprofit newsroom and National Public Radio affiliate, KUNM, is proposing a new program schedule to shift more local news segments into primetime listening slots.
The changes could go into effect this spring, pending a review by the KUNM Radio Board on Feb. 3.
“The top line for us is more local news for the most people, that’s why we’re making a program change,” KUNM’s General Manager Jeff Pope said.
The program changes on Wednesday will see an extra hour of “Local News” and “Morning Edition” from 8-9 a.m., with the programs aired during that slot moved to 9-10 a.m. and “Democracy Now!” moving from 4-5 p.m. to 10-11 a.m.
Between 4-7 p.m. will be a mix of “Local News,” “All Things Considered,” “Marketplace” and “The Daily,” three hours that used to be filled by “Democracy Now!” and “All Things Considered.”
On Sundays “This American Life” and “Sunday Special (public affairs)” will be switching time slots with “This American Life” airing from 11 a.m.–12 p.m. and “Sunday Special (public affairs)” from 4–5 p.m. no changes are proposed to the Saturday schedule.
“Performance Today,” which currently airs from 9-11 a.m., will no longer be aired, and “Counterspin,” “This Way Out” and “Tuesday Rotating Public Affairs” will be offered as podcasts only.
“It’s part of a 10-year strategy that we’ve built up to meet the needs for more civic information, more information people can act on in their own communities at a time when the news industry is really struggling to find business models at work,” Pope said.
The station is currently in a public comment period to elicit feedback from listeners on the proposed changes. Members of the public are also given time to speak at Radio Board meetings if they register for the meetings ahead of time on KUNM’s website.
Tristan Clum, the program director of KUNM, said the station extended the public comment period well past the seven days mandated by the KUNM bylaws, as the changes were proposed in December 2025.
“We got some good feedback, but we were hearing from the board and at our December meeting that folks had more questions,” Clum said.
Clum said the station had already heard from approximately 400 listeners during the comment period.
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“It is amazing how passionate people have been. We get the sense that — in tallying — we’ve got majority support for the change, but we can’t ignore the folks in the middle who have a lot to say, and it will be part of what we consider in the future as we continue the process of evaluating what we do all the time and making changes,” Clum said.
Due to the dissolving of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on Jan. 5, KUNM lost 12% of its funding, Pope said. With the programming change, the station hopes to grow their audience and ensure that communities are getting the local news they need, Pope said.
“Our role is to be an anchor in a broader ecosystem, and to keep doing what we do best and making sure that issues that can impact local communities — it goes out both on our broadcast, on our on-demand audio,” Pope said. “Everything we produce is written down, and then we have very active social and digital channels.”
Most people in the state face barriers to accessing local news, according to a 2025 New Mexico Local News Fund report.
“We’re always telling folks how awesome listeners are. Public radio listeners — they are definitely passionate. And in our case — for sure — they’re engaged,” Clum said.
Jaden McKelvey-Francis is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on X @jadenmckelvey
