A plan to upgrade the early warning and alert systems in Haines and Skagway is on hold after a federal grant program issued a stop-work order to public radio station KHNS, which was in the middle of ordering equipment for the upgrades.

The now-defunct Next Generation Early Warning System grant program was designed to help public television and radio stations replace and upgrade equipment for alert and warning systems.

It was administered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is set to shut down at the end of September after Congress voted to claw back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting, defunding stations across the country.

KHNS was awarded nearly $90,000 in 2024. The idea was to upgrade its translator system in Skagway, with the goal of increasing coverage in areas that don’t receive a signal, creating a backup system in Skagway that could still broadcast even if Haines’ fails.

It also would have gone toward purchasing a backup generator, as the station’s current generator is nearing the end of its working life, said program director and engineer Marley Horner

Horner said he was able to buy some equipment before the program was shut down, but it cannot be installed without the remaining hardware and funds for an engineer.

“We would need another $10,000 or so to finish the equipment purchases,” he said.

And, we never got the generator.”

Horner said he had been applying for the program since 2022 and was elated when the award finally came through. But just about two weeks after the presidential inauguration, he and other station staff in Alaska say they began getting inconsistent messages about the future of the grant program. First, there was an email reassuring grantees that they would be able to get their funds.

During that window, Horner said the station made its biggest purchase, $30,000 in equipment.

Then, a few days later, Horner said the station got its first notice to stop work from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which said the funds — which came through the Federal Emergency Management Agency — had been frozen and purchases would not be reimbursed.

“I spent the last four months just trying to make sure we got reimbursed,” he said. “We got reimbursed for everything we have spent so far, minus about $2,000 in batteries.”

Horner said KHNS is among a number of stations in Alaska left in the lurch after the cancellation of the program.

Ketchikan’s public radio station, KRBD, was awarded just under $100,000. General manager Mike Gates said the station was only able to spend about $6,000 before the stop-work order came through.

Gates said he waited to order equipment because he didn’t want to spend $90,000 when there was a risk that it would not be reimbursed.

The station needs a new transmitter; he said the current one is 30 years old and he’s not sure they’d be able to find replacement parts if it failed.

At KUCB in Unalaska, general manager Lauren Adams did not wait to order equipment she said is badly needed. The station was awarded $224,000 and she said Aug. 20 that she had managed to spend just under $220,000.

She submitted her last receipts just days before getting a stop-work order.

So far, the station has been reimbursed for about $7,000 of those funds. “I’m very nervous about getting the rest of it,” Adams said. “I’m very hopeful, I’m very optimistic.”

Adams, who said she’s not sure what she’d do if the funds weren’t reimbursed, said she would not have taken the risk if it wasn’t such a critical need.

“We didn’t have backup power in the studio. Every time the power goes out, we have nothing,” she said.

Additionally, the station broadcasts at sea level. Already there have been two tsunami warnings this summer, meaning whoever stays at the station to broadcast emergency messages to everyone else who needs to get to higher ground cannot themselves head to higher ground.

“We got the stuff we need to broadcast from high ground,” Adams said.

Most of the equipment is still in transit, but she said the station is on track to have it fully installed by the end of September.