University of Texas’ KTEP El Paso (88.5) and the El Paso Community Foundation are reportedly in discussions about the future of the public radio station’s management, staff, programming and long-term operations, following its loss of federal funding in 2025.

KTEP, which became El Paso’s first FM station in 1950, is a longtime NPR affiliate and currently features news, talk and jazz and classical music, including locally- and NPR-produced programs.

Both UT El Paso VP for Marketing and Communications Lucas Roebuck and El Paso Community Foundation President and CEO Eric Pearson have confirmed both sides are in talks, according to El Paso Matters, but pressed for detail, Pearson said “there is nothing to discuss at this point.”

Any change to KTEP’s operational agreement would need to go to the University of Texas System Board of Regents, who hold the station’s broadcast license and will hold their regular quarterly meeting Aug. 12-13 in Austin.

While reasons for such a change have not been made clear, Congress’ passing of the Rescissions Act, which canceled $1.1 billion in federal funding for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, has made KTEP’s financial situation more difficult, as past support from UTEP and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounted for two-thirds or more of the station’s funding. “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,” UTEP Department of Communication former chair, Richard Pineda, says.

While KTEP has not reported any staff reductions, an employee told EPM he was aware of discussions about the station’s future but frustrated by the lack of transparency. “We don’t know if we’ll have jobs on September 1,” he says, referring to the start of the station’s new fiscal year.

Keith Pannell, a retired UTEP professor of chemistry and biochemistry and longtime supporter of KTEP, who has hosted the station’s “Science Studio” for nearly 40 years, says talk of a possible management change has gone on for years, but from speaking to people close to the discussions, he says, “I began to realize that everybody involved in (a possible change) wants the station to thrive. That’s the bottom line.”