The fight to expand public radio coverage in the Rio Grande Valley has been ongoing for years.

In the Las Lomas Colonia of Rio Grande City, ask Colonias Unidas Founder Blanca Juarez why public radio is important, and she'll tell you it opens up the world to people.

"Get information, the right information," Juarez said.

When she was a migrant worker in California, she first heard Radio Bilingue, a bilingual Latino radio station out of Fresno. They operated nearly 300 stations across the southwest.

"I knew Radio Bilingue since I was over there, since I was young," Juarez said.

She felt Radio Bilingue also gave people a voice.

"We didn't have water. A lot of the colonias, they didn't have electricity," Juarez said.

So when Juarez founded Colonias Unidas, a non-profit that looks after the basic needs and services of people in Starr County, she wanted to bring that radio station to the Valley.

RELATED STORY: Radio Bilingue is the only public radio station in the Valley

In 2009, she started operating Radio Bilingue out of her Starr County organization's headquarters. By 2022, funding became an issue and the California company that she listened to when she was young took over her station.

That funding issue is now a problem Radio Bilingue itself has.

"So that means we have to figure out how much we are going to owe and pay it on our own," Radio Bilingue Owner and Founder Hugo Morales said.

On Friday, Congress cut funding to the corporation for public broadcasting. Morales said his organization will no longer get $240,000 a year.

"What it does impact is royalties that we pay to the artists because we play a lot of the music, Tejano music. The corporation for public broadcasting has been paying those for Radio Bilingue," Morales said.

Radio Bilingue also offers news and information on issues like immigration in English, Spanish and certain indigenous languages from Mexico.

For now, Radio Bilingue KXJT 88.3 FM out of Rio Grande City continues to broadcast loud and clear.