When Dave Edwards began his one-year tenure as chairman of the National Public Radio board of directors, he had no inkling of the convulsions that were coming.

"No, not at all," Edwards said in a phone conversation last week after days of meetings in Washington about NPR's latest crisis. "I'm not sure that anyone could've predicted what we've gone through in the past 6 months."

Edwards remains general manager of Milwaukee's WUWM-FM (89.7), a job he's held since 1985, despite his stint heading the board. He's been juggling his time during a period that has seen last year's firing of Juan Williams and last week's resignation of NPR CEO Vivian Schiller after video surfaced of another NPR executive, Ron Schiller, bad-mouthing conservatives.

But, most importantly, NPR is facing the end of federal funding for public broadcasting in an era of drastic budget cutting.

"NPR is going to be fine as an organization," Edwards said as he waited to board a plane from Washington back home to Milwaukee. "My bigger concern, of course, is federal funding."

"If it goes away, it will devastate public radio and public TV. It's going to go away in a lot of smaller markets."

"Stations like mine," he said of WUWM,  "if we lose federal funding, it would dramatically change what we're able to do.

But he's confident a larger operation like WUWM can survive, even if it has to cut back on local programming.

Here in Wisconsin, Edwards spoke of WOJB-FM, a public radio station that broadcasts to the northwestern corner of the state  from the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, near Hayward.

"I learn so much by listening to that station," he said of trips up North. While it broadcasts normal NPR fare, "at night, I can listen to a broadcast of a pow wow."

To Edwards, that focus on a local community is in danger of disappearing in small communities. "Those stations are the most vulnerable."

But he's philosophical that some cuts are inevitable.

"I am not foolish enough to believe that public broadcasting won't take some sort of federal cut," he said.

The biggest headline out of NPR last week was the resignation of CEO Vivian Schiller.

While there's a strong suggestion that the board fired Schiller, Edwards says that's not so.

"No," he says of suggestions the board forced her out.

"We had a phone call with her last Tuesday evening. She made it clear she wanted to leave. We reluctantly accepted her resignation."

While her departure, and the controversy over the firing of Williams for comments he made about Muslims to Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, have caused uncertainty in the organization, he's optimistic about NPR's ability to survive.

"NPR's going to be fine as an organization. We have great bench strength."

While the latest NPR controversy helped keep Edwards in Washington for several days last week, he says his main concern remains WUWM.

"That doesn't happen very often," he says of his extended stay in Washington. "I'm spending the majority of my time on WUWM issues. Even when I'm gone, we have a strong management team in place."

At most, he said, "it's lengthened my days," as he works evenings on NPR duties.

But Edwards says he extra time -- and dealing with the turmoil -- has been a positive.

"It has been a tremendous learning experience for me," he said, "And I actually think it has benefited WUWM."

He's been a board member since 2006, and he said the experience has exposed him to broader trends in the industry.