Lately there’s been a lot of “So… how are things going at the radio station?” People ask this question with tentative concern.
I think there are a couple of questions underneath that question. Questions like, “What’s it like to be defunded?” or “Are you going to go off the air?”
The answer to the second question is easy – No.
The answer to the first question is a little more complicated. It’s disappointing and surreal, of course, to lose 30% of our budget at once, and it’s a curveball which we anticipated but hoped would not actually come to pass. And, as many of you know, the rescission of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, doesn’t actually accomplish the White House’s goal of eliminating NPR – instead, it hurts stations like ours and the communities we serve.
Despite the challenges posed by the Rescission Act, I can’t help responding to the question of how we’re doing with all of the positives that have come out of this weird time. We’ve heard more from our community about what we mean to them than ever before. People have sent us so many notes of encouragement (like “We gotchu, fam” from Brook in Midland or “Keep asking. Keep reporting. Keep doing the hard work.” from Allison in Marfa), they’ve shared their outrage, they’ve told us jokes to keep our spirits up ("What do you call a grizzly bear with no teeth? A gummy bear!"). On our employee Slack, we have a channel for #inspiration, where we share all the heartwarming, funny, kind words from our listeners and it’s been very busy the last couple weeks.
We’ve had local designers and artists step up to donate their work to us (yes, that means we have new merch coming soon!), we’ve had folks offer to host their own fundraisers on our behalf (including the Marfa Municipal Alliance for Dead Country and Folk Singers, who are holding a benefit show for us on Friday August 8th at the Wild Mare). We’ve received donations from people all over Texas and all around the country, and we even got a shout out from the NPR Politics Podcast for our special bonus episode of Marfa Public Radio Puts You to Sleep.
And this past Saturday, we threw a party at the station, celebrating the support we’ve received from our community over the last few weeks. We wanted to say thank you, be together IRL, and remind ourselves and each other how much this station matters to the people here. And boy, did our community show up for us. We had an amazing time with you all, and in addition to helping us raise money, you really helped raise our spirits. Thank you so much — for sharing your stories, for donating, for listening and reading, and for being a part of what we do.
So how are things going at the radio station? Pretty great, in a lot of ways.
P.S. We also want to shout out everyone who helped us put together our block party!
Thank you to:
Slow Burn BBQ
Cactus Liquors
Madre Mezcal
Rambler Sparkling Water
Vacation Sunscreen
Caddis Eyewear
Mill Scale Metalworks
Justin Almquist
Mark Scott
Joe Nick Patoski
Ariana Vega
