Travis Bubenik
Station ManagerTravis oversees day-to-day operations at Marfa Public Radio, ranging from fundraising and membership endeavors to music programming and the station’s award-winning journalism and storytelling initiatives.
A Houston native and University of Texas alum, he got his start in public radio as an intern at Marfa Public Radio in 2012. He has since worked in various newsroom roles at the station, along with stints at KVNF in rural western Colorado and at Houston Public Media. He was Marfa Public Radio's News Director from late 2024 to July 2026.
His dog Valentine is indeed named after the town.
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Texas Democrats are urging the Trump administration to delay its plans for building border barriers and roads across the West Texas park. Bulldozers and trucks bearing the logo of the contractor awarded $1.7 billion for the project were seen in the national park on Tuesday as local activists warn construction could start at any moment. -
The weekly program has aired on Marfa Public Radio since 2020. Writer and host Oscar Rodriguez joined us to discuss the back story of the show and this unique Rio Grande dialect. -
Officials in the small West Texas border city of Presidio are asking a federal judge to temporarily block border wall construction, arguing the plan would leave locals vulnerable to “deadly” flash flooding. -
The administration is once again bypassing federal environmental laws to speed up construction on border barriers and related infrastructure – this time for a project in Big Bend National Park and a nearby state park. Six former national park superintendents recently urged the administration to not take that step. -
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says border wall panels will start being installed in the region late this summer or early fall. Multiple signs of construction moving forward have surfaced in recent weeks, from the development of a “man camp” worker housing facility to apparent deliveries of steel bollards to the region. -
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Only a handful of local West Texas primary runoff elections were on the ballot Tuesday. -
Since news first surfaced late last year that border walls could be built for the first time in the Big Bend region of West Texas, the story has been marked by shifting, unannounced changes and few clearly communicated details from the Trump administration.
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The former superintendents sent a letter Thursday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, describing the administration’s plan for new border barriers, roads and surveillance technology in the park as “unnecessary and highly destructive.” The group is urging Mullin not to bypass federal environmental laws for the project. -
Last week, a government spending website showed a new Department of Homeland Security contract would be used for a “border wall” in the national park. On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that’s not actually the case, and that the money will be used for vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and “patrol roads.”
