We’re living in Trump’s World now. He’s remade America and is continuing to effect changes upon this holy land even as we speak. One of the changes that affects me personally is the crushing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Of all the things that could have discouraged or depressed me during this scary slide into neo-fascism, the announcement that the CPB was going out of business — thanks to Congress’s cut-off of funding for it — was the one that sent me spiraling downward. I mean, jeez, these are the people who gave us Carl Sagan and Sesame Street. Through the CPB’s largesse, tens of millions of kids learned to count, many of us found out how big the universe is, we heard tales of the Civil War, Prohibition, Baseball, and gay life in San Francisco in the 1970s. And, partly thanks to CPB grants, I was able to do my Big Talk thing on WFHB.
So, yeah, I was downcast when the CPB went under but I refuse to stay glum. Damn it all, I’m gonna fight my ass off against Li’l Duce and his lickspittlers.
WFHB’s Fall Fund Drive begins today and runs through Sunday, September 21st. My station has lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $135,000 a year in CPB funding, starting in three weeks. That’s when the station’s new fiscal year begins. We’d already got our CPB check for the current FY. On October 1st, we’re going to have to figure out how to keep the station going with a significant chunk of our budget suddenly gone poof. We’ve already laid off two hugely dedicated and valuable staffers, Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, our assistant news director, and Josh Brewer, our operations manager. Their last day will be September 30th.
Brooke Turpin, our Development Director, told us during last week’s Fund Drive training sessions that we shouldn’t get too political during our live, on-air pitches over the next two weeks and I promise I won’t. But here on The Pencil the gloves are off. I’m gonna rip into that greed-monkey son of a bitch in a too-long red tie like a tiger mama protecting her cubs.
As I have been doing since the summer of 2015.
We need your help. I need your help. I go live on the air tomorrow, Thursday, September 11th at 5:30pm during my normal Big Talk slot, to beg for money. I hate doing it. As I explained to Brooke, pleading for money brings me back to those long-ago, not-at-all lamented days when I had to beg, borrow, and steal to keep myself afloat. “It reminds me,” I told Brooke and GM Jar Turner, “of when I was desperate.”
“Well, guess what,” Jar said, “we are desperate.”
I ask you to click on this thing:
or to call in during my show to contribute to WFHB. You can donate anytime online and, really, any time over the phone (812.323.1200). Please make sure to mention Big Talk when (and if) you donate. All the WFHB producers and show hosts are being challenged to demonstrate how much listener loyalty we generate, based on how much dough our shows can bring in. And, by the way, this Fund Drive has a $100,000 matching donation, given by an anonymous source. It means every dollar we squeeze out of you this time around will be matched, up to a hundred grand, by that unnamed soul. So your contribution will be, in effect, doubled.
Anyway, please help. We need it. I need it. I want you to be able to hear my guests and me on Big Talk for years to come. And keep on fighting against that no good slob in a too-long red tie.
