April 20, 2021 - 1:28 pm

With the arrival of much warmer weather this past week, many of us are anxiously looking forward to spending as much time as we can outdoors; either in or on the water, or perhaps hiking and camping under the stars in the beautiful Northern Cascades. I am not sure why, but somehow this spring seems to me to be even more beautiful. Maybe it is just another COVID fatigue thing, or maybe it is because I have been in such good spirits lately.

Late last week, I was notified by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that KBCS has been awarded a grant of $144,746.00 from the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan Stabilization Grant. This generous financial support from our federal government will go a long way in further stabilizing our station finances and help ensure our long-term growth and viability in both our music and news programming. This grant funding will provide us with the opportunity to replace outdated broadcast equipment, embrace new broadcast technology, and still allow us to set aside funds for a much needed “rainy day” fund for the station.

KBCS is also the recent recipient of a very generous donation of $50,000.00 from our dear friend and supporter, Alyson McGregor, at the Purple Crayon Foundation. We have deposited the proceeds from that grant into a new endowment fund that we set up at the Bellevue College Foundation. All this good news comes on the heels of a successful spring fundraising campaign where we raised over $100,000.00 from our generous listeners.

Since the beginning of this fiscal year last July, and despite the all the obstacles in our way, we have made incredible progress in our combined efforts to become a fully self-supporting division of Bellevue College. The small but mighty KBCS professional staff along with our many passionate volunteers, and our loyal listeners have come together as a high-performance team, each focused on doing their part, to help raise the funding we need to keep this long tradition of community radio engagement on the air.

With less than three months to go in this fiscal year that ends June 30^th, KBCS is well on our way to achieving, and in most cases, exceeding all our ambitious financial sustainability goals for this year.

As we enter the final lap and move toward the goal line at the end of this fiscal year, I encourage everyone that has not yet become a KBCS sustaining contributor to make that important commitment before June 30^th.

Sustaining contributors provide one of the most stable and dependable sources of income for KBCS and our sustainers send a strong signal that they will continue to support our mission of community radio engagement now and into the future.

Again, thank you for all you do to support KBCS and our ongoing mission of democratizing the public airwaves with the voices of everyday people living in our community who otherwise would never have that opportunity.

Dana Lee Buckingham

KBCS General Manager and Proud Sustaining Supporter of KBCS