We Are Not Silent Corner Rallies to Support the Local Asian American Community
Information on upcoming corner rallies to to fight violent attacks against Asian American communities.
General Manager Message – March 2021
This coming Friday marks the kickoff of the on-air portion of our annual spring fundraising campaign on KBCS. As we enter the fourth quarter of this critical fiscal year, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has donated to KBCS so far this year. It is important to remember that Community Radio KBCS is a nonprofit, educational radio station and we bank on financial contributions from our listeners for providing the most important source of income for the station. My friends, this year we need to lean a little heavier on your support.
Due to the uncertainty over budgeting brought on by the COVID pandemic, KBCS has been directed this year to become an entirely self-funded department within Bellevue College. This means we can no longer ask for supplemental funding from the college to cover any deficit spending we incur at the end of the fiscal year. Like most people and organizations, KBCS must live and operate within our means.
Funding to cover the operating expenses at the station are derived primarily from three main revenue generating sources. Those sources are listener contributions, underwriting revenue from local businesses, and public and private grants. The ongoing pandemic has negatively impacted the revenue gained from business underwriting to just a quarter of our normally budgeted underwriting goal.
Most of the costs to operate the station are fixed expenses. These expenses include the monthly tower rental, the electricity bill, hardware, and software expenses, and other standard costs of doing business that make our broadcast possible. The largest expense portion of our yearly operating budget is for the modest salaries we pay our small professional staff. If we don’t raise the funds what we need to cover our expenses, those are where the painful cuts will need to be made. There is simply no other option in our fixed and variable expenses that we could cut that would make much of a difference. We run a tight ship and are good stewards of your donations.
The significant loss of planned underwriting revenue on KBCS has placed a much greater burden on the financial support generated from listeners like you to help make up that difference. We need your help.
As we enter this fourth quarter of the fiscal year, I am pleased to report that, thanks to our donors thus far, we have met our benchmarks for where we needed to be at this time; but, we still have a way to go to finish this fiscal year in the black. Our goal for the spring fundraising campaign is to raise $100,000.00 and add 350 new monthly sustaining donors.
Please join in with us during this ambitious spring campaign and make a generous contribution to KBCS. If you are not currently a sustaining contributor to KBCS I strongly encourage you to become one. Sustaining donors contribute an ongoing monthly donation to KBCS from their credit/debit card or through a bank draft. Consider becoming a sustainer at the $12.50/month level and just in time for the warmer weather ahead, we have a cool KBCS T-shirt to send you as a thank you gift. You can sign up to become a sustaining contributor to KBCS here. It’s a simple and straightforward process.
Again, thank you for your important financial support over the years to keep this beautiful dream of community radio alive and on the air here in the Pacific Northwest. Remember, no donation to KBCS is too small…or too large for that matter.
Dana Buckingham, KBCS General Manager and Proud Sustaining Contributor.
The Paper Tigers – a New Kung Fu Film, and the Asian American Male Experience
Seattle Asian American Film Festival 2021
The Seattle Asian American Film Festival (SAAFF) is on now through March 14th. In addition to films centered around the Asian American narrative, the event features panel discussions on the disappearance of local Asian American gathering places and the topic of healing from miscarriage stillbirth and infant loss. The film festival also partners with local Asian American restaurants for the celebration.
Listen in on this KBCS interview with SAAFF Co-founder and Executive Director, Vanessa Au about the films featured this year (COVID19 was one of the themes), and what makes this event important for our community. (more…)
Racial Bias in Healthcare
Racial Bias in healthcare has negatively impacted communities of color since the beginning of U.S. history. Black communities and medical professionals are pushing for reform and cultural change in the healthcare system as we face this world-wide COVID19 pandemic.
Takeaways from Japanese American Stories of Incarceration
For the past 24 years, Tom Ikeda, the founding Executive Director of Densho and his staff have been conducting oral histories of Japanese Americans who have endured the painful experience of being forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated en masse by the United States government.
Targets of this Region’s Sex Trafficking Industry
Black Hair
Kiana Davis is a Renton Technical College adjunct faculty, poet and author working on a project called Unyielding Roots. The project is on hair esteem and self-love amidst a world that doesn’t get your hair culture. (this story originally broadcast in February 14, 2020) (more…)
Demystifying COVID 19 Vaccinations
Why did COVID 19 vaccination roll out go so quickly? Should I get vaccinated? Dr. Karla Fuller, Associate Professor of Biology at City University of New York and Project Lead for the National Human Genome Research Institute, shared her perspective on this at a Black Employees of Bellevue College-hosted virtual event last week. (more…)
Sankofa Impact: Montgomery Bus Boycott
the Montgomery Bus Boycott was led by Black women of Montgomery after the court trial of four Montgomery women forced, on separate occasions, to give up their bus seat to a white passenger. This movement ended segregation on buses. (more…)