Local public radio station KHNS finished its annual summer-fund drive shattering its original goal of $85,000 and raising nearly $120,000.
Station manager Kyle Clayton attributes that surge in donations primarily to uncertainty and anti-public media sentiment at the federal level. Congress approved a Trump administration plan to rescind $9 billion in funds that had already ben allocated, cutting all federal support for NPR, PBS and member stations like KHNS.
The radio station is dependent on federal support for nearly 37% of its budget.
“I think it really symbolized a show of support from our listeners,” Clayton said Tuesday. “It was really heartening in the face of this uncertainty and fear. It’s quite a thing to see that support and all of those people willing to give — trying to do what they can.”
Development director Dawn Drotos said Tuesday that area businesses stepped up in a big way, providing donations, challenge grants and food for staff and volunteers of the drive.
She said the annual dessert auction featured five different local bakers and raised a total of $2,290.
“The highest bids were for two blueberry-mint cheesecakes donated by Peter Kohlstedt of Grandma Pete’s Cheesecakes, which garnered a combined $880,” she wrote in an email.
About 345 households and businesses (or roughly 862 individual people) participated in the drive as donors, challenge granters, sustaining donors or quiet drive donors. Of those, Drotos wrote that 46 were new, first-time donors.
Supporters of the station got access to a number of gifts. Drotos said the favorites seemed to be Bear Hug, a print by Lingít and Haida artist Beau Dennis, and a rechargeable pocket radio, which garnered such interest that station staff had to place a second order for them during the drive.
Clayton said Drotos is a crucial part of the reason the station is able to put on a successful fund drive, particularly because she cultivates and coordinates the community effort required to keep the station going.
“We try to make it as fun as possible. A lot of that is Dawn [Drotos], a lot of volunteers who are willing to come on air and banter about why they love the station. They’re not reading from cue cards, they’re all speaking from the heart,” he said. “It was a neighborhood block party on the radio.”
Editor’s note: Kyle Clayton is a former owner of the Chilkat Valley News.