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KBCS interim GM tells Arts Commission the station faces funding cuts and is planning a capital campaign
Summary
Ben Brando, interim general manager of KBCS, briefed the commission on the community station’s programming, volunteer training, audience reach (about 60–70,000 weekly listeners), a roughly 10% federal funding cut (about $120,000), and plans for a capital campaign and expanded youth programming.
Ben Brando, interim general manager of KBCS, presented the station’s history, programming mix and community role, and invited commissioners to tour the station on the Bellevue College campus. "We've been around, as you can see, since 1973," Brando said, noting the station broadcasts at 91.3 FM, streams online, and serves roughly "60 to 70,000 unique listeners each and every week." He emphasized KBCS’s reliance on volunteer DJs (about 30) and community grants.
Brando told commissioners the station recently experienced an approximately 10% cut to federal support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, "We received around a 120,000 each year from the corporation for public broadcasting," and said the loss is substantial for a small station. He described plans for podcasting, digitizing the music library, and a capital campaign to move studios into an ADA-compliant space on campus; he also described an intake and training program for prospective volunteer DJs and a community event calendar the station operates.
