Wyoming Public Media fall drive nets $290K

Congratulations to Wyoming Public Media for reaching its goal of $290,000 during its recent fall membership drive. The drive ended Friday after 61 hours of on-air fundraising, gathering support from 3,000 individual contributors and dozens of businesses, according to a press release.

“We made a combined appeal to listeners across our three networks,” WPM development director Peg Arnold said in a prepared statement. “It is something few public stations have accomplished, and it allows us to spend less time on air fundraising and more time providing excellent programming.”

WPM includes three radio stations: Wyoming Public Radio, Classical Wyoming and Jazz Wyoming. This fall’s drive excelled at fundraising on all three signals simultaneously, said Arnold.

In April, WyoFile published a feature article, “Public Broadcasting, Partisan Cuts,” about a GOP-led effort to cut federal funding for National Public Radio through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For Wyoming Public Media, the federal funding issue appeared to manifest into its strongest pledge drive ever last spring, according to Arnold, exceeding every goal set, including the number of new members, returning members and additional gifts from existing members.

You may have noticed the Wyoming Public Media banner on WyoFile’s front page (similarly, a WyoFile logo appears on WPM’s web page). The promo swap represents the beginning of some collaborative efforts to share and produce Wyoming news among the two entities. More details will become available in coming months, so stay tuned to both WPM and WyoFile.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Dustin Bleizeffer covers energy and climate at WyoFile. He has worked as a coal miner, an oilfield mechanic, and for more than 25 years as a statewide reporter and editor primarily covering the energy...

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