Kliff Kuehl .

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May-June 2011 Letter from KCPT

The new season brings a feeling of renewal at KCPT. Read this months letter from Kliff Kuehl, KCPT President and CEO.

At last spring has arrived!  With the new season also comes a feeling of renewal and an opportunity to grow and broaden our mission here at KCPT.  Our staff and board have taken a look at our areas of focus and applied a “new season” of thought to where we are going and the things we need to accomplish to serve our community.  KCPT’s Vision reads – A great city deserves a great public television station…one that is capable of delivering community-building television programs and services and is the voice and the platform for its community.  And we are doing just that with our new focus on localism by:

  • telling diverse stories of Kansas City metro and the Midwest
  • leveraging social media to better connect communities of interest to our local and national content
  • leveraging KCPT’s new mobile capacities to bring more of the Kansas City region to our viewers

We have a new mobile studio to help us accomplish many of these areas of focus.  This studio has been talked about for years and I am proud and excited to say that the unit is up and running.  The unit will bring the arts, culture, public affairs, and just plain entertainment into the homes of our viewers – many who would have no other means to see what our great city has to offer.

KCPT is also a source of education and I am pleased to report that we have received three new grants – one from a collaboration of Blue Springs, Center, and Hickman Mills School Districts and two from the Kansas City Missouri School District.  These grants will help us capture the effectiveness of teachers in the classroom in the areas of math and science and will be turned into features and aired on The Local Show.  Come to think of it, this sounds like a job for our new mobile studio!   As part of this endeavor, we will utilize 20 interns from the Paseo High School Broadcast Journalism class to help create these features, allowing them to learn in a real broadcast environment.  So, we’re not only showing how teachers teach, we’re also adding an element of learning to the project itself!

Our many years of covering Bank of America Celebration at the Station will hold extra meaning this year.  The Armed Forces has designated 2011 as the 50th anniversary of Vietnam and the Symphony is building a special program to honor its veterans.  Tune in to watch our live broadcast of Bank of America Celebration at the Station on Sunday, May 29 from 7:30 -10:00 pm.  It is certain to be a spectacular event.

I want to thank our viewers for their support during our spring pledge drive.  As many of you know we are at risk of losing our federal funding and have already all but lost our state funding.  Your support is more important now than ever and we greatly appreciate your continued support.

Kliff Kuehl
KCPT President and CEO

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Special Message From Kliff Kuehl: Call Your US Senators

Watch a special message from KCPT President and CEO Kliff Kuehl about the future of public broadcasting.

More information about the proposed funding cuts to public media

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March-April 2011 Letter from KCPT

KCPT wants to help you be more local.  In fact, a major area of focus in our strategic plan is to partner with like-minded organizations that have unique perspectives and...

KCPT wants to help you be more local.  In fact, a major area of focus in our strategic plan is to partner with like-minded organizations that have unique perspectives and the knowledge to help us air meaningful and relevant content  – content that not only informs but also makes a difference in our community.  We are fortunate to say we are doing this more and more.

Our partnership with the Kansas City Area Development Council is a great example of how two organizations can make strong impact.  KCADC came to us with a great program, Next American Dream, but had limited ways to get it on the air and distribute it nationwide.  I am very proud to say that together our organizations have made it possible for nearly 10 million viewers across the nation to view this outstanding program about Kansas City.  What an impact!

Another partnership, and one we keep building on, is with the Kansas City Public Library.  I’m sure you’ve seen the program Meet the Past.  This step back to the past is a wonderful way for the people who made Kansas City what it is today to teach us about the history of our community.  It’s like having our own time machine – but instead of a DeLorean, it’s the Library!

During our spring membership drive we will be featuring a program called Princesses of the World.  As a thank you for supporting this program we will be offering a number of opportunities connected to the Diana exhibit being held at Union Station.  Union Station is another one of our partners where we find we have many opportunities to work together to benefit the community.

I hope you had a chance to see the segments of the program Imagine KC.  This look into what our community can become truly does spark the imagination.  I am very proud of the work we have done with the Mid-America Regional Council to bring this high quality program to our viewers.  It has grabbed the attention of the people in our community who can make things happen.

We are also working with KETC, the St. Louis public television station, to produce a program called Homeland.  This will be a three-part series focusing on issues surrounding immigration in the heartland – enforcement, treatment of refugees, their relocation, and how it affects our economy.  KETC will be distributing this series, which will be available later this year.

One of our most important partnerships is with you, our individual members.  Last year we lost our Missouri state funding and we have just recently learned that we will be losing a large amount of Kansas state funding.  Now, more than ever, we need your partnership.  PBS is taking measures to secure our government funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  We ask you to please visit www.170millionamericans.org to learn how you can help keep public television and public radio going for years to come.  Public Broadcasting is locally licensed, locally programmed, and locally staffed and, in many rural areas, is the only source of free local and national news, public affairs, and children’s programming.

We are very grateful to you, our loyal partners – our members, viewers, organizations, and foundations that support public broadcasting. You help us serve the community with outstanding, local and national content and educational services.

Kliff Kuehl
KCPT President and CEO

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