Panhandle PBS is celebrating its 35th anniversary with an open house

The Panhandle Public Broadcasting System (PBS) celebrated its 35th^th anniversary Thursday, with an open house at its location on the Amarillo College campus for the public to learn more about the station and its mission.

The celebration highlighted local content with studio tours, highlight reels, green screen demonstrations, a visit from the Cat in the Hat and refreshments. The Amarillo station has been around since signing on the air on August 29, 1988.

Panhandle PBS General Manager Julie Grimes spoke about the importance of the Texas Panhandle having a PBS station that provides content to the area. Before PBS began, the Texas Panhandle and Amarillo area received the feed from the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

“We had no way to tell the local stories of the Texas Panhandle through PBS,” she said.

“So for the last 35 years, that’s what the station has done, which is to engage the community to illuminate, educate and share the stories and voices of our region,” Grimes said. “I think most people think of PBS as a national entity, and that’s a fact, but it’s a network of local public media stations … when you come to this one in Amarillo, Texas, what you’re really getting is our local area and the Texas Panhandle. “

Grimes pointed out that in areas with only one PBS station, like Wyoming, that station is responsible for being the voice of the entire state and region.

“In general, we exist to reflect public media for our regions,” she said. “I mean the local area is especially important in a day and age where commercial media is more conglomerate. And so most of the television stations, the commercial stations that are here in town, are not locally owned or based, and so they don’t feel as much of a responsibility to tell the stories of the people in our area as we do.”

After working at Panhandle PBS for two years, Grimes brings an extensive skill set from her time at Southern Living Magazine. As a graduate of Texas Tech, she is happy to be back in the state working to serve the Panhandle community.

Grimes talked about some of the local programming her station has produced that can be used with the expansive resources of PBS’ national organization.

“So a project that I just finished this spring is called West Texas Boys and it’s a documentary about a Latino family,” she said. “A generation ago, the family were migrant workers and their father bought them a red accordion. Now they’re a Tejano Music Hall of Fame group, so we tell the story of how they made that transition and some of the adversity they faced. whom they have met in their lives and where they are today’.

Grimes said the project was just finished and the station will also be working on a second documentary, which explores water and water conservation in the Texas Panhandle and beyond. Given the topicality of the issue throughout the region, Grimes felt this project needed to be done because of its current relevance to the region.

“We’re looking at the Ogallala Aquifer and the precious resources we have to irrigate and provide water for our region and what we can do to make sure we’re as sustainable as possible,” she added.

Another project the station has in the works is called “Up in the Air,” which is a look at the past, present and future of public art in Amarillo.

“With this project, we’re really reaching back to Georgia O’Keeffe and when she lived in Canyon and Amarillo and how she started the local art scene with a nationally known artist coming to the area,” she said. “This art inspired the likes of Cadillac Ranch, for example, and the Amarillo Ramp, which also led to the Hoodoo Mural Festival that everyone knows and loves these days.”

According to Grimes, the station is very studious and selective in choosing the right projects to provide quality programming to the area community.

“Obviously, we’re public media, so we have to watch our resources,” she said. “I will say that I am proud to say that we work with a lot of wonderful supporters here in our viewing area who help us through grants and underwriting to make all of this possible. We are very grateful to all the people who help us fund these works that we produce. We are small but mighty, trying to do as much as we can with our resources.”

Kevin Ball, CEO of PBS Panhandle for the past eight years, discussed how public broadcasting remains viable in today’s economic climate.

“It is entirely based on our membership; we have about 2,000 members who contribute anywhere from a little to very significant dollars to support our station,” Ball said. “We deliver local productions that people support. It’s central to what we do and it’s imperative that we produce shows that engage the community and give back to the community. It’s a synergy of giving people what they want to see here and learning about things in the community.”

Ball emphasized that the key to success for Panhandle PBS is community mobilization to gain community buy-in. He mentioned events like Savor the Goods, which is like a dinner party and gathering of friends that aims to bring new members into the group.

“We try to do a lot of productions at the Symphony, WT, Amarillo Opera, National Philanthropy Day and the Amarillo Master Chorale,” he said. “All of these groups do local shows on our shows, along with many special events for the local area, such as Amarillo College’s graduation ceremony.”

Asked about misconceptions people may have about PBS as a television station, Ball pointed out that he believes many people think PBS operates just like any other television network. With its ability to tailor programming based on the community, it has a lot of leeway in what is broadcast.

“We may in some situations rebroadcast some of our programming, such as Master Chorale, which has been a fan favorite if it fits the time constraints of the station,” he said. “We got a grant to be able to do that because it’s expensive to do it, and then we released it nationally and it got picked up in stations like Atlanta, Dallas and Austin, (they) picked up the gig from us. “

Ball believes the key to longevity is stations’ ability to connect with audiences.

“People feel and know it’s their own station,” Ball said. “They know it comes from Amarillo and the Panhandle and I think our biggest value point. What I love about it is that I feel totally connected to the community. We give back to the community and they support us, which allows us to do this. It’s a circle.”

Grimes expressed his gratitude for the support of Panhandle PBS over the years.

“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to be here for 35 years and have such public interest and people have come out to help us celebrate today,” she said of the open house. “I hope we can have another 35 years and more to be here and tell the stories of the Texas Panhandle.”

This article originally appeared on the Amarillo Globe-News: Panhandle PBS celebrates 35th anniversary with open house