When it was discovered that the Public Radio stations that serve the Lower Rio Grande Valley KHID 88.1 FM, which serves Hidalgo County and KJJF 88.9 FM which serves Cameron and Willacy Counties in deep south Texas were sold to Relevant radio/Immaculate Heart Radio, and would no longer be offering the National Public Radio programming, a group of local NPR supporters met to form an organization to save access to NPR programming for this area of Texas.
A bit of History -
Public Radio was brought to deep south Texas by Bishop John J. Fitzpatric of the Diocese of Brownsville, who created the parent organziaton Rio Grande Valley Educational Broadcasting. It began broadcasting in April 1991 and with the addition of a second upper valley tower alse served the upper valley (Hidalgo County) in July 1992.
For a more detailed history of these Public Radio stations see the Wikipedia page for KJJF .
Insider Radio article from 22 February 2019 on an attempt to Save NPR
Monday, 25 February 2019
On Monday, 25 February 2019 a group including Steve Taylor, Gerard Mittelstaedt, Edgar Lopez, Shawn Seale, Patricia Martinez and Pat Fogarty met at a restaurant in McAllen, Texas to discuss saving or re-establishing a Public Radio feed for the Lower Rio Grande Valley. We agreed to create a new non-profit organization to establish a NPR station for the RGV, as the curent NPR feed will cease to exist within the next few months. We sent a message to Dr. W.F. Strong of UTRGV Brownsville campus to include him in our effort.
Some efforts have been made to do the filings with the Texas Department of State and the IRS needed to officially establish a non-profit organization, tentively called Grassroots Public Radio RGV .
Friday, 17 May 2019
On Friday, 17 May 2019 another meeting was held in McAllen, at the Corner Bakery restaurant to share information on events so far, and plan some next steps. Gerard Mittelstaedt, Steve Taylor, Shawn Seale, and Edgar Lopez attended. There was no formal agenda. This was a meeting to share information.
A meeting with a Mr. F. Garza, who volunteered to assist with setup and keeping things organized was reported, as was a meeting with a local attorney to assist with the offical file work setting up the non-profit organization. Some discussion on setting up a bank account was discussed with emphasis on using a local bank with multiple RGV locations.
The published support of Representative V. Gonzalez and his letter to Dr. Guy Baily at UTRGV was read. An upcoming meeting including Representative V. Gonzalez is expected with a local leaders and local media and news outlets after Congress adjourns.
A letter from NPR in Washington, DC which outlines what is needed to establish a NPR affiliate station was read which included 4 major necessary points for such establishment.
Two existing low power stations, one in the Brownsville area and the other in the McAllen area were identified. It may be useful to work with one or both of them toward our goal.
It was noted that for those who pay, that a general NPR feed could be received via Sirius satellite radio. It was also noted, by two committee members who were subscribers that reception quality was irregular here in the LRGV. (Note that national feed does not include any local programs.)
An attempt to retrieve the music CD collection donated by Bill McGee to NPR - KJJF/KHID was discussed.
A meeting with J. Martinez who owns a non-profit broadcasting license is anticipated on 28 May.
All money needs to go through F. Garza, who is volunteering at this stage to assist in setting up a tax exempt group (501(c)(3) to further the goal of funding the re-establishment of a public radio presence in the Rio Grande Valley. A meeting with him is scheduled for 30 May 2019.
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Monday, 24 June 2019
Thursday, 5 September 2019
Ron Rogers - Shawn Seale - Steve Taylor - Gerard Mittelstaedt (ex oficio) - Federico Garza - Edgar Lopez
The board of Grassroots Public Radio RGV met in the early afternoon at the Dennys restaurant in Weslaco, Texas.
After application for 501c3 (non-profit status) the organization achieved the Non-Profit status from the IRS just over a week ago.
This meeting was called to firm up the organization and make plans on what to do next. A formal web site is being planned as is a method to formally accept donations into the established bank account. .
Thursday, 2 October 2019
Ron Rogers - Steve Taylor - Gerard Mittelstaedt (ex oficio) - Federico Garza - Edgar Lopez attended the board meeting.
The board of Grassroots Public Radio RGV met at 5:10 PM at the Dennys restaurant in Weslaco, Texas.
Reports were made among them that work is proceeding to change the facebook page to be more congruent with the official name of the organization.
The board also worked toward tuning up the more generic bylaws.