Bridges a Liberal/Conservative Dialogue with Larry Josephson
BRIDGES ENDS! LISTENERS AFFECTED MOST
I'm sorry to tell you that BRIDGES will cease distribution
the week of June 26, 1998, for the simple reason that we
were unable to raise the $300,000 it would take to do
another year of BRIDGES. CPB funded BRIDGES for the past
four years for a total of almost $1.2 million. CPB
provides "venture capital" for public radio startups like Marketplace or Fresh Air. After a period of years, they move on to newer projects in the hope that the startups can raise the money to continue. We raised about $350,000 over four years in private money, but we were unable to raise that sum in one year.
It is interesting to note that the $40 million that Ken Starr has spent TO DATE looking into the Presidential pants, would keep BRIDGES on the air for 120 YEARS!
BRIDGES will continue to be available on cassette
and on the Web. I am already at work on a new radio series
that will be distributed on cassette to subscribers for a
modest yearly fee (less than you likely send to your
public radio station). For our experiment in SUBSCRIPTION
RADIO to work, I NEED YOUR E-MAIL and your POSTAL MAILING
ADDRESS so I can keep you informed of our plans and of the
launch date. PLEASE go to the
CONTACT PAGE or send me an e-mail
at bridges@radioart.org.
Thank you for listening critically, and for your often lucid, and sometimes nutty comments. Thanks also to our funders: CPB, Charlton & Susan Buckley, Edwin A. Goodman, Peter & Eileen Norton and the Weingart, Lounsbery and Donner Foundations. Special thanks to CPB's Rick Madden, and to the late Dr. William McGill. Without them, BRIDGES would have never made it to the air.
Thanks also to the BRIDGES staff: our producers Curtis Fox, Paul Beston, Evan Spring, Michele Orecklin, Anthea Raymond and Ronnie Hess; our Engineers Peter Zanger, Bill O'Neill and Paul Ruest; our Webmaster and Website Designer, Bill Wood; our Marketing Staff: Steve Rathe, Rob Grader, Amy Briskin and Kathy Gronau; to my assistant Debbie Stathopulos who keeps me and the Radio Foundation from falling apart; and all the others who contributed substantially to the success of BRIDGES, especially the 130 stations that aired it and the 152,000 of you who listened each week.
Larry Josephson Host, Executive Producer and Janitor BRIDGES
BRIDGES is produced and distributed by The Radio Foundation, Inc. BRIDGES is made possible by a major grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funds from Charlton and Susan Buckley, The Weingart Foundation, The Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Inc., The William H. Donner Foundation, Edwin A. Goodman, and Peter and Eileen Norton. BRIDGES and the microphone logo are trademarks of the Radio Foundation, Inc.
