Moving Forward

In 2019, Austin PBS, KLRU-TV launched Moving Forward, a $15M, multi-phase capital campaign to create a new generation of public media with greater community impact. Phase I of this bold effort centered on building the station’s new home, the Austin Media Center at ACC Highland.

Within one year of launching the campaign, Austin PBS raised more than $10M through the generosity of leadership donors, including St. David’s Foundation, Mary M. Pfluger and Gary W. Keller, Nicole and Tyson Tuttle, Silicon Labs, and Luci Baines Johnson and Ian J. Turpin.

Unfortunately, as a result of the COVID pandemic, Austin PBS experienced a six-month construction delay to the expected completion date of September 2020, as well as a slowdown in philanthropy. Station leadership decided to delay any further fundraising efforts in order to focus on daily operations during this critical time.

However, with sufficient support raised, construction of the Austin Media Center continued throughout 2020. Then, within days of moving into the nearly completed space in February 2021, Winter Storm Uri occurred, causing extensive damage to the building and the station’s equipment, and significantly delaying completion until 2022.

Now on the other side of these incredible challenges, Austin PBS is continuing to fundraise for the now $1M needed to close out Phase I (capital expenditures totaled less than the original $12M goal) by the end of 2022.

Phase II of the Moving Forward campaign will run from 2023-2025 with a goal of raising a total of $5M in support of upgrades and improvements to the Austin City production facility at the Moody Theater, innovative and expanded community initiatives focused on education and workforce development in partnership with ACC, and next-gen technology for the station.

With a shared vision of serving as a catalyst and source for social equity and personal enrichment for our region, and nationally, as a model for leveraging the power of media for positive community change, Austin PBS and ACC have identified the following strategic initiatives:

• Educational Media Center: the first-of-its-kind virtual and physical site providing trusted and proven PBS educational media and guidance on effective uses. As a virtual site, the EMC boosts the accessibility and use of Austin PBS’s quality children’s TV programming, community-based learning experiences and activities, and digital technologies to improve early learning. As a physical site, the EMC connects educators, parents, caregivers and children and provides a fun and welcoming space to gather for workshops, professional learning, creative play and more!
• Media Resource Center: envisioned as a Center of Excellence for experimentation, innovation, and collaboration in next generation digital media, the MRC will partner with ACC’s Radio/Television/Film Department to train students to focus the power of new media for community good. Additionally, the MRC will focus its programming on entrenched community issues in order to discover effective solutions that can be shared through a wide range of communication tools and platforms intentionally designed to reach diverse audiences and stakeholders.
• Internship Program: A unique portfolio of earn and learn opportunities, focused on middle skills sectors and aimed at advancing education and employment opportunities. At least 15 paid internships offered annually for those interested in careers in media and/or nonprofit management including digital/ broadcast media and technology, as well as communications, fund development, educational services, external relations, and finance/accounting.
• Next-Gen Technology: In the near future, Austin PBS will adopt and implement a new broadcast standard known as ATSC 3.0. This means Austin PBS will be able to deliver more content, including ACC-TV programming, and open the potential for enhanced community service channels to address a wide range of health, development, education and related community issues.