Marfa Public Radio had a birthday this month! Our station was founded in February 2005, and to help celebrate, we asked Rachel Osier Lindley, a former Marfa Public Radio intern who went on to become a host and news director, to tell us about what things were like back in the early days of the station.
Rachel is now Statewide Senior Editor for The Texas Newsroom, a public media journalism collaboration that connects newsrooms across Texas (including ours!) to produce news coverage and projects, daily statewide newscasts, and national coverage for NPR and other outlets. She is based at KERA in Dallas.
“If you want to come with us, we’re starting the drive in an hour!” said my housemate Sarah. She paused, then added “Just a warning: It’s kind of far away.”
It was the Fall of 2005 and I was a free-wheeling journalism senior at the University of Texas at Austin. One of Sarah’s friends had just bailed on a trip they’d planned to some place called “Marfa” for something called “Chinati Weekend.”
I had no idea what any of that was, but I’d never been to West Texas before (“You’ll love the desert!” Sarah said), so I figured I might as well pack a quick bag and hop into the backseat.
And that’s where I sat for the next seven-plus hours, squished in the middle, wondering what I’d gotten myself into.
Of course, I didn’t know it then, but this trip was about to dramatically alter the whole course of my life and career.
Once we arrived in Marfa, I remember being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stars in the sky and then charmed by the town's cute main street and courthouse. As my friends and I explored, we walked past an empty storefront on Highland Avenue where people were having a party.
This gutted space, the revelers told me, would soon become home to Marfa Public Radio, a brand new community station for all of rural Far West Texas — and it would be launching in a few short months.
“Wow, they’re starting a public radio station all the way out here?” I thought. Now THIS caught my attention. I’d been a radio nerd since grade school, when I’d make fake news broadcasts and radio plays on my boombox. At the time of our trip, I was also a news intern at KUT Austin, the NPR affiliate based at UT.
A seemingly crazy idea popped into my head: “Maybe…maybe I could intern here this summer?”
And that’s how I found myself — months later and just days after graduation — packing up my life into a ‘98 Pontiac and moving to Marfa, where I’d be one of the station’s first two interns. What I thought would be an interesting few months learning the ropes turned into almost eight years of working at Marfa Public Radio. Over that time, I had the privilege of doing everything from selling t-shirts and answering phones, to eventually becoming the station’s news director and Morning Edition host.
The scrappy, early days of the station are full of stories, both triumphs and struggles, that I’ll never forget (I could write a book about it all, but for the purposes of this newsletter, I’ll just share a few, fun bullet points):
- Pitching on the air for pledge drives with an illustrious cast of Big Bend residents and KRTS volunteers…and dancing around the studio whenever Roseland Klein played “The Planets” on her classical show
- Installing satellite receivers as some confused NPRer in DC walked me through the process over the phone, puzzled that we had no engineer
- Meeting Terry Allen, Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and David Byrne before a performance at a bar formerly known as Ray’s (KRTS did an excellent documentary about this 2006 concert which you can still find here).
- Fixing the aforementioned satellite receivers with a bobby pin after someone accidently ran their chair into a tangle of wires, knocking things out of place
- Helping the late, great Lonn Taylor record his Rambling Boy audio essays
- Working on the station’s taxes with our accountant in the early years…when our entire annual payroll for the three-person staff added up to less than $70,000.
Nothing sticks out in my mind more, though, than an adventure from my fourth day as a Marfa Public Radio intern. That morning, the station’s broadcast tower on Brown Mountain stopped responding, so we had to go fix it. When we got to the top of the mountain, someone pulled out a portable radio and my colleague went into the shed at the base of the tower to flip this big, “Jurassic Park” style switch, basically turning the tower on and off again. Suddenly, that little radio sprung to life and KRTS was back on air.
I remember standing at the top, listening to the radio — the beautiful expanse of the Davis Mountains surrounding us — and being filled with a sense of awe and gratitude to be there.
“Wow, we are so lucky,” I thought. And while it’s been years since I’ve worked at Marfa Public Radio, I still recall that moment and feeling whenever I think of the mighty little station that could.
We are all so lucky to have Marfa Public Radio in our lives. The growth the station has experienced in the last decade isn’t something I could have even dreamed of. I’m extremely proud of everyone at the station and honored that I was able to play a small role in it becoming what it is today.
So, that’s my story. The station began broadcasting 19 years ago this month, and on this anniversary of its beginning I can’t help but get excited to hear all the new stories Marfa Public Radio will share in the years to come.
High Five
Thinking about the old times at the radio station puts us in the mood for an Oldies playlist... thank goodness for Michael Camacho! Enjoy a selection of tunes from his most recent Oldies Show.
- Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You - Bob Dylan
- You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
- Trouble, Heartache, and Sadness - Ann Peebles
- Up on the Roof - The Drifters
- Eternal Flame - The Bangles
You can find all of our archived music shows on our Mixcloud.
Nature Notes
Many wild creatures have paid a high price for human success, as their habitats have vanished amidst our own relentless expansion. But there are others that are thriving alongside us, and capitalizing on the changes we’ve wrought.
Mississippi kites are a prime local example. In recent decades, these historically eastern raptors have colonized West Texas cities. They’re fascinating birds, but can sometimes make for prickly neighbors.
Mississippi kites are slender and elegant, with 3-foot wingspans and plumage that fades from black to a pale gray-white. They once summered mostly in the Southeast, nesting in deciduous trees. But as people brought those trees to the Texas plains, the kites followed. Now, they’re regular summer residents of Midland, Lubbock and Amarillo.
Drew Stuart has more on these tenacious birds, and their journey to West Texas, here.
Caló
Bárbaro - In modern Spanish, it means a barbarous person or activity. In Caló, it means outstanding or extraordinary, good or bad. It’s in the same category as eeee, but more pointed. Comparable terms in colloquial English are sick, crazy and bomb, as in that feat was crazy. To be sure, the adjective modifies the onda, not the person causing it. You tell a very funny joke in public that makes everybody crack up? Bárbaro! Someone hands you an outrageous assignment? Bárbaro!
Caló is a borderland dialect. You can find more episodes here.
From the Newsroom
The Midland City Council on Thursday voted unanimously to pay approximately $54.4 million into the local firefighters’ pension fund to help address a massive deficit in the fund.
After years of mismanagement that led to the Midland Firemen’s Relief and Retirement Fund accumulating a roughly $121 million deficit, the vote marked the final step in instituting a plan to address the shortfall. In recent years, both city leaders and local firefighters have worked to shore up the fund, leading to the city’s lump sum payment and the first responders opting to cut their retirement benefits.
As city officials celebrated finding a resolution, Midland Mayor Lori Blong acknowledged that the deal is a real sacrifice for Midland firefighters.
“These are real dollars out of the pockets, and futures, of firefighters,” she said.
Mitch Borden has the full story here.
PSAs
The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute will be hosting a tree and shrub pruning workshop on Friday, February 21st from 9:30-11:30am.
Jayme Trainer, a Woodland Ecologist and Urban Forester from the Texas A&M University Forest Service will lead the program which will include live demonstrations on a variety of different plant subjects.
Space is limited and advance registration is required by emailing events@cdri.org