Courtesy photo |
Garfield County commissioners declined to fund a Spanish language program on community radio station KDNK they supported in 2018 during the final community grant awards for 2019.
Because the Charlando con Crystal program appeared to be shifting from primarily news and commentary to more music, Commissioner Tom Jankovsky suggested not funding the program.
“It’s a complete change of what they’ve requested in the past,” Jankovsky said Tuesday. “It was for a Spanish-speaking program, and now it’s sponsorship of Spanish music.”
In an interview, Jankovsky said KNDK’s request was for a very different kind of show than what was supported last year.
“The other program was more of a news program, and this program was more music,” Jankovsky said. “I didn’t believe it was in the realm of what we needed to cover.”
The commissioners unanimously approved $18,500 in total grant requests with $34,000 available for the remainder of the year. The commissioners will also consider a $5,000 grant request from Yampah Mountain High School at their next meeting.
The other organization to not receive grant funding was The Art Base Creative Club, which requested $5,000. Commissioners decided it wasn’t appropriate to fund since the organization is based in Eagle County.
In November 2018, KDNK requested and received a $4,200 grant to expand Spanish language programming. The funded show, Charlando con Crystal, became a popular morning show for KDNK and received an award for best Spanish morning show from the Colorado Broadcasters Association in April.
But Charlando con Crystal’s host, Crystal Mariscal, had to leave the show for work with the 2020 Complete Count Committee for the upcoming census, and passed the reigns on to another host.
Eloise Eduarte changed the name to Charlando con la Comunidad, and was limited to Monday mornings. Other weekdays, KDNK uses syndicated Spanish language news.
Eduarte told the commissioners that much of her show is now music from Latin America, though there have been interviews with local figures.
KDNK General Manager Gavin Dahl said in a statement that the show is much more than a music program, and that it will likely expand to more days a week.
“It’s unfortunate that the Garfield County Commissioners, whose support was so instrumental in the success last year, mistakenly understood this work as nothing more than a music program,” KDNK General Manager Gavin Dahl said.
“We plan to re-apply in 2020 to clarify what the project is and why we think Garfield County’s funding help is so important to the continued growth of KDNK’s nascent service to help meet the information needs of the Latino community in our listening area.”
