Telluride's KOTO could begin accepting underwriting

KOTO, broadcasting to Telluride, Colo., and surrounding environs from its purple house on Pine Street, is really feeling a financial pinch — particularly because it's one of only six pubradio stations in the country that does not accept underwriting. Its news staff was recently pared to just one reporter, and its executive director got a salary cut; other pay and benefit reductions could follow. So the station soon will survey its members to ask if online or on-air underwriting would be acceptable, reports the Telluride Daily Planet. KOTO's support from CPB has dwindled from $170,000 three years ago to less than $92,000 this year. That makes its traditional summer fundraising efforts — "special events such as the potato black bean sauté," the paper says — more important than ever. "We’re constantly working on our events, thinking of new ones and trying to make the old ones work,” said Steve Kennedy, executive director.