Great news. Rocky Mountain PBS has agreed to broadcast the Lost Sea Expedition, the documentary about my Canada to Mexico wagon with mule Polly.
It’s fitting that an old school Public Television station would be the first to pick up the wagon voyage series. KRMA, Rocky Mountain PBS’s flagship station in Denver, Colorado, is the oldest public television station in the Rocky Mountains.
The broadcast area overlaps the Colorado part of our 2,500 mile journey down the Great Plains.
We’ll keep you posted of when the series will air. Right now, though, since Public Television doesn’t pay for content, we need to raise funds to complete the series. We could sure use your help.
Many people are surprised to know that Public Television does not pay for content. Rather, it is the film maker – big ones like Ken Burns and little guys like me – that have to pay all the considerable costs that go in to making the first class programing Public Television is known for.
So far, I’ve paid for the series from a variety of sources. I sold books out my wagon to cover much of my travel expenses. I just carried boxes of them in my wagon and sold them town to town as I went. Wow. Do you know how many $15 books you have to sell to make a movie? Well, I still haven’t sold that many. Yep, more money needed…
What about getting money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment of the Arts and the National Educational Funding? Well, if you’ve followed the news, those budgets have been slashed. So…no go.
That means the bulk of the documentary’s funding comes from individuals, corporations, foundations, underwriters and contributors. Folks like you that see something in the adventurous, hard scrabble program that makes them think, “hey, that’s cool. I’d like to support that.”
We still have a way to go, though. We are still saving up to buy Errors and Omission insurance, closed captioning and other items required by Public Television. We’d sure like if you clicked her to make a donation. Hell, send enough and we’ll send you a mug, poster or fossil. Whatever amount you give, you’ll get an online mention and, if I meet you on the street, a bear hug.
Welcome aboard Rocky Mountain PBS. Colorado, here we come – again!