Today is the day you can help KLRU reach our goal and raise $25,000 by August 31. Some of you have made a gift this drive already – some of you support us throughout the year – but for those who haven’t or for those who could give something more, please act now.

We promise to turn your dollars into action: producing quality programming foreveryone; providing invaluable educational training and tools for our students, teachers and parents; and creating the space for community dialogue around the most relevant and important issues today.

Together we can end this month with a bang!

We are now just $30,000 short of what we need to raise this month and now is the time for you to join this final push towards our $240,000 goal. If you made a gift yesterday, THANK YOU! If you haven’t made a donation during this August drive, or if you think you could give a little more, please do so right now.

We can get to that goal with YOUR help. Your support – and the support of your neighbors, friends, and family – is what makes everything we do possible. Together we can continue to make a difference in Austin – please take a minute and make your gift today. Thank you!

This month, KLRU must raise more than $270,000 to continue to provide you with more than 30,000 hours of programming, that for FIVE decades, has been the best on television. We hope you can watch, and support, this weekend:

Tonight: Inspire Understanding by giving a gift for Moyers & Company at 8pm (Welcome back, Bill!)

Saturday: Inspire Creativity with a gift for a VERY special episode of Austin City Limits at 8pm – Season 37 Highlights: Some of our favorite moments from Season 37. Tune in for your chance to get tickets to see Radiohead tape a performance for Season 38 – every gift made will automatically be entered to win 1 of 5 pairs of balcony tickets to the Tuesday night taping. We also have a limited number of guaranteed tickets to offer for donations of $500 – but the only way to secure those is by watching Saturday night and calling in!

Sunday: Inspire Exploration by supporting our smash hit Downton Abbey at 7pm – We’ll be airing a behind-the-scenes special and a fan-favorite episode from Season 2. Take your exploration even further by entering the Masterpiece Sweepstakes to win a trip to Britain and tour the castles that inspired Downton Abbey.

They say you only turn fifty once, but with the help of supporters like you, we feel like we’re just getting started, and that KLRU’s best work is still ahead of it. Give your Birthday gift to KLRU right now!

If you are not interested in one of our fantastic thank you gifts, I hope you will consider giving a gift of $50 in honor of KLRU’s 50 years of service. That’s just $1 for each year that KLRU has inspired Austin.

Thanks for watching and supporting KLRU-TV!

To kick off the KLRU March fundraising drive, we have organized an eBay auction of signed, limited edition band posters from ACL’s season 37 – the auction will be up until March 10, so bid now and bid often to get your favorite performer’s poster into your personal collection.

Posters currently available for bids
(click on band name below to visit auction site)

Arcade Fire

Coldplay

Florence & The Machine

Gillian Welch & The Decemberists

Jeff Bridges

Miranda Lambert

Randy Newman

Raphael Saadiq

Steve Miller Band

Wilco

All proceeds will go directly to KLRU to inspire creativity, exploration and understanding in Austin – and beyond.

Your on-air KLRU personalities during Downton Abbey: Linda, Jesse and Betsy

We heard from so many of you this weekend and thanks to you we raised $75,995 towards our goal of $240,000 – if you gave a gift this weekend, THANK YOU!

If you’ve been waiting to make your gift this pledge drive, you might be interested in what we have coming up tonight on KLRU – we’ll be live in the studio during Antiques Roadshow with the final opportunity to get your tickets to the 2012 KLRU Antiques Appraisal Fair! If you haven’t secured your place yet at this fun event, you can donate now or call in tonight to do so!

Don’t forget to comment on any of our blog, Facebook or Twitter posts for a chance to win a KLRU t-shirt prize package! Comment often! #whyKLRU

KLRU has reached the end of our August pledge drive and we are just $495 short our goal of $240,000. If you are among the thousands who have responded over the last 17 days, THANK YOU!

If you have not given yet, you have a unique opportunity to give the gift that puts KLRU over it’s goal. Give that gift right now!

During this drive we offered tickets to a number of one-of-a-kind KLRU experiences. As you think about how you would like to be thanked for your support, please consider joining us for one (or more) of these incredible events:

2 tickets to the Austin City Limits taping with Arcade Fire on September 17th

2 tickets to KLRU Antiques Appraisal Fair (bring 3 treasures with you) on January 21st

2 tickets to spend the day on the set of Central Texas Gardener on October 6th

2 tickets to our BBQ bus tour – KLRU-Daytripper Meat-Up on October 1st

We hope you will make a donation, and perhaps join us for one of our events. Also, please consider inspiring others by sharing your reason for supporting KLRU at our Facebook page, or on Twitter – using the hashtag #whyKLRU.

Thank you for watching and supporting KLRU!

Our August pledge drive is wrapping us this weekend, but we have more surprises in store for you!

Tonight is a special presentation of The Daytripper, featuring Chet’s best of Austin day trips! Chet will join us live in the KLRU studios starting at 7pm. In addition to watching great clips from some of Chet’s favorite close-to-home episodes, he’ll share behind-the-scenes stories and hopefully we’ll see some of that great Daytripper blooper reel!

As a thank you gift for folks who call in to support The Daytripper tonight, we are offering two tickets to the first ever KLRU-Daytripper Meat-Up, a bbq bus tour of some classic restaurants in Central Texas! You’ll have to tune in to find out more or go online to snag your seat right now!

Don’t miss The Daytripper special event tonight at 7pm – LIVE FROM THE KLRU STUDIOS!

If you’ve already given a gift or shared why you love KLRU this August, thank you for your support! In just one week, you have helped raised $90,000 towards our goal of $240,000! We’re not done yet – tonight and Saturday we’ll be live in the KLRU studios with really exciting programs and thank you gifts!

Tonight is our regular Friday public affairs line up starting at 6pm with PBS Newshour, Washington Week at 7pm and Need to Know at 7:30pm. If you call in to support any of our public affairs programs you’ll be entered in a drawing to win season tickets to our engaging speaker series, Spark at the Moody.

Following public affairs at 8:30pm is American Masters: Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides, an incredible portrait of the life, career, and creative journey of a very talented actor, artist and musician. Jeff Bridges just taped his Austin City Limits performance this week (airing in November), and we’ll be giving away his signed, limited edition posters and also tickets to the Big Lebowski quote-a-long at the Alamo Drafthouse this month – you’ll have to watch to win, so don’t forget to tune in!

PBS Preview: American Masters: Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides

The highlight of Saturday afternoon is 90 minutes of Central Texas Gardener starting at 4pm. We’ll be live in the studio with all the CTG folks who are eager to hear from the garden-lovers out there. We have a great fall preview show lined up (read more about it at the CTG blog!), a special gift package to give away from Eastside Cafe, Go Local Austin businesses answering the phones,  and  an exclusive behind-the-scenes experience for fans to see an actual taping of a CTG episode! It’ll be CTG-super-sized and not to be missed!

Central Texas Gardener Saturday Special Promo

Stick around KLRU into the evening for the next live pledge event: Austin City Limits, Season 37 Preview. See next season’s performances and backstage interviews before anyone else does! And if you’re a fan of Arcade Fire, you will have an opportunity to receive tickets to their ACL taping in September – tickets will go fast, so don’t miss your chance! Give now and watch the preview tomorrow for more ACL goodies!

Austin City Limits Special: Season 37 Preview

If you were among the hundreds this weekend who donated to support our August pledge drive, Thank You! In total we raised $47,000 towards our goal of $240,000.  We are 17% through the drive, and we are 19% of the way to our goal. If you have yet to give, help us keep the momentum going by contributing to our fundraising effort.

Our #whyKLRU campaign is also picking up steam. We want to hear why you choose KLRU by logging on to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or the KLRU blog, to answer the question: Why KLRU? Here is a sample of some of the messages we received over the weekend:

Please take a moment to make a donation – any amount makes a difference! And also share your reason for choosing to watch and be involved with KLRU at our Facebook page, or on Twitter – using the hashtag #whyKLRU.

Thank you again for watching and supporting KLRU – and we look forward to hearing from you!

Why KLRU? Whether you watch Sesame Street every morning with your kids, enjoy the drama of Masterpiece on Sunday evenings, or get gardening advice from Central Texas Gardener, you probably have your own answer to the question: Why KLRU?

In the next 17 days, KLRU needs to raise $240,000 to provide the PBS programs and local productions required to answer the needs of 1.7 million people in Central Texas.

We hope you will make a donation, and also share your reason for supporting KLRU at our Facebook page, or on Twitter – using the hashtag #whyKLRU.

We’ve also created a series of videos, starring your friends and neighbors, asking them to answer the question: Why KLRU? We hope the videos inspire you to let us know your reason, and inspire you to support our work with a donation.

Thank you for watching and supporting KLRU!