Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 10:39:58 -0600
From: Bob Summersgill <rsummers@unm.edu> (by way of Bob Summersgill)
Subject: KUNM to raise community consciousness

NEW MEXICO DAILY LOBO, September 18, 1997 (excerpt)
UNM, Marion Hall Room 131, Albuquerque, NM 87131-2061
(505-277-7527 Fax: 505-277-6228)
KUNM to raise community consciousness
Station to feature programs about homosexuality and literature
by Jeremy Berlin
   Two new programs will air on KUNM-FM in the next month and both
represent station management's aims to raise community awareness and
involvement, albeit in different ways.
   On Oct. 11, KUNM will commemorate National Coming Out Day by
broadcasting a full day of programs focused on gay and lesbian issues,
people and music.
   "We're happy the community is helping to produce this important day-long
broadcast," said Richard Towne, general manager at KUNM. "We hope to
increase our service to the community by providing local and regional
coverage of news, issues, music and culture on National Coming Out Day."
   KUNM's broadcast will feature interviews with prominent gay authors and
activists and will highlight gay and lesbian folk musicians. The broadcast
also will include a variety of locally produced shows addressing topics
such as gay and lesbian marriage, parenting, politics and issues in the
Hispanic and Jewish gay and lesbian communities.
   The station will also broadcast vignettes on several New Mexicans'
personal coming out stories throughout the day.
   KUNM has broadcast the weekly program "This Way Out," an international
gay and lesbian news and features magazine, for several years. The
showcasing of National Coming Out Day is a plan to raise community
consciousness to the next level, says Marcos Martinez, news director at KUNM.
   "Our highest hope would be to raise awareness of gay and lesbian
concerns and issues in the community," Martinez said. "There are still hate
crimes out there. Gay and lesbian people are still denied equal access.
There's always more to be done on that front."
   Rachel Maurer of UNM Public Affairs said this broadcast represents
KUNM's commitment to providing a voice to groups that aren't always heard.
   "One of the things KUNM has historically done is try to serve groups who
aren't necessarily served by the mainstream media," Maurer said. "This is a
celebration -- a way to draw people in, a way to educate people."
   National Coming Out day was started in 1988 by Rob Eichberg, a former
Santa Fe resident who died in 1995. Eichberg conceived the event as a means
of commemorating the first two national gay and lesbian marches on
Washington, D.C., which occurred on October 11 in 1979 and 1987 respectively.
   ...