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Gay New Mexico

KUNM to raise community consciousness

Station to feature programs about homosexuality and literature

New Mexico Daily Lobo, September 18, 1997 (excerpt)
UNM, Marion Hall Room 131
Albuquerque, NM 87131-2061
(505-277-7527 Fax: 505-277-6228)

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.

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