KTTZ is currently in its Spring Fund Drive, the first one since Texas Tech Public Media’s new executive director Julie Grimes started with the organization.
The KTTZ news team sat down with Grimes to discuss her background, perspective, and her vision for the organization moving forward.
The following transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Samantha Larned: This is KTTZ reporter Samantha Larned. I'm here with Texas Tech Public Media's new executive director, Julie Grimes. Julie started in February, and this is her first Radio Fund Drive with our station. Julie, thanks for sitting down with me today.
Julie Grimes: Thanks so much, Samantha! I'm happy to be here.
Samantha Larned: To start off with. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Julie Grimes: Absolutely, I think the most important thing to say right off the bat is I am a Texas Tech Red Raider. So decades ago, I was a student here at Tech, and I'm thrilled to be back in Lubbock and be working with all of you wonderful folks here at Texas Tech Public Media.
SL: What was your career path like, and how did you get into public broadcasting?
JG: It was a winding road, to be honest. So I graduated Tech with an English degree, and spent a couple of years in Houston, right out of school, teaching middle school English. And from there, I wanted to do more creative things. So I ultimately moved away from Texas, went to culinary school and then landed in Birmingham, Alabama, where that was the beginning of my media career, was in food journalism. So I spent about 20 years in Birmingham working at Southern Living magazine and then Cooking Light magazine. And loved, loved the work, loved the job, loved storytelling.
And ultimately, after being in Birmingham for a long time, I always wanted to come back to Texas. And so it turned out that I got back to Texas about four years ago. Lived in Amarillo, and that's where I got into public media. I worked at Panhandle PBS in Amarillo, and so that was the beginning of my work in public media.
SL: Do you still like cooking, or does it feel too much like work now?
JG: That's a great question. I always was in cooking because it's more of an act of service to others than it was ever for my own – you know, I don't necessarily cook for myself. I cook for family, I cook for friends, I cook for events. So it's not as much fun to cook for one.
SL: Why did you choose to come work with Texas Tech Public Media?
JG: Well, like I said, I am a Red Raider at heart. So after living for a lot of years in SEC country, it's good to be back in West Texas. But I think that we have a unique opportunity here in Lubbock. Obviously, we've got our KTTZ TV and FM here in Lubbock, and then I don't know if all of our listeners are aware that we also have the NPR-affiliate in San Angelo, as well as the PBS-affiliate in El Paso. So I think that footprint that spans from San Angelo to El Paso is a wonderful opportunity for us to make sure that no part of West Texas goes without news and information, and make sure that we are the outlet and the venue to tell all of those wonderfully rich and diverse, diverse stories from all the people who live here in West Texas.
SL: So kind of going off of that, tell me a little bit more about what you see Texas Tech Public Media's role as in the communities that it serves?
JG: Yes, that's a great question. I mean to me – well, and it's not just me – but in public media in general, there are basically four pillars of our mission. So in the TV world, we are focused on education, public safety, and community building. And then obviously on the radio side, it's similar, but we are a news organization, who also has a mission driven connection to serving the community. So the community is really the one through line. It's the part of our mission that I think we can really lean into here in West Texas.
And that's really kind of one of my top priorities, is to work on building community here in Lubbock as well as in El Paso, and then in San Angelo as well. And all points in between. I think that the community in Lubbock, we want to engage with partners who can help us do our mission work, who can help us tell our stories, and then who we can, in turn, help with their mission as well. So there are lots of great examples of how we do that here at the radio. I think you guys are doing great work around elections right now and getting out into the public and talking to people and hearing their stories. And so I feel like we certainly want to do more of that as we move forward in terms of building community. Because the way that I see our overall mission, we need to kind of hold a mirror up to our listeners, our audiences, and then tell stories that are important to them, because it's the local aspect of the radio and TV side of things that is really what we do here.
SL: So, trust is a primary tenant of all media organizations, but it's also one of the biggest struggles facing the industry. As someone who's come into this leadership role from a media background, how does that inform your decision making?
JG: That is a great question. So I would say, maybe I have a unique perspective, maybe not. But I think like you and like Brad and like all of our folks here, I take the trust element of what we do very seriously. It's definitely something that has always been important to me in terms of my career in media.
I think it's the landscape around us that shifted largely and I think it has become convenient to call things into question. So for me, the best way to kind of find my bearing and the landscape that we're in today is to really keep a tight focus on: I want to be sure that we here at Texas Tech Public Media, are the ones who help people understand what our priorities are and why they can and should trust us, right?
So I think there are often efforts made at the national level to characterize organizations like local NPR and/or PBS stations on a national level. And so to me, that's where the heart of understanding what your local PBS station is, that's where it's important to understand why you can trust your local station. These national organizations provide content that we broadcast. Most people know the difference between local and national content, right? But the content mix is 100% in our hands. So now we're back to looking at that mirror and looking at what our audiences need and want and where their interests lie, and we get to make the decisions about which programs are appropriate to our audience. If you're listening to KTTZ here in Lubbock, or you're listening to our PBS versus even our El Paso station, we serve our audiences differently because the communities are different. And so that's the reason that you can and should trust KTTZ here in Lubbock, is that we all live in Lubbock. We all have ties to this community. We love this community, and we're here to serve the community – that national NPR has very little to do with what we do here in Lubbock, other than we look through a catalog of what programs are available to everybody across the nation, and we choose which ones are most appropriate to our audience.
So again, I think it's just really important for us to be constantly communicating with our audience, to be in tune with what their needs and wants and interests are. And that we are always mindful of the fact that our job here is to serve the community and that we're your neighbors, we're your friends, and that is deserving of trust.
SL: I agree with every element of that. I think it's so important that we let our audience know we are part of these communities. We show up to these events, we vote, we do all of the things that we're talking about on air that we are trying to make people aware of.
Many of our listeners are also aware of the funding concerns following the loss of CPB last year, and the impact, especially on smaller stations like ours. What is the plan for KTTZ moving forward?
JG: Yes. Well, and that's a good question, and I know there's probably still a lot of confusion out there. I mean, first of all, in the public media world, it's alphabet soup, right? So you set an acronym: CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was originally just kind of – It's a private corporation that's the conduit between when federal funds used to flow to stations. So it's a complicated system, and it has been trying times for all of the stations – KTTZ, KCOS, KNCH included – to figure out, what does it look like when roughly a third of your budget evaporates in a matter of months. So it's difficult.
I think we should start by expressing our immense gratitude to this community. We can tell from the outpouring of support, from messages, from calls to our elected officials, from dollars donated to the stations, from membership numbers – we know that there is a need here in the community. We know what our value is. So we are thrilled to be able to say that for the current fiscal year, 2026, we're in good financial standing. So that gives us the opportunity to be able to look ahead to the future. It's really that long term sustainability that we've got to be focused on, because it's not a one time budget cut. We need to be able to reimagine the work that we do and the budgets so that we can see into the foreseeable future. How do we sustain ourselves?
It would be nice if federal funds come back at some point, but it's my opinion and view that we want to be self-sufficient, right? So if funds come back, that'll be kind of like the bonus. And we also will know that should the political wind shift again and they go away again. It won't mean the difference between whether we're able to stay functional and solvent or not, right? So that's what we need to do, is look into the future and build on our current level of support that we have. You can expect in the future, you'll hear more about it when we get to this point, but we'll need to undertake a major fundraising campaign. We're going to find different project by project basis to help sustain different types of work that we want to do as we move forward. So we're working on a long term sustainability plan as well as a strategic plan on how this organization will look a little different as we move forward.
I think that – this isn't exactly what you were asking – but another thing that I'm always proud to talk about with our audiences is that what we have here in the state of Texas, as a state in the public media arena, is really unique. All 10 of our public television stations work cooperatively to find efficiencies, to drive collective revenue and to tell stories and do more with our resources combined, right? And it's radio who kind of made that blueprint that television is following in at the moment. So through programs like the Texas Standard, the Texas Newsroom, we have kind of pioneered a way that we work here in the state of Texas collaboratively for the greater good of the state. So that's very much to our benefit here as well, that we've got those resources and that framework to work within. It's really a point of strength that we can grow from in the future as we're all embracing this new reality that we face.
SL: You mentioned you are a Red Raider. You were excited to get back to West Texas. Is there anything specific here in Lubbock that you were excited to get back to a restaurant, a piece of public art, a sports team, anything like that?
JG: It's baseball season right now, so I've got to get out to the park and see a game. I'm looking forward to seeing football this fall. I would date myself if I told you about restaurants that were here when I was in college. Many of them are gone, but I am very excited about the food scene here in Lubbock. So there's lots of places on my list that I've got to get to.
SL: Alright, do you have any additional messages for our listeners, our viewers, our supporters, that you want to share?
JG: Well, again, I think I need to say, thank you very much. Thank you for the trust that you place in us. Thank you for the support, and we are looking forward to being able to serve you in all the same ways that we always have, as well as new ones as we move forward. And don't be a stranger. We'd love to hear from you. If there's anything that you guys want to see us do moving forward, we'd love to hear from you. So thank you again.
SL: And thank you. Julie Grimes, executive director of Texas Tech Public Media, thanks again.
JG: Thanks!
