On Air

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Note to self: when going on television, wear something with a lapel or a pocket, or both.

Last week I was back in the studios of Blue Ridge PBS for their winter 2009 pledge drive, and after some entertaining and acrobatic microphone placement maneuvers, enjoyed a very nice talk with Kate Foreman, vice president of advancement at the station, about the magazine, the Civil War, photographers, stories about square dancing and the cover of our January/February issue.

This is the second year Blue Ridge Country has partnered with BRPBS – we offer one-year subscriptions to the magazine for every new public television member (folks who donate at the $60 level and above). In the 2008-2009 fund drives we welcomed 4,300 new readers to BRC through that program. Many of Blue Ridge PBS's listeners are already our readers – the station covers much of our geography, and much of our interests – travel, history, regionalism.

This season, we've also gone onboard as a sponsor for BRPBS's new documentary, "Virginia in the Civil War," which you may have read about in this blog and in our November/December Civil War issue – it had its premiere the night I was at the station. As part of that sponsorship, we have donated a year's subscription to every high school (public, private and independent, and the governor's schools) in the Commonwealth of Virginia. All of this marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, in 2010.

So that's why I was on TV (looking remarkably animated in this photo!). The fund drive – a record-breaking one, Kate tells me – just finished but you can catch it again in the spring (it happens four times a year) and once again we'll be offering free subscriptions to joining public television members.