Dear Hive:
Five years ago today, our first BUZZ aired on Blue Ridge PBS.
It almost didn’t happen.
With the start of the pandemic less than three months earlier, our prospects for sponsorship funding had evaporated, and the production challenges – like everything else in the world – seemed too daunting.
But nonprofits, more than ever, needed some buzz. Thankfully enough people still believed in us to move forward so that on August 5, 2020, BUZZ debuted with our episode starring Southwest Virginia Ballet.
The “buzz” provided by Carrie Cousins — a new logo and website for the ballet company — and the reaction from artistic director Pedro Szalay remain among my favorite.
I wasn’t sure where it was all going at the time — both Covid and my TV show — but in the words of Bruce C. Bryan, the owner of 5Points Creative and the first to believe in my vision: “Head down, keep grinding. Head up, keep looking for opportunity.”
Since then we’ve produced 55 episodes starring just as many Virginia nonprofits (our 56th airs August 27 to conclude our 5th season), plus another 14 in my hometown state of Alabama (episodes 15-18 begin airing September 14 on Alabama Public Television).
Thanks to our partnership with the National Educational Telecommunications Association, BUZZ now airs on public television stations across the U.S. including New York, Chicago and California.
In 2022 my friends at Wheeler Media offered me an hour timeslot on WFIR, and so we premiered the Buzz4Good radio show and podcast. Last week we recorded our 95th episode.
And earlier this year we launched BUZZ Live! … “The Tonight Show for Nonprofits” (my words, not NBC’s). Our 15th show is August 27 at The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg.
All of you are why BUZZ came to be, so I hope you’ll join me in celebrating this special anniversary. While my favorite clip from our first show is the marketing buzz, this video features the most commented on: my ballet lesson with Pedro Szalay.
With all my heart … thank you.
Always buzzing,
Michael Hemphill
BUZZ Creator
