March 29th, 2013
Suzanne Philippus, a news reporter for station KBZK in Bozeman, and a graduate student at Montana State University, was selected by the National Science Foundation in a competitive program as one of three reporters for the 2012 Journalist deployment to Antarctica.
The mission was to report on scientific research supported by NSF's Office of Polar Programs in that area. Those selected had to pay for all expenses as far as New Zealand, along with certain medical exams prior to departure. A grant from the Greater Montana Foundation provided the opportunity for Suzanne to participate, by providing a commercial station grant of $14,561 to Station KBZK for these expenses.
For Station KBZK, Suzanne produced a seven part series of news packages and a Face the State program, which aired on all CBS affiliates in Montana. She notes that some of the research is especially relevant for Montanans, such as drilling without contamination, and the fact that the lead researcher is based at MSU.
The expedition to Antarctica occurred for a week the first part of December and the programs were aired in February, 2013.
General grants are available for nonprofits and others: for film, TV programs, documentaries, videos, webinars, etc. with applications due annually on April 1 and awards made in June.
A major goal for GMF’s founder, Ed Craney was to improve commercial broadcasting in the state. There is no deadline for grant applications from commercial stations if you can demonstrate that this is an urgent and critical issue & production is time-limited