Funding for Colores was provided in part by: New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and Viewers Like You Retiring after 27 years at New Mexico PBS General Manager Franz Joachim reflects on his challenges, successes and steadfast dedication to serving the community.

>> Franz: And when I came here, I really got a sense of storytelling in that narrative arc from a documentary called Painting Taos that became one of my absolute favorite pieces that we have done out of the station, and I still watch that show.

I've probably watched it at least a dozen times.

After two devastating hurricanes, the artists of Artmosphere came together to rebuild their studios and community.

It's all ahead on Colores!

A LIFE IN PUBLIC MEDIA >> Faith: Franz, thank you for joining me today on Colores to talk about your long career in public media and congratulations on celebrating your retirement after 27 years.

Yay!

>> Franz: Thank you very much.

>> Faith: So how did you get into public media and like, what drew you to it?

>> Franz: It wasn't until I went to college and there was a public television station in Tucson, the University of Arizona, much like we're part of the University of New Mexico here.

There was a college owned public television station, and I was the AV kid, the AV nerd in high school.

So I was kind of into the gear and I was an electrical engineering student at the time and thought, you know, this is kind of a good fit.

And my very first job in television, December of 1976, was running that pledge camera where I was getting shots of people on the telephone.

And I remember calling my mom in between, pledge breaks and calling.

Did you see that shot?

Did you?

That was me.

I put that person -- That was my camera shot!

So it was almost like I was on TV, right?

And I was really excited about that.

I was making $2 an hour, and I was so thrilled.

[both laugh] >> Faith: $2 an hour?

>> Franz: $2 an hour!

That was minimum wage at the time.

>> Faith: Wow!

That's interesting.

So what early experiences do you feel really shaped how you think about storytelling and community service through public media?

>> Franz: It really did not take too long for me to really appreciate what this station was doing that was different than what other stations were doing.

And as I went on in my career and I worked for some commercial stations and I worked in industrial television, I was drawn back to public media because of the mission and that sense of mission that was growing in me.

The idea that that -- we're there, regardless of a return on investment, that we're going to be available to people, even if we can't sell an advertisement in that area, we're going to put channels on in places where there are hardly any people, because -- there are some people and they may need us.

So getting a sense of how important that was and how much of an alternative we were to the other parts of it, and it didn't matter if we were getting the highest ratings.

In fact, sometimes that was a negative, because if you were getting high ratings well, that was a program that probably ought to go into the commercial world and be sustained through advertising.

So we're going to try something new.

We're going to be this testbed, for new ideas and innovative things and new ways of storytelling.

And when I came here, I really got a sense of storytelling in that narrative arc from a documentary called Painting Taos that became one of my absolute favorite pieces that we have done out of the station, and I still watch that show.

I've probably watched it at least a dozen times, and I think it's just masterful in the storytelling.

The imagery is beautiful, the stories are really compelling, and how the stories are knitted together.

I think it's amazing.

So that really kind of sealed for me as I came through this process here, how different we are from what commercial television stations do.

And believe me, I love commercial TV.

I watch a lot, but there's something different about what we do and how we do it and why we do it.

And it's important that we be here for that reason.

And it's sad that we've become as important as we are in this time, but, there we are, and our mission, our need, our need to be is greater than it's ever been.

You know, I look at what we do with journalism is a great example where we're seeing journalism die nationwide.

I was just listening to another story about newspapers going off line and going out of business.

News entities.

And I was listening to a podcast about a new business model, for keeping journalists more sustainable.

And they're talking about basically selling space for corporations to advertise via, “telling a story,” a news piece that they will acknowledge, this is an advertisement, but it's going to look like a newspaper story, and you're seeing more and more and more of that.

So there's a growing need for places where we're just doing the journalism and we're not trying to sell ourselves in some other way.

We're just doing the journalism, we're just doing the work.

And that's more important than ever.

And public media, radio and television is where we're going to see that grow.

I think that's the sort of thing that really gets me excited now.

Another thing is this alternative place for media to try things.

Public media can afford to try things and fail, whereas the commercial entities, they can't afford to fail -- They fail, they get sold.

Somebody else buys them.

They become something different.

Public media is the only place where we've been able to sustain over time, trying things, failing and then succeeding.

>> Faith: So, it feels like there's a lot of freedom in public media that isn't in other places.

>> Franz: There is a lot of freedom.

There's a lot of freedom of expression.

There's a lot of freedom to try.

There's a lot of freedom to fail.

And I think that that's maybe the one piece of advice I█d give to anybody who's in public television right now, is don't be afraid to fail.

I've had failures.

I've had lots of them.

But the only reason we have successes is because we tried something, right?

And it wasn't a given that it was going to work.

>> Faith: Yeah, so you came up through operations and production, before becoming General Manager.

How did that, like, hands on experience really shape the way you lead?

>> Franz: One of the things I learned fairly early on, and I've really stuck by this, and I think this is a really important thing for people who want to lead that as often as not, in fact, more often, most often -- it's more important that you make a decision than the decision that you make.

You'll never know how the other one worked out.

You didn't do that.

You've got to make the one that you made work, so you make the decision, the best one you can in the moment.

Make that decision.

Move on.

Make it work.

Once you really embrace that and you figure out -- don't look back, don't look at what could have happened, because you never really know.

Just move on.

Make it work.

Stick with your decision.

>> Faith: Love that advice.

That's great advice.

Can you share a moment or two where you felt like you were really making an impact on the community.

>> Franz: Yeah, recently -- working with the governor's office and the legislature to get money in -- for all of the public media stations in New Mexico.

So, in July of 2025, the Congress at the federal level voted to take money they'd already appropriated to public media, away that put a lot of stations at risk particularly here in New Mexico, where there are three public TV stations and 12 public radio stations.

Some of those public radio stations are tiny tribal station with literally two employees, right, two paid staff and then a bunch of volunteers and help from the community to get them -- these are economically challenged communities.

They don't have a large fundraising base that they can do pledge drives and pull in a lot of money to stay on -- that just doesn't exist.

And yet, the service that these stations provide, you know, is incredible.

This is how a lot of their community gets emergency information, how their community gets news -- how their community finds out about what's going on in their community, right?

They are listening to this radio station.

Oftentimes they're speaking in their native languages.

The station in Ramah -- I would say out of 20 -- the time they're on the air, 80% of the time they're on the air, they're speaking Diné to their people.

It's pretty amazing, right?

No other station is doing that for that community except that station.

So to be able to keep these small stations going, keep them, operating when the federal government has taken away, might be 60-70% of their budget, like that.

Right.

So we're a large station in this state.

We're a mid-sized station nationally, but we're the largest public media outlet in this state.

So I did have the wherewithal, and the time, to go to the legislature and go to the governor and request help.

And to her credit, this governor didn't just say, “yes.” She said, “yes, and here's how we're going to do it, and here's what we need help doing, and here's the information I need to make this work.” And she gave me guidance, gave the secretary of Higher Education guidance.

“This is how we're going to do this.” “Go out and find this information.” “Talk to the legislature.” “I've got your back.” And darned if it didn't work.

In October, we got one year of the funding in this last session we got another half a year -- So, this state has done something that no other state has done.

No other state in the nation went to their public media stations and said, “how can we help you stay alive?” “We want you, we need you.

What can we do?” So to be part of that effort, I will say, at the end of my career, for that to be that moment, that was tremendous.

And I got an incredible sense of -- gratitude to this state for seeing the value of what we do every day.

And it really kind of vindicates what I feel like I've been doing most of my life.

So that was just tremendous.

And again, all I can say is thank you, legislature.

Thank you, governor.

Thank you, Secretary Rodriguez and higher [education] you guys really did something amazing.

>> Faith: That's amazing.

>> Franz: It is amazing.

>> Franz: A great win for all of public media, >> Franz: A great win for all the public media.

I mean, you know, we weren't going to go off the air.

I was worried that we were going to have to shrink or that we might not be able to provide some services.

But there literally were station that I'm pretty convinced would not be on the air right now had it not been for that moment, >> Faith: Keeping public media alive.

>> Franz: Absolutely.

>> Faith: You've been here for some of the station's biggest events.

Are there any stories that really stand out to you and you want to share?

>> Franz: You know, I've met a lot of people.

I've been lucky to meet a lot of people doing this.

So some of the things we did brought some really amazing and important people through here.

You know, I got to spend a weekend with Harrison Schmitt, who was the last man to walk on to the moon when we were doing these shots for CNN and MSNBC and Fox and all of those guys, and I was literally here for a weekend with a man who walked on the moon, right.

I got to meet Dennis Hopper.

I spent a weekend here with John McCain when he was running against Barack Obama.

John McCain was one of my idols growing up, I was an Air Force brat in Arizona, where McCain was from.

And I remember the day he came home, I mean, we were out on the flight line of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, watching John McCain get off the plane right, and come back home.

And I still, you know -- I really I get I get choked up thinking about it still to this day.

Right.

So I got to meet a lot of amazing people just doing that.

So just kind of that Zelig moment of being associated with fame, even though you're not part of that.

So there are certainly those kinds of moments, meeting Mr.

Rogers, when I was a student in Tucson, the day Mr.

Rogers came to the studio, we were all, you know, snarky college students making jokes about cardigans, sweaters and things.

But the moment he walked into the room, I was four years old.

We were all four years old again and just in awe of this man.

Right.

So those moments, but there are these untold stories that that kind of go to that too.

You know, I have a very dear friend who spent her life as a professor emeritus in psychology, and her line of inquiry was the effect of media on children.

And she did work and did research with Fred Rogers.

She was in the lab with Fred Rogers, sitting on the floor with kids, you know, watching, observing and taking data on what happened there and some of that work that she did and people like her did around public media shaped not just public television, but television in general.

Still to this day, laws were written about how we can advertise to children.

It's sad that some of them have been weakened as much as they have been for a bright, shining moment there.

You know, there was this really groundswell of support around how public media did things with children, and it's an iconic example of how it should be done.

And I think that's a bar we still hold today.

So even though that's not always front and center, we don't see that every day.

We don't see those Lynette Cofers working with Mr.

Rogers, but they're there and they're in the background and they're part of the fabric of what we do all the time.

They still shape us and we still shape them, and that work is still ongoing.

>> Faith: Yeah, I mean, I grew up watching Mr.

Rogers too, and it really did shape a lot of what I felt and thought even as I grew up.

So I think that's awesome.

I feel like that's missing a lot today, too, in like the YouTube sphere and stuff like that >> Franz: Yeah, it really is.

That is probably the next moment.

One of the things, it's very sad what happened with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and what that means to television.

But I have to say, in some ways I am a little bit optimistic.

Probably the last five years I've had multiple conversations with folks at the national level about how -- there was a need for a new, public broadcasting act, because so much of what we did was what was legislated, was limited to broadcast, and then kind of spilled onto cable, but wasn't even really as enforceable in the cable world.

And it didn't exist at all in the internet and still doesn't.

And what a great need there is for that.

And there's this balance now between how do you -- how do you manage, how do you regulate the internet and still allow for free speech?

Well, that's what public television was.

That's how it was created.

The whole Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created for that reason.

Right.

As this firewall so that Congress could fund things and not have influence on how it was used.

We can do this.

We've done it before.

So this is a great model already.

And now that the CPB is gone, we're going to have to have this conversation again.

And we're going to have to have it in this larger sphere, including the internet, including streaming services, including all the future ways that we're going to find to talk to each other and share information, you know, and how do you limit the amount of bad information that's transmitted?

>> Faith: Yeah.

>> Franz: How do you mitigate the harm that it can do and still allow people the ability and the freedom to say things that they need to say?

It's really tough, but we've done it before.

We have a model.

We should do it again.

>> Faith: I agree.

And what do you think you will remember most >> Franz: Other than painting Taos?

>> Faith: Yeah!

Other than that.

>> Franz: What will I remember most?

You know, it's always going to be the people and the people who are here, the people who watch us and write in, you know, like daily and praise us on things they like and complain about things they don't like.

Write me long letters, handwritten letters about things they're upset about.

Write checks along with a note saying, and here's why I support you.

There's something so neat about that.

And I, you know, I've talked to a lot of the folks in the commercial world who are really quite envious of that thing, that that very direct connection that we have with our viewers through that model, that business model we have where they donate money to support what we're doing.

It was like we were shareware before they were shareware, right?

That if you like this thing, support it.

Well, that was us going on the air telling people if you like this thing, support it, call this number on your screen and support this thing because you like it.

And damned if they don't, they support it and they tell us and then they have this ownership stake.

So boy did they tell you when they don't like something and they do.

>> Faith: This is very close to the community then >> Franz: Very close.

>> Faith: Yeah.

And especially now they're all stepping up.

I've seen.

>> Franz: In ways that amaze me.

And I had high hopes for our community when all this started.

And I've been blown away by the level of support and the trust and the gratitude that I feel from the community for what we do.

And I hope we're doing a good job of sharing with our community how much we appreciate what they're doing, because the reason we're here today is viewers like you.

That's why we're here.

REBUIDING ARTMOSPHERE [Piano music] >> Margherita: I have been managing Artmosphere since, the summer of 2023.

And, we officially opened in March of 2024.

Since then, we are a community in Saint Pete, and we give space to so many artists to create their work.

Also to showcase their work through our events that we do.

So I feel like the community is very important.

As you know, during those events, we open up to everybody.

You know, this is like a safe space for artists to make their work, create their art.

And we literally just opened, it was just starting to pick up.

It was starting to create that community and then it was just gone.

[thunder and rushing water] >> Micro: Yeah.

We were, you know, scared because, you know, we were supposed to have the flood and the with the Helen on September 26th, the flood arrived.

We tried to, you know, remove as much stuff as we can, but, it takes time then.

And then during the the rehab, we heard another notice.

The news was, oh, another one is coming.

Milton, wait a moment.

Let's see what's going on with Milton.

And then we start back again to fix everything.

You know.

>> Margherita: I remember that I got the call from my handyman saying, hey, did you hear about this storm?

I came here, I prepped with all the artists I remember.

I seal the doors with, like, black tape.

I put, like, trash bags.

I put, sandbags on top.

And I was like, you know, I hope I'm doing this for nothing.

It's not going to be anything.

And then I remember going home and I was looking at the cameras because we have cameras here.

So I was like, okay, it's holding on pretty well, it's going good, it's going good.

And then I just started to see like the water leaking through.

And I don't know why.

It was just so sad.

I don't know, it just there is a feeling of like helplessness in which there is literally nothing you can do and just wait and then figure out something after.

[somber piano] >> Margherita: Water was up to here.

So basically we had to redo all the walls.

This put us behind because we not only had, you know, Hurricane Helen, at first.

And if Milton wasn't here, we would already be back.

But, thankfully, our team works so fast and so amazing.

Each studio was a different artist.

They already, they put up, for example, Marina in this studio.

She had so much artwork in here, you don█t even know, like, if you just look at all the pins and screws and everything.

This studio was full of paintings and everything.

Yeah.

Here.

Were all my paintings.

Thankfully, the water got up to here.

So I was able to, you know, save this I did this, mural.

It was all the way to the floor.

But now, of course, it's, you know, they cut the piece out.

These artists right here.

This is Oliver.

He's been our first artist ever, and he's the one that cost him most damage, because, of course, imagine after a year of being here with all your supplies, all your art, and unfortunately, his house flooded as well.

So he's been dealing with so much.

[slow guitar] >> Oliver: I got the message that the studios had taken on water.

When I got that news, that's when I started getting a little bit of a sinking feeling that, okay, this looks like this is probably worse than what we thought was going to be.

And it turned out that it was it was probably one of the hardest moments that I've ever faced on a very personal level.

That's even going back and looking at 25 years being in the military.

>> Maryna: For me, was Big Sur bronze because I'm from, Western Europe.

We have not hurricanes.

And, for me, it was, I was in shock, to be honest.

And, it's, very unusual.

Or when you, when you need to, like, save everything because just the ocean, coming, oh!

It was like a step back, because studio must work, day by day, every day.

I beginning, for zero in the moment.

I, I need create new studio.

>> Margherita: I came here after, and it was just like chaos.

It was just, like, so messy.

Everything was, like, all over the place.

Everything was like, on top of each other.

It was dirty, was smelly.

So it was just, like, very discouraging, I would say at first.

And then slowly, because we have an amazing team, we were able to rebuild everything.

>> Oliver: Studios reopening was huge.

It was good and it was heartbreaking at the same time because you█re seeing the amount of work that had to go into rebuilding everything, it was a bittersweet moment.

>> Maryna: If you lost something you of course it's sad in the moment, but after this, after this, I'm feeling I have, I had a new I've had a new way for, I had a new way for energy to do new artworks.

And I did it.

>> Micro: It was sad, but at the end, we are here again.

And then, you know, we survived.

>> Margherita: So now that everything is back to normal, I'm definitely feeling really good.

It's so nice to come here.

Have all the artists work in their space and just, you know, walk in the hallways and I peek in and I see, you know, somebody working on their new painting, somebody working on their new sculpture, photography projects and so on.

And I'm back into showing the art studios for new artists.

I show living space.

So it's really fun.

I was blaming myself for like a long time.

And then I realized that my creative energy was going to something equally beautiful, which it was, you know, creating a community in a space for other artists to create.

Then it slowly, once everything went back to normal, it became a pleasure again to be here.

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is everywhere.

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was provided in part by New Mexico PBS, Great Southwestern Arts and Education Endowment Fund, and the Nolita Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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