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Austin has reached a four-year, $63 million contract deal with the city’s firefighters, ending months of negotiations with the Austin Firefighters Association.
Calling all bird enthusiasts: Texas Standard’s Raul Alonzo explains what a bird count is, why it matters, and how you can take part.
KUTX’s Confucius Jones, one half of hip-hop podcast The Breaks, shares his favorite song of the year.
Plus: If you’re looking for TV shows to watch over the holidays, Jennifer Morgan, the ATX TV Festival’s head of programming, joins us with some picks.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Miles Bloxson [00:00:10] Austin has reached a four-year, $63 million deal with the city’s firefighters, ending months of negotiation with Austin Firefighters Association. We’re talking with KUT’s Andrew Weber to find out what that means for Austin. And for bird enthusiasts, Texas Standard’s Raul Alonzo explains what a bird count is, why it matters, and how you can take part in one next Saturday. Also Confucius Jones, KUTXer, and one half of the hip hop podcast, The Breaks, shares his favorite song of the year with us.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:43] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Miles Bloxson.
Miles Bloxson [00:00:49] Plus, if you’re looking for holiday TV episodes to go along with the holidays, ATX TV Festival’s head of programming, Jennifer Morgan joins us with some pics. That and more coming up on Austin Signal. Hi there, Austin. It’s Friday, December 19th and I’m Miles Bloxson. We’re getting closer and closer to Christmas. And while there are some amazing songs to listen to and movies to watch, there are also some epic TV shows that highlight the holiday. We’ll have some of our favorites coming up later in the show. This is the Austin Signal. A quick headline before we start the show, police say they’ve arrested a man who was responsible for multiple overnight explosions in South Austin. APD said that today they’ve arrested Derek Gillespie at his house near St. Edward’s for possessing explosive devices. Police say neighbors complained for months about overnight explosions, which led to an investigation involving federal authorities. Gillespy was arrested at his home on Tuesday and charged with a third degree felony. We have more on this story at KUT.org. The City of Austin has agreed to the four-year labor contract. Put forth by the Austin Firefighters Association. This is after months of back and forth between the two. So what’s in the contract and what does this mean for Austin and its firefighters? Joining us now is KUT’s government and accountability reporter, Andrew Weber. Andrew, thanks so much for joining us today on Austin Signal. Of course. So take us back to the beginning. Why does there need to be a contract like this in the first place?
Andrew Weber [00:02:39] That’s a good question. It’s a labor contract. So if you get hired, obviously there’s gonna be some protections, some guarantees, how much you’re gonna get paid, stuff like that. And that applies to firefighters as well. Texas is a very, I think you could argue, union-averse state. So you don’t necessarily, as a city, have to have a big, long drawn-out contract with your first responders, like police and fire and EMS and stuff like. Uh, but cities like Austin do these so they can sort of retain and recruit folk, recruit folks, excuse me. Um, that’s the sort of a big, you know, it’s a big thing, especially at a time when, when the Austin fire department, uh, is kind of short staffed. So they went into this agreement, this negotiation that took months and months and months, and they reached a deal ultimately with the firefighters union.
Miles Bloxson [00:03:31] And so the city and the Austin Firefighters Association negotiated contracts. What was the Firefighter Association hoping to get funded and why?
Andrew Weber [00:03:40] Yeah, they just wanted to get a raise. You know, over the last couple of years, EMS and police have both got new contracts and they got pretty substantial raises. Austin firefighters basically said, okay, well, our contract’s up. We want to get it raised too. That only seems fair, especially at a time, like I said, that they’re kind of short staffed. So that was a big, you know, probably the top line goal for the firefighter team.
Miles Bloxson [00:04:04] That totally makes sense, and did Prop Q and its failure to pass affect anything here?
Andrew Weber [00:04:10] Did yes ma’am it very much did yeah if for folks who you know Maybe don’t remember don’t want to remember that was a measure to raise 110 million dollars in property taxes With the goal of funding a lot of things one of those things was overtime for the Austin Fire Department and that did not pass So the city basically, you know said okay well, we were gonna we were kind of banking literally banking on on this passing to pay for this this overtime and They couldn’t because voters said we don’t want to pass this.
Miles Bloxson [00:04:41] Right, Prop Q seemed like it affected a lot of things that we’re seeing right now in the news. What was the city saying and why the back and forth?
Andrew Weber [00:04:49] Yeah, the city said, okay, well, we don’t have this $8 million. We can’t fund you over time. So their solution was, and they kind of floated this over the summer as well. What if we changed the required number of people on a fire truck at any given time? It used to, it’s always historically been four people. They said, Okay, well what if we scale that back to three? The firefighters union was not, not happy at all with that. So they basically walked away from the bargaining table and it was kind of up in the air until this, this past week.
Miles Bloxson [00:05:19] Oh, wow. So they just agreed on a deal. What’s in the deal?
Andrew Weber [00:05:23] The deal is for four years, it’s $63 million over that time, and it basically gives, you know, it achieves the goal of the Firefighters Union. A lot of folks are gonna get raises. Newer, like recruits and cadets will get a pretty substantial raise. They’ll get 6.5% more next year than they would in this year. And all firefighters, like across the board, are gonna to get a bonus. Just for sticking around and, you know, at a time when they’re kind of short staffed, they’ll get 1,100 bucks on January 7th, I believe.
Miles Bloxson [00:05:58] Okay. And you said that this is all about, you know, part of it is about getting a raise. So what does that mean for the city’s firefighters other than just getting a race?
Andrew Weber [00:06:07] They got a raise, so that’s good. I think that’ll probably boost morale, at least from folks I’ve talked to. They’re also going to get a new schedule, which this is where it gets kind of wonky. Normally firefighters are on for 24 hours, then off for 48 hours. Actually, it’s the other way around. Austin has changed that, so they’re going to have more consecutive days off. Portland did this back in 2022, and they argued it was successful and it sort of reduced a lot of burnout amid. You know, a department that was understaffed.
Miles Bloxson [00:06:39] We’ve been speaking with KET’s government and accountability reporter, Andrew Weber. Andrew, thanks so much for talking with us.
Andrew Weber [00:06:45] Yes ma’am, thank you.
Miles Bloxson [00:07:00] This is the Austin Signal, I’m Miles Bloxson. Birders here in Austin will have a chance to participate in what could be compared to as a bird census. It’s called the Christmas Bird Count. For more, we’re talking with Texas Standard Bird enthusiast Raul Alonzo. Raul, great to have you here today on the Austin signal.
Raul Alonzo [00:07:19] Hello Miles, good to be here.
Miles Bloxson [00:07:21] Yeah, so what is the Christmas bird count? I called it a bird senses. Is that even a good comparison?
Raul Alonzo [00:07:27] Yeah, you know, bird census is actually perfect. That’s kind of what it is, essentially. What happens is birders gather in what is called a circle, which is about 15 miles in diameter in a particular region, and they’re organized into smaller groups within that region, and they cover a small area, and in that area they’re led by one experienced birder, and they essentially count all the different bird species that they can find and they log it. So yeah, I think census is actually a really good way of putting that.
Miles Bloxson [00:07:57] Oh wow, and these are done all over the state, right?
Raul Alonzo [00:08:00] Yeah, all over the country, actually. And there’s several here in the central Texas region. And it’s one of the oldest, they call it citizen science projects in the world. I think this year is 126 years that it’s been going on here in the US. And yeah, lots of folks get involved.
Miles Bloxson [00:08:19] 126 years? Why do we do these?
Raul Alonzo [00:08:22] So there is, and it’s such an unusual time of year for it to happen, right? But like the thing is, uh, the story I heard is that way, way back when, when, you know, hunters will go out in the winter to do hunting and kill a lot of birds, essentially, uh some guys once said like, why don’t we count them instead? And so that practice began, you know? Uh, you know, way back when and it kind of continued every year since. And so that data that they have been compiling over the years has kind of helped show how a bird population in a particular region has changed, especially, and this has been the story here in central Texas in the most recent years especially, is the growth in population urbanization and what that’s effect that’s had on the environment, on habitat loss and the effect it’s had on the regional bird population. And so the census in a way kind of shows how the human impact, what the human impact is having on the bird population.
Miles Bloxson [00:09:18] And Travis Autobahn is coordinating like a local outing or something like that.
Raul Alonzo [00:09:23] Yeah, and there’s actually several, if you go to travisautobahn.org, you can see several of the events going on. There’s one this weekend on Saturday out there around McKinney Falls that the group is leading, and it’s open to anyone. But yeah, folks can just go to Travisautobon.org for a complete list and kind of find out how they can get involved or how they participate. Again, it’s opened to anybody.
Miles Bloxson [00:09:48] And you went to one in San Marcos recently. How was your experience there?
Raul Alonzo [00:09:52] So that was kind of a bit of an outlier. I, you know, I met up with the person leading it. She was Rebecca Rylander. She was a really great experienced birder. She was telling me this was the 10th year that San Marcos had their Christmas bird count. And it was also one of the coldest. It was this past Sunday when that cold front was blowing in. And this was early in the morning, like 7 a.m. So we actually did not see too many birds out there. They were hunkering down. But otherwise it was kind of a nice outing. It was just a nice time to get away from the screen.
Miles Bloxson [00:10:25] So birds do get cold. That’s what I’m hearing.
Raul Alonzo [00:10:27] They get very cold and if you see them out on the power lines and they’re all hunched over looking all cute and plump, it’s them trying to keep warm in the cold.
Miles Bloxson [00:10:33] Oh anything else people should know if they want to go to the Austin Christmas bird count
Raul Alonzo [00:10:39] Uh, definitely, you know, approach it like you’re doing any outdoor activity, where, uh, sturdy, uh clothes, toes, shoes, um, you know, something that maybe you, especially where I was at in San Marcos, we went on a trail that potentially could have been muddy. So, you, know, kind of wear stuff thinking that, you know, you’re not going to get incredibly dirty, but, you know, it’s kind of a hike essentially. So dress for the elements. Um, if you have binoculars, bring them cause that definitely helps, uh spot the birds. And also apps that help. EBird is what they log the bird sightings that they find. And Merlin is a great app to kind of help you identify birds. But some people also like doing it the old-fashioned way. So bring along your Sibley’s Journal or bird identification manual if you have one.
Miles Bloxson [00:11:22] I love it all. We’ve been speaking with Texas Standard’s Raul Alonzo. We’ll have a link to his reporting in today’s podcast. Show notes. Raul, thanks so much for being here today on the Austin Signal.
Raul Alonzo [00:11:33] Thank you, Miles.
Miles Bloxson [00:11:39] Coming up KTX is Confucius Jones tells us what he loves about his song of the year slow dreams And we’ll hear from head of programming Jennifer Morgan with her top TV Christmas picks You’re listening to the Austin signal on KUT news at 90.5 and on the KUT app and online of course at KUT org That’s where you can find past episodes of our show and all the podcasts from KUT and KUTX studios in addition to the latest reporting from the KUT Newsroom on Austin and Central Texas and beyond. We’ve got more coming up right here on Austin Signal.
Lynn [00:12:36] Well, well.
Confucius Jones [00:12:37] You’re listening to the Austin Signal. I’m Confucius Jones, one half of the Breaks here at KUTX. One of my favorite songs out of Austin this year is Slow Dreams by Lynn.
Lynn [00:12:47] Only like my chicken greener off the bone asking what God wrote for me. They can’t name a single song
Confucius Jones [00:12:53] a rapper here in the city coming from Alabama. My favorite part of the song is the soul sample. And my first impression of it was this was something unique and different that I’m used to when it comes to Austin hip hop.
Lynn [00:13:04] I may wrap it up in bed like it’s a holiday I like rap sometimes, he want me to ackee way I like to rap sometimes but that’s just not my role to play Anyway, I’m focused on which rap I wanna eat today
Confucius Jones [00:13:16] The vibe of it is something that reminds me of slow listening in your car and helps you get to your destination.
Lynn [00:13:23] Gotta know I keep it flush, know that money on the way Say it’s on with me, she goin’ under These rappers ain’t seein’ me
Confucius Jones [00:13:30] Once again my name is Confucius Jones. One half of the breaks here at KUTX. You can find more of our favorite songs at kutx.org. This is Austin Signal.
Lynn [00:13:41] I got that dawg, give me no DMX, I’m Tommy Smooth You won’t catch me in no pickle, I make that Tommy move You won’t catch me chasing a n***a, I don’t even tie my shoes You won’t catch me in no pickle, I make that tummy move You won’t catch me chasing this, I don’t even tell I’m just on my head
Lynn [00:14:03] I know Lambo, I know it’s a Nelly, that don’t make me
Miles Bloxson [00:14:09] This is Austin Signal, I’m Miles Bloxson. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, as some would say. There are some great songs written about it in awesome movies as well, but there are also some exceptional moments in television that depict the holidays. That’s why we’ve got ATX TV Fest in the studio today. We’re talking with Jennifer Morgan, head of programming. She’s gonna share some of the best holiday TV episodes on their list. Jennifer, welcome to Austin Signal. Hi, thanks for having me. Of course. So before we get started, I have a favorite TV episode and I know that you have a favorite TV episode, so I have to know yours.
Jennifer Morgan [00:14:45] I think my probably all-time favorite Christmas episode is the office Christmas party. They have a string of Christmas episodes that they did, but it’s the very first one. It’s really focused on an in-office Secret Santa Yankee swap. And to me, it’s just the perfect calibration of cringe and awkwardness mixed with like sweetness and a little bit of just like holiday earnestness. But yeah, I think it still is getting quoted at our family. Secret Santa, so yeah, that’s a classic one.
Miles Bloxson [00:15:18] I absolutely love The Office. Mine would have to be Martin, a 90s classic, featuring the comedian Martin Lawrence. You might know him from, you know, Will Smith’s co-star in Bad Boys. But this episode is called I Saw Gina Kissing Santa Claus. And in the episode, he is pretending to be Martin for a group of kids, and they confront him because they’re like, Santa, you didn’t get us gifts from the previous year, so we’re not expecting anything from you this year. They get really upset with him, and to calm them down, He tells him this ridiculous. Christmas story that he clearly made up, so, in true Martin fashion, right? So now that we’ve shared our favorites, let’s go ahead and jump into the list that y’all have created over at ATX TV Fest.
Jennifer Morgan [00:15:59] Yeah, so our team put together a couple of our favorites, starting with Ted Lasso’s Christmas special, The Carol of the Bells, which is a season two episode that kind of splits characters up into pairs and sends them on like little journeys across town. You have Ted and Rebecca paired up enlisted for this secret mission. You have Roy and Keely with Roy’s niece sort of going around town trying to find a dentist that’s open on Christmas. That’s not happening. I know, yeah. That’s… And then you have this sort of like found family thread where Higgins has some of the players over to his home with his wife that don’t have other places to go. So it’s sort of, you know, showing you a couple different versions of Christmas that all feel very relatable but have that like signature Ted Lasso comedy. And then we have Schitt’s Creek, Merry Christmas, Johnny Rose, which has a really fun sort of flashback to before the family sort of loses everything. With like some really great, I mean they always have great hair wig situations going on, but the flashbacks are particularly good. And then you really have Johnny sort of missing the feeling of their old family Christmas parties and wanting to recreate that within the motel. So again, it’s a little bit of like, everybody has to come together to create their own version of Christmas, but that’s a really fun one as well.
Miles Bloxson [00:17:24] That’s hilarious. I mean, Schitt’s Creek is a classic, right?
Jennifer Morgan [00:17:27] It’s so good. And sort of the weird Christmas, you have Gilmore Girls, the Brace Bridge Dinner, which is a season two episode where Lorelai works, gets booked for this holiday convention. The people who are supposed to come to the inn get stranded in Boston by snow and they can’t make it. And so everyone sort of gets to have their own version of what this convention was going to be, but it’s bringing together the Gilmores and the sort of weirdness that is Stars Hollow. Throwing them all together for this very strange seven course like old English dinner and like sleigh rides through town. So it is kind of like peak Gilmore Girls weirdness but really charming. And then I have another personal favorite which is the OC, the best chrysmaca ever.
Miles Bloxson [00:18:16] We’ll see. We’ve got more.
Jennifer Morgan [00:18:18] I know, um, coined Christmas, of course, and then is really the OC at its best, um which is, you know, Seth trying to figure out what he’s doing romantically, which is always a mess. Um, you have Ryan getting introduced to the idea of Christmas, um with this new family that he’s really starting to sort of open up to. And then you have relationship drama, family drama, you have shoplifting, people are drunk at a family Christmas party. I mean, it’s got all of the OC hallmarks.
Miles Bloxson [00:18:49] What more can you ask for? You got everything in that episode. Adding that to my list as well. That does sound like Christmas.
Jennifer Morgan [00:18:56] Those are the top ones that we have. And then obviously the office, you know, has a lot of good ones in addition to Christmas party. So you could have basically a mini marathon of just office episodes if you wanted to.
Miles Bloxson [00:19:07] Yeah, so people have plenty of things to watch and ATX TV just announced the lineup for the 2026 festival. What programming are y’all most excited about?
Jennifer Morgan [00:19:17] Yeah, so the big thing that we just announced is that we’re doing, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Friday Night Lights, which is an Austin favorite. It’s a favorite of ours. It’s been part of the festival since year one. So we’re getting the whole gang back together for a 20th Anniversary reunion, and we’re giving them our Texas Made Award, which is gonna be presented with Media for Texas. So really celebrating opportunities that it brought to the state in terms of filming, hiring local crew, hiring local actors. It really has been such a part of the Austin community and Texas for the last two decades. So we really wanted to honor that.
Miles Bloxson [00:19:53] That show is pivotal, and especially it exposed the high school football scene, which is major here in Texas. And if other people didn’t know, they found out when they watched that show.
Jennifer Morgan [00:20:04] And then we also announced a Homicide Life on the Street retrospective, which will focus on one of their Emmy-winning episodes, Three Men and Adina. And that will be with showrunner Tom Fontana, executive producer David Simon, and Kelsey Korr, who is the star. And then, we have a sweet, vicious, 10-year anniversary reunion. We have a non-writing producers panel with some top producers from House of the Dragon, Miss America, industry. Lanterns, which is an upcoming HBO show. So that should be a great conversation. And then we’ll have a late night show with Greg Owensky, which is a totally original late night show that we started last year. And Greg is an Emmy winning writer for Cold Bear Show. And he’s also worked on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. And so that’s like a totally originally episode that people will get to sort of have a live studio experience for. And then, we launched our brand new Indie TV pilot competition and showcase.
Miles Bloxson [00:21:01] So I was just gonna ask you about that. Can you tell us more about it?
Jennifer Morgan [00:21:05] Yeah, of course. So this was the first time that we’re accepting open submissions for independently produced pilot episodes to be featured at the festival as official selections. So we’ll have three that are selected to screen at the Festival, and then we’ll have a panel of showrunners and executives that choose one of those three to be crowned the best indie TV pilot of ATX TV Festival. So yeah, it’s a really exciting opportunity and submissions for that are open now.
Miles Bloxson [00:21:34] All right, that sounds amazing. We’ll have a link to that and more in today’s podcast show notes at kut.org slash signal the ATX TV festival season 15 runs May 28th through the 31st in the new year. We’ve been speaking with Jennifer Morgan, head of programming for ATX TV festival, Jennifer, thanks so much for talking with us on Austin signal. Thanks. That’s it for us on Austin Signal. Thanks so much for hanging out with us on this beautiful Friday. A special thanks to KUT’s Andrew Weber, Texas Standards’ Raul Alonzo, and KUTX’s Confucius Jones. Also, special thank you to Jennifer Morgan from ATX TV Fest. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. Thank you for everything that you do. Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. She brings it all together. We’re so lucky to have you We’ve got more about the show in our podcast, show notes at kut.org slash signal. I’m Miles Bloxson and for my buddy, Jerry Quijano. I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and be safe out there and be kind. That’s it for today’s show. This is the Austin Signal.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
