Donor leaves WABE $3 million, largest individual gift in station’s history

An Atlanta resident has bequeathed WABE a $3 million donation, the largest one-time individual donation in the nonprofit media operation’s 76-year history.

It’s a much-needed financial boost just as WABE loses federal support. The organization has cut staff and programming to accommodate the loss of $1.9 million in annual funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which Congress defunded this month.

Richard “Rick” Bortle, a Florida native and longtime Atlanta resident, earmarked the money for WABE in his will after he died at age 72 in February 2023 from esophageal cancer.

Bortle had no heirs and decided to give the value of his entire estate to WABE as an avid fan of both the radio and television station.

WABE CEO Jennifer Dorian presents a mostly upbeat take on WABE's future during the quarterly board meeting Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, at WABE headquarters in Atlanta. (Rodney Ho/AJC)

Jennifer Dorian, WABE chief executive officer, found out about the pending bequest this past spring, more than two years after his death.

“I feel elated and fortunate,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This was an unexpected, uplifting gift.”

WABE typically gets bequests around once a year in the $10,000 to $100,000 range, she noted. Dorian said the good news came before WABE found out it was losing 10% of its annual funding from CPB.

WABE will place about half the Bortle estate gift toward strengthening its local news and operations budgets and technology, she said. The other half will go into establishing an operating cash reserve to better ensure long-term stability.

“We’re not using it specifically to fill the federal deficit,” Dorian said, noting that individual donors are helping to fill that gap.

Through Sept. 30, WABE’s first fiscal quarter of 2026 showed individual giving at $500,000 above expectations. On the downside, corporate underwriting had fallen 18% year over year.

In response to challenging circumstances, Dorian has trimmed staff over the past 18 months from a peak of 99 to 79 today. In September, the station ended its locally run daily arts program “City Lights” while adding a part-time arts reporter.

WABE recently introduced “In These Times,” a new weekly podcast hosted by veteran journalist Bill Nigut.

Bortle grew up in southern Florida and studied architecture at the University of Miami, according to information provided to WABE by Jason Brister, the executor of Bortle’s will. Bortle once ran a recycling business and moved to Atlanta around 2000, where he worked at a company that manufactured low pressure fans.

“I heard he was very modest, very frugal,” Dorian said.

She also checked to see if Bortle was a regular donor to WABE while he was alive. Apparently, he was not. He previously had given a single $75 donation a few years back, she said.

“He really kept his philanthropic intentions secret,” she said. “But it all appeared well planned.”