Public radio station KPLU broke the $6 million mark yesterday—only $1 million left to go to reach their goal of $7 million by June 30 in order to buy the station from Pacific Lutheran University and go independent. Here's the newsroom celebrating:

The outpouring of support has been astonishing. During the recent GiveBIG campaign—the annual fundraising extravaganza for local nonprofits led by the Seattle Foundation—KPLU smashed GiveBIG fundraising records by a factor of four, according to KPLU reporter Gabriel Spitzer, raising close to $1.5 million.

"We haven’t had a big white knight ride in with a giant check," Spitzer said. "It’s turned out to be way more of a Bernie Sanders type of fundraising operation."

This week, KPLU gave us yet another example of what makes them so valuable: Except for Sydney's thorough report on Slog, virtually nobody else in this town covered a landmark human rights resolution rejected, once again but by a smaller margin this time, by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and a majority of shareholders. Other, larger outlets emphasized Bezos' remarks about sales of Amazon Prime in their coverage of the shareholder meeting, because, you know, Amazon Prime matters more than questions about human rights violations in Amazon's supply chain. KUOW didn't cover the shareholder meeting at all.

The KPLU reporters themselves have taken on much of the fundraising work, including organizing a star-studded benefit show tonight at Town Hall at 7:30 p.m. Singer and activist Kimya Dawson is forgoing tonight's Beyonce concert to perform; tickets are just $25.

"It’s been batty," Spitzer said. "We’re all wearing a lot of hats." Two staffers left the station and they've been unable to hire replacements because of the station's uncertain future. Still, they've carried on reporting the news. "The news machine has not stopped running," Spitzer said.

While stretched thin, Spitzer said becoming community-oriented fundraisers has taught the newsroom a vital and poignant lesson: "How important it will be for an independent KPLU to knit ourselves even more closely into the community—so these events, in some important ways, have helped us figure out who we are."

This post has been updated since its original publication.